The world waits with bated breadth as we are 8 days away to the 2008 Summer Olympics, which will be held in Beijing from August 8 to August 24, 2008. Yes, 4 long years of waiting since the last Olympics, and finally the Olympic fever has hit me and the countdown is truly on!

Officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, the Beijing games will see 10,500 athletes competing for Olympic glory in 302 events in 28 sports. The Chinese Government has spent US$40 billion in preparation for the Games, modernizing the city and sprucing up tourist attractions to welcome the tens of thousands of tourists expected to converge in Beijing during and long after the Games had ended.

A total of 37 venues will be used to host the events including 12 newly constructed venues. More than 20 modern venues that make use of environmental-friendly and energy-saving technology now decorate Beijing.

Any sports fan worth his salt will surely have heard and seen images of the iconic structures “Bird’s Nest” and “Water Cube”. These will be two of the many Olympian Playground where blood and sweat will be shed and tears flow over the next 3 weeks.

The “Bird’s Nest” is actually the National Stadium of the Games, which will hold the opening/closing ceremony and all the track and field events, and men’s and women’s football competition.
The “Water Cube” is China’s National Aquatics Center and will host the swimming events, diving and synchronized swimming. With a capacity of 17,000, the Water Cube is the largest Olympics aquatic centre ever built. Let’s view a video presentation of the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube.

I am so looking forward to the start of the Games and religiously following some of my favorite sports events on television. Those events are football (but of course), track and field (individual and team’s sprint events, and high-jump for field event), swimming, diving, and gymnastic.

What values and special feelings does the Olympic holds for you? Are you looking forward to the Beijing Games? What events will you be following?

The Photoshop contest which Michael Kwan has been holding has saw many quality submissions with very high level of creativity on show. My first entry was based on a comic strip and used speech bubble to bring across the message. But those were only static images without sound and animation and quite forgettable when compared to the other high quality entries.

As the clock ticks on and the deadline looms ever so closer, I thought I’ll squeeze out every last ounce of my creative mojo and submit this entry which is based on a short animation clip. I hope I’ve raised the bar high with this animated clip with background music, emotions, fear, desperation and most importantly, I hope it’ll make Michael Kwan laugh in order for me to win a box of cool stuff.

Two months before the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa roll into the F1 Paddock at Marina Bay for September’s SingTel Singapore Grand Prix, the newly completed F1 pit building (located next to the Singapore Flyer) played host to the Grand Finale of the K1 Karting Series over the weekend.

The K1 Grand Finale, jointly organized by the Singapore Motor Sports Association and C S Racing, is a culmination of activities as part of a larger effort to encourage motorsports in Singapore and also to rev up support for the world’s first night street race on September 28.

Some of the highlights motorsports buffs got to enjoy at the Grand Finale included:

• Drifting and stunt driving demos by the best international drivers in the business

• Supercar, dress-up car, classic car and Formula car displays

• Go-karting on the F1 track

• Pit Crew Challenge

I was there to enjoy the adrenalin rush, smell a lot of burnt rubbers and generally soak in the party atmosphere of the event. Watch the videos (yours truly made a cameo appearance) for some adrenalin-pumping drifting actions, quirky dress-up and disco car display and miniature F1 race.

The crowd pleaser - Stunt driving demos

Fancy cars display and mobile disco on wheels!

That was a lot of videos for one post. More photos and a video to be continued… Stay tune!

Photo by Mickey Lieu

We are still a couple of weeks to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing but pre-Olympic fever has turned a notch higher here in Singapore. Apparently, it seems like Singaporeans do not have to be in Beijing to experience Olympic fever because over the past week and in the coming days, top athletes from around the world have converged in Singapore for their pre-Olympic training and exhibition games.

In fact, some 700 athletes and officials from 24 countries are set to call Singapore home in the lead-up to next month’s Beijing Olympics, to get used to the time zone, heat and humidity, which are similar to Beijing - but with better air quality, food and fewer distractions.

Among the different contingents of athletes who have descended in our backyard included probable gold medallists like American swimmer Michael Phelps, Australia’s swim sensation Grant Hackett, Brazil men’s football team, and Croatia men’s water polo team.

Let’s take an overview of the teams that had arrived:

• The 44-member US swimming team, including six-time Olympic champion Michael Phelps.

• Canadian track and field squad with 2007 World Championships 800m silver-medallist Gary Reed, who will be set up camp here through the Games, flying out only for their respective events.

• The Samba boys from Brazil men’s football team led by the evergreen coach Dunga and 2-time World footballer of the year, Ronaldinho.

• Water-polo teams from eight countries - Australia, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Greece, Montenegro and Russia.

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