Rediscovering standard model physics with the ATLAS detector

With its 14 TeV proton-proton center of mass energy, the LHC is a factory of standard model (SM) particles produced at previously inaccessible energy scales. The ATLAS experiment needs to perform a thorough analysis of these particles before exploring more exotic possibilities that the LHC may open doors to. W and Z bosons will initially be used as calibration samples to improve the understanding of the detector. Top quarks will also be copiously produced and will for the first time be calibration particles, whilst also yielding an important background to beyond the SM searches. Top quarks may also be produced with high transverse momenta, requiring novel methods to perform efficient top quark identification in the ATLAS detector. I will give an overview of the current status of the heavy gauge boson and top quark physics at ATLAS, in terms of both detector and expected precision measurements performance.