Well, the Olympics have come to an end.

And, as the dust settles over Beijing (or should we say, smog...), we can now get back to normality - although the beauty of 24 hour sports channels means the life of a sports blogger is never normal.

No, we're not complaining.

There have been plenty of memorable moments at the Beijing games, and despite the odd controversial moment, we think China can be extremely proud of their moment in the sporting sun.

Obviously, the efforts of Michael Phelps have dominated the headlines - and rightly so. His eight Gold medal haul ranks him among the greatest Olympians of all time, if not the greatest.

On the track, the hero of these games definitely has to be the Jamaican Usain Bolt, who dominated the 100m and 200m. He not only won Gold in both events, but destroyed the World Records at the same time. He's the worlds fastest man, and one heck of a dancer...

For us New Zealander's these games have been truly fantastic, with a medal haul of nine (three Gold, one Silver, and five Bronze).

The highlight was definitely Georgina and Caroline Ever-Swindell's race, which kept us glued to our TV's, and perched on the edge of our seats. To win by only one-one hundredth of a second is an amazing achievement - not to mention defending their Athens win.

Valerie Vili was incredible in the shot put, with a winning throw on her first attempt, and Tom Ashley did us all proud winning Gold in the men's board sailing.

We here in the Attic are extremely proud of all our athletes efforts - we now can't wait for the 2012 London games, where some of our young athletes will be even better for their experience in Beijing.

The world now switches it's focus to London for the next Summer Olympics, and they're going to have to pull something very special out of the bag if they're to beat (or even match) China's display.

Next stop - London.

It's that time again, sports fans - our weekly Top 5, and this week we've decided to give you our Top 5 reasons to watch the Olympics.

So far, the Beijing games have been a fantastic spectacle - and they're only going to get better when the track and field events start.

So, here are our Top 5 reasons to watch the games:

It's not every day you get to watch the greatest athletes from around the world compete at one sporting event - in fact, it only happens every four years. For that reason alone, it's worth watching.
For the brief time the Olympics are on, the world seems to stand still (with the exception of the Russians...) to watch their country's finest try to win Gold.
Four years is a long time to wait, so make the most of the Olympics while they're on, we say.

Ok, so this one is mainly for our New Zealand readers. But we Kiwis take our sport very seriously, and although we don't win as many medals as we'd all like, we take great pride in supporting our New Zealand athletes.
This year we have a great chance of winning a few medals as well - five of our rowing teams have made their finals, Valerie Vili is going into the shotput with a real chance of winning gold, and don't be surprised if a few other teams make their mark on the games.


The great thing about the Olympics is that there are a whole range of sports to watch, that we don't usually get to see. Although admittedly we wouldn't usually even bother watching half of them, there's something about the Olympics that makes us want to watch these different sports. We're talking about things like synchronised diving, gymnastic events, volleyball and handball (which we think is a great sport, by the way), plus a whole range of different sports - we don't have enough time in the month to list them all...


One of the greatest events at the Olympics (and one of the shortest, too), the 100m Final is one of the most talked about, and watched, events.
It's crazy to think that athletes prepare for four years to race in an event that last around ten seconds, but what a ten seconds they are!
This year's race is shaping up to be one of the best yet, with the current World Record holder, Usain Bolt of Jamaica (9.76 sec), going up against Tyson Gay of the United States, who has a fastest time of 9.77 seconds. If both these men can make it through the heats, which they should, then the final will definitely be worth watching.


The "Baltimore Bullet" is arguably the greatest Olympian of all time, and definitely one of the most exciting athletes to watch. So far at these games he's won five golds (400m individual medley, 4x 100m freestyle relay, 200m freestyle, 200m butterfly, 4x 200m freestyle relay), all under the World record time. He still has three events to go (200m individual medley, 100m butterfly, 4x 100 medley relay), and if he can win Gold in all three he will surpass Mark Spitz's record of seven golds at an Olympic games. Phelps has also become the record holder for the most Golds ever won in Olympic history, with eleven.
At this stage, we cant see anyone beating him in his last three events - or even coming close, for that matter.
If you only watch one competitor at the Beijing games, then make it Michael Phelps.













So - there are our Top 5 reasons to watch the Olympic games. But to be honest, there are hundreds of reasons to watch. Let us know what you think of the Games so far, and head to our forum for some in depth talk about the Olympics.

See you there!