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What an incredible Olympics for our modern pentathlon team. Heather Fell and I were excited from the moment we set foot in the athletes' village to the moment we left - and that moment came far too soon.

All five of our pentathlon events took place on one day, the last Friday of the Games, so we only had Saturday and Sunday to enjoy ourselves properly.

But the advantage of competing so late was that the more medals Team GB won, the less nervous I felt. It took the pressure off because suddenly nobody was looking to the final few events in desperation for medals.

Olympic Sports Centre Stadium, Beijing

How do you know you're a good modern pentathlete unless you get the chance to try it?

Be honest, how many of you have tried all five sports - shooting, fencing, swimming, riding and running - even once?

I've never fenced (although there were those accusations about Gary Mahoney's skateboard at school which were never proved as I had no idea it was his when I sold it) and I only tried shooting for the first time on my stag do (I was dressed as Borat at the time and not at my best). I have also only ever been pony trekking twice - the last time being about 25 years ago.

I only mention this because I've just been to the %3Ca%20href="%3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/modern_pentathlon/7576185.stm">women's modern pentathlon and I can't help wondering if all Olympic gold medals really are equal.

Last month, we produced a shortlist of 10 British athletes and %3Ca%20href="/blogs/olympics/2008/07/help_us_pick_our_ten_to_watch.html">asked you for your thoughts - both on the ones we named, and any other athletes occupying your thoughts ahead of the Beijing Games.

We had a great response, which certainly affected at least one decision on who made it into our final 10 to watch. And now we're publishing full profiles of each of those 10 athletes.

Everything in British modern pentathlon seems to be four years ahead of schedule.

Not only has Team GB %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/modern_pentathlon/7485277.stm">crammed the maximum four pentathletes into this year's Olympics - something planned for London, not Beijing - but before 2008's event has even started, 大象传媒 Sport's team find ourselves yards from %3Ca%20href="https://www.london2012.com/sports/olympic/modern-pentathlon.php">the 2012 pentathlon venue in Greenwich.

Pentathlon's powers-that-be chose Greenwich as the backdrop for the team's final media appearance before they head off to China. It's a wise decision, not least because %3Ca%20href="https://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/nav.3556">the Queen's House at the National Maritime Museum, where the press gathering takes place, is a magisterial, imposing setting. Somehow that suits modern pentathlon, on first glance one of the less fathomable Olympic sports.

Every time I write about pentathlon I feel compelled to trawl out the list of all five sports involved - well, I'm bored with that (and pentathlon fans, though few in number, must despair when reporters insist on spelling out the basics for the umpteenth time, like having every football report start with "the match lasted approximately 90 minutes, with 11 men on each team").

If you're not sure then you can find out %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/modern_pentathlon/7346442.stm">here but, honestly, you don't even need to know. The only pentathlon knowledge you need, before you sit down to watch it on 21 and 22 August, is that Great Britain's competitors are really good and ought to win a medal in the women's event. Then you can pick up the sports as you go along.

You don't need me to tell you how much dedication and effort it takes to become an Olympic athlete, never mind an %3Ca%20href="https://www.virginmedia.com/sport/galleries/british-best-olympians.php?ssid=2">Olympic champion.

At least two of Britain's gold medal hopes for Beijing started out in completely different sports and you could follow their path to glory in 2012!

Of course it's not as easy as that but the UK's sporting authorities are keen to open up a new route to the top of the Olympic podium.

Fresh on the heels of %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/olympics_2012/6400255.stm">Sporting Giants and %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/london_2012/7435271.stm">Pitch2Podium comes Girls4Gold, a mass recruitment drive for young women as another plank in Team GB's aim to finish fourth in the medal table in London in four years' time.

This isn't about finding people who are good at their chosen sport and pushing them to the top. It's about finding people who are already good at one sport but might be better at another.

Dolph Lundgren. %3Ca%20href="https://www.dolphlundgren.com/">Dolph bloomin Lundgren.

Take a breath and just allow the consequences of that name to sink in. The enormity of it, what it means: the hair, the body, the images it conjures up.

Ready? %3Ca%20href="https://ralphsfigureclothing.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/rocky-ivan-drago-red-singlet/">Ivan Drago, the finest flat top to have graced this planet. Need I go on? Here's an academic-turned-actor who, during the making of %3Ca%20href="https://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0089927/">Rocky IV in 1985, took a pop at Sylvester Stallone and put him in hospital for four days. Fact.

He's been %3Ca%20href="https://www.he-man.org/primary_sects/movie/html/movie_index.shtml">He-Man, he also took a swipe at %3Ca%20href="https://www.007.info/FactfileAVTAK.asp">James Bond in View to a Kill, speaks five languages, got a Masters degree in chemical engineering (Masters of the Universe perhaps?) and he's pretty useful in judo and karate.

Imagine reading that CV when the giant Swede applied to be leader of the American modern pentathlon team ahead of the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

We all know that women are great at multi-tasking. For most of us, that means supervising maths homework while feeding the cats, creating a perfect costume for the nativity play, and holding down a full-time job.

For Britain's star women %3Ca%20href="https://www.pentathlongb.org/">modern pentathletes it means shooting, fencing, swimming, riding and running - all in one action-packed Olympic day.

Welcome to our Olympics and Paralympics blog, which we are launching as the countdown to the %3Ca%20href="https://en.beijing2008.cn/">2008 Games begins in earnest.

Wednesday marks exactly 100 days to go to the 8 August opening ceremony (though oddly enough the football tournament starts two days earlier).

Writers from across 大象传媒 Sport, Radio 5Live, 大象传媒 London and 大象传媒 News will bring you the inside track on all %3Ca%20href="https://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/index_uk.asp">28 Olympic sports, as well as the Games themselves - which are set to be truly fascinating, if controversial, given China's hosting of them.

One of the uncertainties at the moment from a British perspective is whether the Games will turn out to be a triumph - or a failure. My view is...

Keep reading this blog for all the latest about the Olympics and Paralympics in Beijing and also for the inside track on the long build-up to London 2012.

News and reports will be on the %3Ca%20href="https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/default.stm">大象传媒 Sport website but our experts will bring you behind the scenes access to the world's biggest sporting event right here.

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I'm a modern pentathlete and Beijing has been my first Olympics.

I've had a great year, winning World Cup gold in Cairo in February and individual bronze and team relay silver at the World Championships in Budapest.