With various debates and controversies going around over the Beijing Olympics it is easy to forget that the Olympics is a sporting event and athletes train for their whole lives just for the chance to compete. Olympic swimmer Dean Kent from New Zealand has lashed out at protesters and said countries should look in their own backyards before criticizing China.

“I’ve had so many friends who trained all their lives to make it to the Olympics and miss out, and then for people to expect us to be worrying about anything other than enjoying the experience peeves me a bit.

“If they want to protest about it, fine - they can come over and do it. But it seems like people are trying to use athletes and the Olympics as a stage to politicise problems people have in their own countries.”