First of all I would like to thank the 2008 Beijing Olympic Blog for allowing me to post my thoughts on the 29th Games of the Modern Olympiad. I have been interested in the Olympic Games since the Seoul Olympics of 1988 (when I woke up at 2.00am British time to specfically watch the opening ceremony) and since then have watched the Games of Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) and will of course be adding Beijing 2008 to that list.

Although I am resident in the United Kingdom, I live in the semi autonomous region called Wales which has a population of just under 3 milion. This means that I have an affinity with nations of a similar size and so following the millennium celebrations decided to follow those smaller nations in Sydney 2000 and have done ever since. Those nations are:

Aruba, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bhutan, Botswana, the British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cape Verde, the Cayman Islands, Comoros, Cyprus, Djibouti, Dominica, East Timor (or to give it it’s proper name Timor-Leste), Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Iceland, Jamaica, Kiribati, Kuwait, Latvia, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Maldives, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Namibia, Nauru, Netherlands Antilles, Oman, Palau, Qatar, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Slovenia, the Solomon Islands, Suriname, Swaziland, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.

Now you might think why should these nations even bother to show up as they are unlikely to win anything. To which I would say “For shame! You wouldn’t want to say that to any of these people!”

George Bovell (TRI) who won bronze in Athens in the men’s 200m individual medley in the swimming pool
Paea Wolfgram (TGA) who won silver in Atlanta in the men’s super heavyweight class in the boxing ring
Erika Salumae (EST) who won gold in Barcelona in the women’s sprint in the velodrome

It is perhaps best therefore that we remember the words that were displayed at the last London Olympics back in 1948:

and take them to heart during these 29th Games of the Modern Olympiad