大象传媒

With Beijing getting closer I've slipped on my Olympic-ringed spectacles to patrol the web for highlights.

How did anybody hear anything about an Olympics or its build-up before Mr Web popped up on our office desks with his new toy the internet? The occasional newspaper feature, books, pigeons carrying the latest qualifying results must have been the only way.

Trawling through the online archives, it seems 1996 was a bit of a watershed for internet coverage of the Games. We'll forgive them for the shoddy graphics, but the likes of the , and were on the ball for Atlanta. Sssshhhhh, whisper this quietly, but the 大象传媒's news website didn't even start breathing until a year after that. Auntie had to wait until for her first Olympic effort.

So it's now 2008, and if you're an athlete busting a gut to get to Beijing and you're not writing an hourly blog on your personal website about pumping iron, producing weekly video blogs from your kitchen, responding to your fans on , or uploading photos of yourself falling over pavements on , then you're a nobody. A web nobody that is.

The Brits are at least starting to wake up. Swimmer has just gone live, synchronized swimming pair , beach volleyball stars and have their own sites, while teenager Tom Daley (apply respective superlative accordingly: superstar/wonderkid/pocket dynamo) is diving all over .

But if medals were being handed out for performances on the internet, Britain's enthusiastic yet inexperienced stars would be royally booted off the podium by this little lot - all of whom are getting ready for Olympic duties this summer.

First up is American butterfly swimmer Ian Crocker.
What is it with these human fish? It seems like being paid to get your body wet is a pre-requisite for being web savvy. Olympic gold in 2000 and 2004 and now he's strumming for Beijing with some . (You'll need a password to log in).

This is not your usual "get up at 7am, swim for 30miles, pile up on the carbs and sleep for a day" garbage. This blog rocks. The boy from Maine likes his tunes you see. He loves playing guitar and declares a new love for the works of Tom Waits. "We all know there are a million ways to say the same thing, but art is when you can choose the words that make you smell and taste and feel the meaning of the song."

Keep up the good word Crocks.

Next up is (aka LJ, Loz, or Lozza) - slam dunk queen of queens. Her 6ft 5in frame has been racking up the points through Oz, Russia, Korea and now Seattle, as well as reporting for Olympic preparation duties with the Australian Opals.

She's not shy this one. Ahead of Athens she posed nude (in an arty way) for magazine According according to her she's another one into her music. People she'd like to meet: Marilyn Manson, Bono, Bob Geldof, Dawn French, Joanna Lumley and Michael Hutchence. She might need some careful seat-planning for that little dinner party.

Last up for the blogging podium for now is U.S. mountain biker whose words have delved into my steely core and given it a right rattling.

After some recent two-wheel crashes and illness Koerber has . She should have known she was in for a crazy ride when she was named 30 years ago (a 'weeping' wee bairn maybe?) - but hey, if you're having a bad day at the office, here's a verse from Miss Koerber that might help.

"Break my spirit.
Crush my ego.
Breathe again, get it back.
Align my soul, I'm back on track."

Feel empowered? Anybody else seen any amazing words of Olympic inspiration? Or perhaps you've got an Olympics poem you want to share with the world.