GOLD RUSH

This Friday, August 8, the world’s best athletes will gather in Beijing, China and watch as the Olympic flame completes its journey from Greece. The flame will signal the beginning of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad - and two weeks of fiercely-intense competition.
More than 10,000 competitors representing 205 nations show the tremendous increase from the first modern Olympics in 1896, when 14 nations competed, including the United States, Australia, Chile and 11 European countries.
All current member nations are expected to compete in Beijing, as China becomes the third Asian host of the Summer Games. The 1960 Olympics were held in Tokyo, Japan and in 1988, the setting was Seoul, South Korea.
Officially, there are 28 medal sports in the 2008 Beijing Games and 20 associated disciplines. Disciplines such as diving and swimming are considered sports by NBCOlympics.com, instead of being combined under Aquatics as the International Olympic Committee does. Therefore, they will broadcast 34 medal sports - the same as in 2000 and 2004.
Within the 34 sports are 302 medal events - 165 are open to men, 127 to women and 10 to both genders. Badminton (mixed doubles), equestrian and sailing are the three sports featuring events for both men and women.
The following sports will be presented: Archery, Badminton, Baseball, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Boxing, Canoe/Kayak, Cycling, Diving, Equestrian, Fencing, Field Hockey, Gymnastics, Handball, Judo, Modern Pentathlon, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Rowing, Sailing, Shooting, Soccer, Softball, Swimming, Synchronized Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis, Track & Field, Trampoline, Triathlon, Volleyball, Water Polo, Weightlifting and Wrestling.
Since 2004, nine events have been added to the program but eight have been subtracted. The new events are:
Swimming - Men’s and women’s open-water.
Cycling - Men’s and women’s BMX racing.
Fencing - Women’s team sabre, women’s team foil.
Table tennis - Men’s and women’s team competitions.
Track & Field - Women’s steeplechase.
An estimated 550 athletes will represent the United States at the Beijing Olympics.
Every two years diversity and international pride is exhibited at the Olympics but here in Queens, we display pride in our extraordinary diversity every single day.
We hope you will join us at The Courier and root for all of our athletes to win gold in their sports. Silver and bronze medals count too. But we realize that the competition is not just about winning gold medals, but about each athlete from every country proving to the world that he or she is the best, a perfect ’10,’ the fastest in this Olympiad this time. Root for the athletes of your homeland, of your grandparents’ homelands, but root.
The athletes have trained hard and sacrificed much to get to China this year. These games are truly about the “Thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat,” as the late veteran ABC Wide World of Sports announcer Jim McKay put it so perfectly.