Olympic Roundup

The Beijing games begine and among the notable flag carriers were Ethiopian running legend Miruts Yifter and South Africa's one-legged Paralympian Natalie du Toit who qualified for the Olympic 10-km swim.





The legend lives on. It seems like Abebe Bikila is in the news a lot this week. So we have this remembrance of the great Olympians of the past a United Arab Emirites paper.



Drugs chief admits Olympic fears . Seven Russian athletes were suspended for alleged doping offences. There is plenty more to come.

When you put the Olympics in the hands of a dictatorship, the results are predictable. Yet the Chinese government still found a way to surprise even its critics -- not so much by behaving oppressively but by doing so in a foolish and entirely unnecessary way says columnist E.J. Dionne.

In other news..

• Ethiopian Defar sparks up in nick of time - She is on the rise. I can't wait for the women's 5K final.


• Where Once He Was Lost, Now He Is Found - the story of the US torchbearer.


• African rivals to widen rift - great primer on the Ethiopian team from a Kenyan paper.


• Smog fears are all hot air - Fairfax Media hacks claim the smog is not bad.. hot, humid, but hardly a health hazard they say.


• Google's Olympic Extravaganza - look what google has for you..


• Kenyan, Ethiopian rivalry back again


• Interesting facts from Olympics

So we are off... and in a littel over two weeks it will all be over...