The Yanks are coming back. The question is, will anyone notice?

Now that the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships, not to mention the Asian and African Champs, are concluded, the Grand Prix Circuit starts up again. This week, meets in Helsinki and Zurich will bring together the world's best.

The top Americans, having had a several week break, should be rested and focused on these meets. Their seasons, their cash flows and their world rankings depend on it.

Zurich's Weltklasse, in its 74th year, is generally considered to be the most important invitational track meet on the planet. It pays the best, is the hardest to get into, produces the most records, and can be an important deciding factor at the end of the season when the folks at Track and Field News figure out their world rankings. Those tabulations are worth cash for many athletes with performance incentives figured into their shoe contracts.

Because of the great emphasis put on the Euros, athletes from that side of the water have dominated the headlines this summer. The European champions know that if they dominate the Africans and Americans at Zurich and the remaining Golden League meets, they will clean up in the rankings as well as be in a position to demand higher appearance fees. In short ... they score, dude.

Can any Americans rise to the occasion?

There are five athletes left in the running for the Golden League jackpot, a whopping 50 kilos of gold ingots, with a street value of way, way more than my car. None of the five has competed since Monaco on July 19. Two are men: miler Hicham El Guerrouj, and 400 hurdler Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic (late of University of Southern California).

The three remaining women: quartermiler Ana Quevera of Mexico, and American stars Gail Devers and Marion Jones.

Look for Sanchez to have the toughest time. At Monaco, he ran 47.86 to the 48.11 of France's Stephane Diagana. Now Diagana has run 47.58, and is probably thinking revanche.

While Jones and Devers can comfortably hope for victory, what other Americans have a shot in Zurich? Probably our dashmen. Maurice Greene and Tim Montgomery will be facing Euro champ Dwain Chambers and resurging African champ Frank Fredericks.

In the 800, Euro champ Wilson Kipketer is not listed as an entry (in life, all things are subject to change). But second-placer Andre Bucher will be facing American David Krummenacker; it will be interesting to see if the Georgia Tech alum is still red-hot.

No American men made it into El Guerrouj's record attempt in the 1,500, but organizers squeezed in Euro champ Mehdi Baala. Over his head? Maybe, but at least he's in the race.

Both James Carter and Angelo Taylor are in the 400 hurdles, giving them a perfect vantage point to watch the Sanchez-Diagana rematch. Americans Nick Hysong, Tim Mack and Jeff Hartwig all have a shot in the vault. The Euro Champ, Alex Averbukh of Israel, is not currently entered (yes, we know Israel is not in Europe, but it's complicated).

Nicole Teter and Regina Jacobs made it into the 1,500, but the organizers have not announced whether the surprise European champ, Sureyya Ayhan, will be running. Her smashing victory over Gabriela Szabo in 3:58.79 was her first race since last summer's World Champs. You have to admire her minimalism.

More on Paula Radcliffe
If her stunning run at the European Championships doesn't start to make Paula Radcliffe a well-known name on this side of the Atlantic, I don't know what will. Despite her sparkling credentials -- far more impressive than the better known Grete Waitzs and Ingrid Kristiansens of previous generations -- Radcliffe is still best known as the British girl with the lurching style and the nose bandage.

Yet it doesn't take a math whiz to appreciate her time in the 10,000: a 30:01.09 European Record that is faster than 5,000 meter winning time at the same meet, twice over. If it weren't for the heavy rain and all the time she spent out in lane two passing people (she lapped all but the medalists), the 28-year-old surely would have become only the second woman to break 30 minutes.

Consider that she ran a 14:31.32 to win the Commonwealth 5,000 ten days earlier, and in the spring completed her first marathon in 2:18:56 (just missing the world record), and you have to acknowledge that at least on the clock, Radcliffe is now the finest distance runner in history. (Note I'm discounting the Chinese marks from 1993, which history has proved to be the strangest of anomalies.)

The best quote coming out of her runaway win at the Euros came from the vanquished Sonia O'Sullivan, who ran the fastest race of her life but lost by 300 meters: "I've set a national record, I've got a much valued silver medal, and yet at the same time I feel a little bit crushed."

Radcliffe will be on U.S. magazine covers before long, even if not for the stunning 10K. She has entered this fall's Chicago Marathon, and is expected to chase after the world record there. And we'll once again witness the phenomenon that has proved as true for European athletes as it has for that continent's entertainers: to be big in America, they have to perform in America.

A notable quote
Left out in the celebrity parade at the Commonwealth Games was one-time Commonwealth and European marathon champion Ron Hill. One of the greatest marathoners of all-time, Hill has lived in the Manchester area for 50 years and yet was uninvited to the many ceremonies of the Games. An article in the newspaper The Independent profiled where he is now: his running streak is now at 13,685 days straight, and his lifetime mileage is at 142,000 miles, or just past halfway to the moon.

Obsessive? You bet, and that was his reputation back in the day, too. But in the article he summed it all up exquisitely: "I did everything I could to become the best runner I could and if I failed, it was because I was too brave. I'm happy with that."

Jeff Hollobaugh, former managing editor of Track and Field News, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached by e-mail at michtrack@aol.com.