Our final look at past Olympic opening ceremonies before the Beijing Games begin tomorrow: the Opening Ceremonies at Athens in 2004. Take a look:

When he was 11 years old, Michael Phelps’ coach, Bob Bowman already saw Phelps rising to the top of the swimming world. Here’s what he and Michael’s mother had to say about it:

I actually tried pronouncing his name out loud. Yes, I hard a difficult time doing it. I can’t even do it fast enough or even in a casual way. Heh. But enough about that. I reckon it’s more important that we take a look at who he is and what his connection is to the Olympics.
Kaklamanakis is a Greek Olympian. His event is held on water, Sailing. He’s a three-time Mistral class windsurfing world champion and a gold medalist at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Sailing. And he was the one who lit the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony …read more

Nine months after his previous World Cup race, Tim Don returns to the circuit this weekend a relieved world champion. There is nothing so precious as that which is taken away and until last week the Briton was banned for life from future Olympics. But there was more than just the Games riding on Don’s appeal for reinstatement.
(Source)
Tim Don, is a British triathlete, who won title in the World Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland last September 2006. He also competed in the past two Olympics, 2000 Sydney Games and 2004 Athens Games.
However, a few weeks later, Don was banned for life …read more

I’ve read in the news before on how Sally Robbins had wanted another shot at the Olympics after her somewhat-scandalous performance during the 2004 Athens Games. Now, after reading the latest on her quest, I’ve learned that it may be close to impossible to have that dream of hers realised.
To bring the rest of you up to speed, Robbins is infamous for being “lay down Sally”. As I’ve mentioned before, “the team was in medal contention when Robbins apparently stopped rowing and laid down on her team mate’s lap due to exhaustion.” That didn’t sit well with a sport-mad country, …read more

AUSTRIA – Athens Triathlon Olympic gold medalist Kate Allen of Austria has announced she has her sights set for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to try and defend her gold medal. Allen, who has been absent from the world cup circuit since early 2005 choosing to focus on long-distance events, confirmed she will race the 2007 and 2008 BG Triathlon World Cup series in an attempt to qualify for the Beijing Games.
[RunnersWeb.com]
Hear Ye! Hear Ye! I’d like everyone to know I’ll be blogging about the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing! Er, but you know already know that, right?
I was just …read more

Olympic and Commonwealth Games Champion, Anna Meares, today broke her own World Record for the 500m time trial in the morning session of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup at Sydney’s Dunc Gray Velodrome today.
The 23 year-old Queenslander posted a time of 33.944 sec to take eight thousandths off the mark she set to win gold at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004. — cyclingnews.com
Really makes you wonder just how much effort and heart some athletes put into their game. Meares wasn’t just content for achieving something like a world record, she matched it, er, exceeded it the second …read more

Kenenisa Bekele is known for his ability to quickly accelerate at the end of a long distance race. Most of his wins were noted with him taking the final lap, from 100m to 400m, in record speed that can be synonymous to amazing raw showing of passion.
The Ethiopian distance runner have set a number of records in his events over the years.

World Records as of August 2005
* 5,000 m indoor world record 12:49.60 (Birmingham, England, on February 20, 2004)
* 5,000 m world record 12:37.35 (Hengelo, Netherlands, on May 31, 2004) from compatriot Haile Gebrselassie at 12:39.36 …read more

Carlos Tevez, 22, alongside the 18 year-old Lionel Messi, scored the highest goals, 6-0, in one of the memorable matches of the current World Cup in Germany, Argentina vs Serbia and Montenegro.
After that game, the team quickly became the World Cup favourite. And with their last game against The Netherlands resulting to a draw, 0-0, it secured them a spot in Stage 2 and will play Mexico next.
Tevez is Argentina’s star footballer during the Athens 2004 Olympics. They also happen to take home the gold. With that said, I reckon, apart from the skills that Tevez and Messi brings to …read more

Sally Robbins is an Australian Rower. She was a member of Australia’s Women’s Eight Rowing crew during the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics. Sadly, she’s more famous for being “lay down Sally” rather than being an Athens Olympian.
The team was in medal contention when Robbins apparently stopped rowing and laid down on her team mate’s lap due to exhaustion. Australia finished last. What was the deal if there was a valid reason for her to stop rowing? Well, a lot of people saw it as a sign of her quitting. Australian media feasted on it. They’ve headlined the incident with “Just …read more