From the AP, via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (link):
Now that the winter Olympians have stolen away from Italy with their skis, skates and polished granite curling stones, the eyes of the sports world turn with rising excitement to the 2008 summer games in Beijing.
The excitement has been stirred by an irony of history. It follows the Athens games, site of both the ancient and modern Olympics, and comes for the first time to a vast and fast-growing Asian nation which got seriously involved in Olympic sports less than 25 years ago.
