Heroes
Photo: Michael Steele/Getty Images
Besides the Irish team, who should we be rooting for when the action gets underway in Beijing this week?
Athletics: 100/200m
Dana Hussein Abdul-Razzaq (Iraq)
On July 24, the IOC decided Iraq wasn't welcome in Beijing because of the government's "serious interference" with the country's Olympic Committee.
A last-minute reprieve means that 21-year-old sprinter Dana Hussein Abdul-Razzaq will fulfil her Olympic dream. She has not had it easy -- training facilities are primitive and women sprinters are frowned on.
Plus there are other risks.
Last October, she was training in Baghdad when a sniper opened fire.
"She was dodging the bullets like in action movies," her coach Yousif Abdul-Rahman recalled.
Abdul-Razzaq's memories are less heroic. "After it was over, I fainted," she said. "I was back practising half an hour later, but we used the other side of the playing field."
Swimming: (10km)
Natalie du Toit (South Africa)
At the age of 17, South African swimmer Natalie du Toit was driving to school on her scooter when she was hit by a car.
Her left leg was amputated at the knee. Seven years on, du Toit is the first swimmer to qualify for both the Paralympic and Olympic teams.
Now aged 24, du Toit had swum internationally from the age 14. Out of necessity, she switched to distance freestyle after her accident and won six medals at the 2004 Paralympics.
She qualified for the Olympics when she finished fourth at the World Open Water Swimming Championships and will compete in the first ever 10km swim at Beijing.
Gymnastics
Oxana Chusovitina (Germany)
When 33-year-old Oxana Chusovitina competes in her fifth Olympics she will be twice the age of most of her competitors.
Uzbek-born Chusovitina has proved that gymnasts can age gracefully, notably at the European Championship where she won the vault, beating 15-year-old Russian Ksenia Semenova.
Chusovitina won an Olympic team gold medal as a 17-year-old in 1992.
Since then she has accumulated a record eight world titles on the vault.
Her long career owes something to fate: in 2002, when her son Alisher, now aged nine, was diagnosed with leukaemia, she moved to Germany so that he could get the best possible treatment.
To help in those difficult times she kept up her training. It has paid off.
Diving
Tom Daley (Britain)
British diver Tom Daley will be 14 years and 81 days old when he takes his first dive off the 10m platform in Beijing. Standing at 1.56m and weighting just 47kg, Daley is Britain's youngest Olympian in 48 years and won a European title last year. If he can survive the hype, young Daley could be competing not only in 2012, but far into the future.
Athletics: 400m
Nagmeldin Ali Abubakr (Sudan)
Imagine if Santry stadium was only half finished and the only way you could develop your strength was by lifting concrete blocks?
That is the situation in war-torn Sudan, the home of 400m runner Nagmeldin Ali Abubakr.
Since 2003, when Darfuri tribes rose against the Sudanese government, close to 200,000 people have died while a further 2.5 million have been made refugees in a bitter and bloody civil war.
Ali Abubakr still did enough to win the 400m at the 2003 World Youth Championships in Canada. A year later, he came second at the World Juniors. His best time of 44.93 dates from 2005; this season, he ran 45.64 in Addis Ababa in May.
Badminton
Lin Dan (China)
Top seed for the men's singles in Beijing is the mercurial Lin Dan, known not just for his spectacular play but for his McEnroe-esque tantrums. While the badminton world may tut, his antics have cemented his superstar status -- helped by his good looks and romantic link to women's singles player Xie Xingfang.
Last year, Lin won the World Singles Championships, becoming only the second player to win the title two years in a row. Now local fans hope Dan will help China become the first country to win all five Olympic gold medals in the sport.
Athletics: 5000m
Nader al Masri (Palestine)
Middle-distance runner Nader al Masri developed his finishing kick the hard way: living on the Gaza Strip, where whizzing bullets and Israeli missiles could be seen as the norm.
For the past decade, 28-year-old al Masri has trained around the bomb- cratered roads near the refugee camp where he lives. Because of Israeli restrictions, even getting out of Gaza was an achievement for al Masri, who appealed for help to human rights groups. He was allowed to depart in April and has been training at a rock-studded field in the West Bank town of Jericho. His best time is 14 mins 24 secs.
Football (women)
Marta Vieira da Silva (Brazil)
In the manner of all great footballers, the 22-year-old is known simply as Marta in her native Brazil.
Dubbed Pele in a skirt, Marta plays midfield for Sweden's Umeå IK, and was a member of the Brazilian team that won silver at the Athens Olympics, challenging the American and German dominance of the women's game.
In last year's Women's World Cup, she missed a crucial penalty kick against Germany in the final which Brazil lost. She has something to prove in Beijing.
Athletics: 400m
Martyn Rooney (Britain)
Forget Jeremy Wariner and LaShawn Merritt, the man to watch in the 400m at Beijing is Martyn Rooney, born in Croydon of Irish parents and training partner to David Gillick at Loughborough.
Rooney has run world-class relay legs -- 44.17 sec in the worlds last year and 44.17 secs again in this year's European Cup -- and at Crystal Palace on July 25 at last dipped under 45 seconds to win the 400m in 44.83. A few days later, he ran an even faster 44.72 to win in Monaco. That puts him ninth in the world. At the very least, he should make the final.
Swimming
Mark Foster (Britain)
He may be 38, but earlier this year, Mark Foster set a new British record of 21.96 for the 50m freestyle, enough to rank him fifth in the world. After a serious back injury, Foster made a remarkable comeback at the British championships in July 2007 winning two sprint events on a minimum of training.
Olympic medals have eluded him, and he wasn't selected for Athens in 2004. He would dearly love to complete his collection of international honours with a medal in Beijing.
Athletics: 800m
Pamela Jelimo (Kenya)
With world leader Yelana Sobolova of Russia banned for a drugs offence, what is to stop Kenya's Pamela Jelimo from taking a sensational gold in the 800m?
The 18-year-old clocked a jaw-dropping time of 1 min 54.99 secs in only her fifth ever 800m at Berlin last June. A few weeks later, in Paris, she improved that time to 1:54.97 -- for her fourth consecutive win on the Grand Prix circuit. Her Berlin time also broke Maria Mutola's African record.
Can anyone stop her in Beijing?
- Lindie Naughton
