*FROWN* I wanted Toronto to get it!!!

I hope we send a lot of extracurricular people over there to snoop since we have to be in China anyway.

I wanted Toronto to get it too, I had a decent chance of attending a Toronto Olympics, I'll have to strike it rich next year in order to foot the bill on an Olympic excursion. Are the games in 2004 or 2008? Do I need to change the title of this topic. You know, Marci, with my superpowers I can make topic titles magically change? I'm seriously thinking of doing that to College Football 99, making it College Football 2001 or something more up to date.

I'd rather think of the Athens games and Utah winter games soon to begin after the new year.

Terry, our Vi-wielding super-cyber-man. I know you can fix and change anything, and thank goodness for your expertise....and William's. You've saved me a few times. I'm learning! Logic, my son tells me. It's all logic!

If you'd like a real good bunch of posts, create Athens Olympics 2004 or I will try to do so.

Terry please create this topic I tried and was unsuccessful. Subject: Athens Olympics 2004 Text: The Summer Games of 2004 will be played in the home of the Olympics, Athens, Greece. Come here to keep up with the developments. Only 900+ days until the opening ceremonies.

I created it!

Thanks, Terry. I have already written on it. I am subscribing to email news of the progress of preparations for the Athens Olympics, so there will be much to talk about.

Hi all IOC politics and organisation was responsible for Beijing getting it. The weighting system to determine who gets the games rests partially on geographic location. Asia had not had the games since the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Note in the list below that North America has had the Olympics 4 times in 40 years. In the intervening years the following regions have had the Olympics: North America (Mexico City), Western Europe (Munich), North America (Montreal), Eastern Europe (Moscow), North America (LA), Asia (Seoul), Western Europe (Barcelona), North America (Atlanta), Oceania (Sydney). I wonder if population pressures have something to do with it as well because Asia has maybe 3 billion people. I do not think Africa can afford to stage an event or if it did it would be overshadowed by corruption and security concerns probably. As for politics: Beijing lost narrowly to Sydney in 1993. I think the vision of tanks in Tiananmen Square was still too powerful for many to contemplate giving China something like the Olympics so soon. Rob

We're 3 years closer now. (since the last post)

official website: http://en.beijing2008.com/ (BEIJING, March 21, 2006) -- BOCOG and the Beijing Olympic Volunteer Program Coordination Group have established a "Beijing Olympic Volunteer Slogan Solicitation Office" and started to solicit volunteer slogans from March 31, 2006. This is aimed to better practice the concepts of "Green Olympics, High-tech Olympics and People's Olympics" as well as the ideas of the Beijing Olympic Volunteer Program --"people-oriented, and serving and contributing to the Olympic Games", support various volunteer-themed activities, mobilize and call on volunteers to devote themselves enthusiastically to the services of the Olympic Games. Through the creation and solicitation of volunteer slogans, the essential connotations of Olympic volunteer services will be further explored and the spirit and concept of Olympic volunteer services refined, which will be further summarized into a slogan that is brief and easy to remember, reflects the gist of volunteer services and can be accepted by people of various cultural backgrounds. At the same time, this is also a process of publicizing the Beijing Olympic Volunteer Program and building a sound social environment where volunteers are cared about and supported. The Beijing Olympic volunteer slogan should meet the following four requirements: 1. Highly summarizing the concept of Beijing Olympic Volunteer Program -- "service first and harmony first" and highlighting the striking features of the times and the Chinese culture throughout the Beijing Olympic Games. 2. Clearly reflecting the idea that "Volunteers' smiles are the best name card of Beijing" 3. Carrying international flavor and catering to the world so that people from different countries and regions and of different cultural backgrounds can understand and accept it. The Chinese version and the English one should be equally impressive. 4. Being brief, rhythmic, easy to remember, inspiring and appealing. The deadline of the Solicitation is August 31, 2006. Contributors can send their works by post or e-mail to the following address: Beijing Olympic Volunteer Slogan Solicitation Office Beijing Olympic Tower, 267 Beisihuan Zhonglu, Haidian District, Beijing 100083 E-mail address: zyzkh@bjyouth.net or volunteers@beijing-olympic.org.cn For more information, visit the official website of BOCOG: www.beijing2008.com or call (010)51601208-800, 66691340, 66691350.

Michael Fred Phelps (born June 30, 1985 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American swimmer who holds world records in several events. Phelps won eight medals (six gold, two bronze) at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, which tied the record for most medals at one Olympics, a record set by Alexander Dityatin in 1980. Phelps' international titles, along with his various world records, have resulted in him being named World Swimmer of the Year in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007 and American Swimmer of the Year in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. Phelps has qualified to compete in eight swimming events at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and is attempting to beat Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals at one Olympics, and the lifetime record of nine Olympic golds. As of August 12, 2008, Phelps has won three gold medals in Beijing, all in world record time, and he became one of only five athletes to win nine Olympic gold medals. Michael Phelps was born on June 30, 1985 to Fred (a state trooper) and Debbie (middle-School teacher) Phelps. The family lived in Maryland, just outside of Baltimore. Fred was a good athlete, and passed his ability on to his kids. Michael along with his 2 sisters got into swimming at an early age. One of the turning points for Michael came when he saw swimmers Tom Malchow and Tom Dolan compete at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. The 11-year-old began to dream of becoming a champion himself. He had started his swimming career at Towson?s Loyola High School pool. He met Bob Bowman when he moved on to the North Baltimore Aquatic Club at the Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center for better facilities and more professional coaching. The coach recognized Michael?s potential immediately. In 1999, Michael earned a spot on the U.S. National B Team. At the Junior Nationals, he broke a record in the 200-meter butterfly for the 20-year-old age group. Michael?s ascent through the U.S. swimming ranks accelerated in 2000. At the Spring Nationals, he finished third in the 200-meter butterfly. At 15, Michael became the youngest swimmer to compete for the U.S. in the Olympics in 68 years. He acquitted himself well, touching the wall in fifth place in the 200-meter butterfly. Michael ended the year ranked 7th in the world in the 200-meter butterfly and 44th in the 400-meter individual medley. Michael entered 2001 poised to take another huge step in his career, and staged his coming out party at the Phillips 66 National Championships that August. First he set a world record in 200-meter butterfly at 1:54.92. Then he captured the gold in the 100-meter butterfly. After winning the 200-meter butterfly at the Pan Pacific Championships, Michael ended his year in style by bettering his own mark in the event a the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. The owner of his first international medal, he pushed his world record to 1:54.58. At the 2002 U.S. Nationals in Ft. Lauderdale, he notched four wins?in the 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly and the 200-meter and 400-meter individual medley. His time of 4:11.09 in the 400 established a new world mark. Michael was equally dominant at the Pan Pacific Championships. After golds in the 200-meter and 400-meter individual medley and a silver in the 200-meter butterfly, he helped America?s four-man team to victory in the 400-meter medley in a world-record time of 3:33.48. After graduating from high school in 2003, Michael shifted his focus to the U.S. Spring National Championships. His victories came in the 200-meter freestyle, 200-meter backstroke and 100-meter butterfly. In U.S. Summer Nationals, he became the first man to claim five national titles in a single meet. His victories?in the 100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle, 200-meter backstroke and 200-meter individual medley?proved he was more than just a master of the butterfly. Michael Phelps shattered his own world record in Athen by wining the Olympic gold at Men's 400-meter Individual Medley. Michael wants to transform his sport the way other great athletes like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods have.

It was one of the most exciting moments in Olympic history: Phelps was blissfully unaware that there had been a chance his gold could have turned to silver. As he had stepped onto the podium he bit his bottom lip to prevent a quiver. Earlier in the week he had shed tears, now as his personal campaign neared its denouement � Spitz's record equalled and only one race remaining � he held the emotions in check. It was his sisters, in the crowd, along with their mum, who let the rivulets flow. They are the ones who had been watching helplessly, fearing that the affable and admirable American's fairytale would not have its happy ending. It was only afterwards that Phelps got a taste of it himself. "I watched the pictures, slowed down frame by frame, in the massage area and it was almost too close to see," he confessed. "But I did it. It's the smallest margin of victory in our sport but I did it and it's pretty cool." From the start Phelps was down on his rival, who was the only man to have qualified faster than him, and while � as is almost trademark now � he made up some time on the turn, he was still chasing. All the way to the final centimetres. "I chopped the last stroke (putting in a half stroke] and I thought it had cost me the race but it was the opposite. If I had glided in I would have lost. I'm glad it went in my favour. "It just shows that no matter what you set your imagination to, anything can happen. People said it wasn't possible to equal Spitz's record but when people say things like that it fires me up more than anything. Dream as big as you can because nothing is impossible and it has finally happened." About to return home to the kind of money and perks he could only dream of, he laughed when asked if he had thought about that. "If I was in it for the money I wouldn't have been doing this sport," he laughed, aware of how far down the American sporting pecking order swimming features.

excerpt from Time.com article Growing up with two sisters who swam competitively, Phelps was practically raised at the pool. "The summer he was born was the summer I started swimming," says his oldest sister Hilary, 26. "The poor kid was always getting dragged to the pool." His mother Debbie remembers bringing baby Michael along in a carrier and parking him on the pool deck during his sisters' practices. When he was 7, Phelps learned to swim, but it took weeks before he could do anything more than the backstroke. "I was afraid to put my head underwater," he admits. Once he did, his talent surfaced almost immediately. Swimming with the North Baltimore Aquatic Club at age 11, he set a national record for his age group in the 100-m butterfly. That caught the attention of Bob Bowman, then an assistant coach at the club. "What I noticed about him was that he was fiercely competitive in everything he did, whether it was swimming a race or playing a game at the pool," he says. "He always wanted to win." Bowman called Phelps' parents in for a meeting, alerting them to their son's potential, and in 1996 laid out a 15-year plan that would include Phelps' being a part of the 2004, 2008 and 2012 U.S. Olympic teams. "I'm thinking, This man is crazy," Debbie recalls. "This is my 11-year-old baby, and you're projecting 2012?" Bowman could see that Phelps was born to swim. Blessed with a sinewy, whiplike body, a long torso and large hands and feet, plus a 6-ft. 7-in. arm span that extends 3 in. beyond his height (the usual ratio is 1 to 1), Phelps has as close to an ideal swimming body as you can get. Like other top swimmers, he doesn't so much power through the water as slide along it, propelled by a vigorous dolphin kick that surges from his head to his toes in a high-amplitude wave.

watching the women's marathon 1:50 in to it and there's one break away runner from Eastern Europe. Can she hold on?

I get a little ticked off when all the media talks about is M.P.. There were six other young men who helped him win two of them but they seemed to be cast aside. I know that what he did is a great thing but he didn't do it alone.

Yeah, he 's a bit overhyped. But major c accomplishment nonetheless.