I don’t know about you, but I really enjoy watching the Olympics. Seeing the top athletes in the world compete for the greatest prize in sport - an Olympic Gold Medal, is awesome. Also, being South African, I love watching our fellow sportsmen and women kick ass against the world’s super powers in sport - USA, Australia Russia and others.

The 2008 Olympics will run from the 8th to the 24th of August in Beijing, China. The main Olympics stadium is known as The Bird’s Nest and is truly magnificent!

Having a look at the 2004 Olympics held in Athens, Greece, here were the top 5 countries:

1. United States (36 / 39 / 28 = 103)
2. Russia (27 / 27 / 38 = 92)
3. China (32 / 17 / 14 = 63)
4. Australia (17 / 16 / 16 = 49)
5. Germany (13 / 16 / 20 = 49)

South Africa (1 / 3 / 2 = 6) ended 35th. But with only 1 gold, it was a pretty disappointing performance by our team. Having a look at our world class swimming team that are traveling to the 2008 Olympics, I’m sure we will see a few more gold medals. The swimming starts on the 9th of August and ends on the 17th.

Here is a pic of the medals that will be presented in Beijing:

Also, with all Olympics, there has to be mascots. The 2008 Olympics has the Fuwa - which means good-luck dolls as their official mascot. Their names are Bèibei, Jīngjing, Huānhuan, Yíngying and Nīni.

Go check out the Wikipedia article on the 2008 Beijing Olympics or visit the official site.