goodbye athens, hello beijing...

the olympics is coming to a close... gotta wait another 4 years to catch all the actions again...

this olympics has been quite unpredictable, no more domination by the US, and we see the rise of asians, with china bagging 31 golds and japan 15 golds... US was upset in so many fields, the dream team is no longer around, the brits have crushed the US monopoly of the relays... '

we saw the truimph and downfall of many athletes and we can learn from each of their story...

celebrate humanity... this is the slogan and it has been used since the 2000 olympics...why do we celebrate humanity during olympics? cuz this is the competition that cast aside all differences among ppl... sports bonds ppl, but it can break ppl to in the process... the olympics movement has come a long way...

with it's humble beginnings in 1896, it was slowly inflitrated with other agendas, of which politics played a large part of it... in the 1936 berlin olympics, hitler wanted to use the olympics as a showcase of aryan supremacy but jesse owens 'foiled' his plans... the olympics was further plagued by cold war rivalry in the sixties with memoriable events like hungary venting anger against the USSR in their helsinki water polo match, the controversial USSR basketball victory over USA, the withdrawal of US and USSR from 1980 and 84 olympics respectively... terrorism aggrivated the situation in the 1972 munich olympics and 1996 atlanta olympics... in recent years, poltics has taken a backseat as commercialisation brought in a new category of problems... doping... the 1988 ben johnson's case was the most notorious of all and over the years, we see many olympians being stripped off their medals... but it's glad to know that with the tough clamps on doping, the olympics will be quite a fair one...

in this olympics, we see many heartwarming scenes... north and south korea marching in as one united contingent... let's hope one day they'll compete under one unified country... we see people power in the controversial gymnastics arena... we see veterans like gail devers, merlene ottey, lori-ann muenzer, kelly holmes who never give up their passion for their sport... and some made it, some didn't... but what's admirable is their passion and determination...

olympians are not made overnight, they go through endless tough trainings and countless upsets before they move closer to their dream... of the millions who aspire to be olympians, only a few eventually make it... sometimes the amount of sacrifice is inmeasurable... muscles have to be torn, bones have to be broken before an athlete can truly make the mark... dwight phillips met an accident when he was 15 and the doc told him that he could never walk properly anymore, but today he's the long jump champ. kelly holmes ruptured her archellies, torn her ligament, fracture her leg before she became what she is today... lori-ann was on the brink of bankruptcy, but she persisted on with her training... these are inspirational stories of athletes who overcame all odds... these heartwarming stories will not only inspire other athletes, but also be a blessing to anyone who is trying to find the inspiration to carry on with their career, their life...

beijing 2008, here we come...