18. Lawrence Tynes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_u1fONJ__Y Sport - American Football Most Britons fail to comprehend a sport that calls itself football, but involves little kicking in comparison to handling of the ball. As such, the nation is the birthplace of few professionals, with only three players that have ever been part of a Super Bowl winning team hailing from Blighty. The most recent two of these are defensive end Osi Umenyiora and placekicker Lawrence Tynes, both of whom played in the New York Giants victory over the New England Patriots in Februarys Super Bowl XLVI. Tynes, a Scotsman who moved to the States at the age of ten, scored the field goal (an action that actually does involve kicking) that sent the Giants to the game in their 33-31 win over the Dallas Cowboys in Januarys playoffs, before scoring two goals in the game itself. This earned the Giants six points in the third quarter, bringing them within two points of the Patriots lead as the game entered its fourth and final quarter, where the team eventually secured victory with a touchdown that made the score 21-17. Tynes form hasnt dropped since, and has seen him score 137 points in the first fourteen games of the 2012 season, putting him on track to break the record of 166 points in a single season by a kicker as the Giants seek to reach the Super Bowl playoffs once more. 17. Katherine Grainger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp6CkZqK-uQ Sport - Rowing If at first you dont succeed, try and try again, or so the saying goes. Persistence has finally paid off for rower Katherine Grainger, who finally secured a Gold medal in front of a home crowd in the double sculls event at the Olympics, having won three successive silvers in Sydney, Athens and Beijing. Alongside her rowing partner, Anna Watkins, Grainger broke the Olympic record on her way to Gold, having already won Gold in the Rowing World Cup leading up to the games. Grainger has been the standout of the multitude of outstanding rowers that have represented their country this year, with others including the likes of Greg Searle, who took up the sport again twenty years after winning a medal in Barcelona in order to have the opportunity to do so again in front of a British audience, which he did with a bronze in the mens eights.