The 2008 Beijing Olympics encompass the whole of the world – the good and the bad, the rich and the poor, the free and the oppressed. In fact, with all the talk of human rights, Tibet, Darfur, air pollution and censorship, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that this is a sporting contest. So, while the Chinese government has plenty to answer for, let’s take a moment to focus on the athletes. After all, the reason that millions upon millions of viewers tune in for the Olympics is to see individual athletes reach for sport’s highest honours.

For some athletes the journey to be selected for Beijing is the achievement of their dream. For others the chase will continue onto the track, the pitch, the field, the pool in a quest for a medal. With each Olympic athlete comes a story, and in 2008, all 440 Australian Olympic athletes (including 48 West Australians) have overcome extraordinary obstacles and made significant sacrifices to be where they are. For some the obstacles and sacrifices may have been just the day-to-day demands of elite training – the early wakeups, the pushing through fatigue and exhaustion to build strength, speed and agility for competition. For others the battle might have been bigger – injuries, unbelievers or, in the case of one diver, sexuality.

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The power of the Olympics lies in those individual stories. Take for example Tasmanian Donna MacFarlane. She retired from running in 2000 after winning Australian junior titles in 800m and 1500m. She got married; had two children, now 3 and 6-years-old; and then, in 2005, decided to start running again, leisurely, as a way to get fit. From that modest return came one of the great Aussie comeback stories of the Olympics, and MacFarlane is now expected to medal in the Women’s Steeplechase, a race of 3000m and 30 obstacles.

Erin Phillips is another Australian headed for Beijing. The daughter of AFL star Greg Phillips, she started out playing Aussie Rules, often holding her own against the boys. At age 13, she switched to basketball and joined the U.S. pro women’s league, the WNBA, in 2006. Unfortunately, she blew out her knee and sat out the 2007 season to have a knee reconstruction. Anyone familiar with that kind of surgery knows that coming back from it is a long and brutal process. However, Erin was up to the challenge and put up with the pain and the long hours of recovery to get back on the court and on a plane to Beijing. She is a player to watch, as the Aussies are a dark horse to take the gold away from the favoured Americans.

And then there is Matthew Mitcham. Another medal favourite, the Australian diver will compete in the 10m platform. He will also make history as the first openly gay Australian to compete in the Olympics. The 20-year-old came out publicly earlier this year and has since applied and been granted funding from Johnson & Johnson Athlete Family Support Program for his partner Lachlan to attend the games with him.

To embrace these individual stories of Olympic triumph is not to make light of the crisis in Darfur or Tibet or Beijing. The Olympics are one of the few things that bring the whole world together, and these elite athletes represent the best of humanity, even in the face of some of our world’s greatest humanitarian crises.

In conclusion, the 2008 Olympics, for all its problems, still bears the sporting symbol, those 5 rings, that brings the world together every 4 years for the summer competition. As Amnesty International and other similar groups have already pointed out, the 2008 Olympics are an opportunity for world leaders, corporate sponsors and the International Olympic Committee to pressure the Chinese government to make positive changes to eradicate some of the world’s greatest injustices. However, it is also a chance for the world to turn the Games on, to face what is happening in the world, to learn about it and to start to advocate for change. But in August, as 202 nations of different races, cultures, religions, beliefs and politics come together, in many cases setting aside century old conflicts as well as recent wars, to compete in the Olympic Games, it is about more than reforming China, it is about those individual athletes, athletes like Donna MacFarlane, Erin Phillips and Matthew Mitcham, who will show the world just how high we can jump, how fast we can run and how far we have come.

TUNE IN

Channel 7 will broadcast the 2008 Beijing Olympics from August 8-24. The Opening Ceremony and with it the Games will begin on August 8 at 8.08pm.

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Have you changed your Facebook and MySpace to the Tibetan Flag? Or have you packed your portable TV on a trip to the Outback so you don’t miss a second of the action? Do you start get teary at the sound of the national anthem sounding out across the Olympic pool, or are you just wanting to rate the next generation of swimmers with life partners who lack gendered pronouns? Tell us all about it on the discussion board below…