Goodbye Beijing 2008 !

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Goodbye Beijing 2008 !

Michael Phelps - Star of Beijing 2oo8

Hi Readers ! Beijing 2008 is coming to an end. We have seen so many heart throbbing records.Today's Post is dedicated to these great Record Breakers. Michael Phelps is the super star winning 8 Golds and of course the fastest runner Usain Bolt is a super hero.What a speed shown by Usain ! Marvellous ! The performance of Michael Phelps is a real incredible feat. Some more photos of stars given below. The Philatelic Administrations must bring out stamps on these Olympic Stars to recognize their performance and high spirit. One name specially to be mentioned here of Natalie du Toit of South Africa who is inspiration for everyone. She participated in Beijing 2008 in 10 Km Swimming Marathon event and was just 1 minute behind the winner. She is the real champion of champions. She is above all the record breakers. It is difficult to express admiration for her in words. She is the super star of Beijing 2008.Hope all of you have enjoyed these magnificent games . This is a Special Post with some more stamps on Beijing 2008 & of course few snaps of the super heroes of this prestigious event. Hope you will enjoy this Post !....Just watch out for the glittering closing ceremony of this mega event ! Have a Wonderful Day !......

Michael Phelps King of Water Cube

Usain Bolt -The Fastest Runner

Hats Off !!! Super Swimmer

Natalie du Toit -- When taking part is more important than winning

Natalie du Toit who participated in the Olympic 10k Swimming Marathon

The road to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was bumpy for many athletes but surely no tougher than that of South African swimmer, Natalie du Toit.The 24-year-old, who lost her left leg in a road accident in 2001 , has become the first leg amputee to compete in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"I never thought of myself as being disadvantaged," said Natalie. "My message isn't just for disabled people, it is for everyone. It's to use the negatives in a good light."
Indeed her website boasts the inspiring motto: "Be everything you want to be."
A few years back a coach gave her an unattributed poem:

The tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goals,
The tragedy of life lies in not having goals to reach for.
It is not a disgrace not to reach for the stars,
But it is a disgrace not to have stars to reach for.
If you are looking for true Olympian spirit you will find it in Natalie du Toit.

"To be here, is a dream come true. A dream is something that you set for yourself, not what other people set for you. When I qualified in Seville [at the 2008 World championships in which she finished fourth] I burst into tears. I couldn't believe that I was going to the Olympic Games." Natalie's career got off to a remarkable start. The Cape Town swimmer set multiple national age group records as an able-bodied swimmer in both medley events and she competed in the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games in 1998 at the young age of 14.But a road accident in February 2001, sustained when Natalie was steering her scooter through rush hour traffic when traveling from school to training, changed her life. Doctors couldn't save her left leg, so it was amputated and a titanium rod installed. Incredibly, the road to recovery began the next day when Natalie got out of bed.

"I just wanted to get back to life again - swimming four hours a day - and I wanted to be able to walk again so that I would be able to do things by myself," she recalled. A year later she won her first major international medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester when she raced as both an able bodied and disabled competitor. She finished eighth place in the able bodied 800m Freestyle, and won gold in the 50 and 100m Elite Athletes with a Disability (EAD) races.
She was also presented with the first David Dixon Award for Outstanding Athlete of the Games, ahead of legendary Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, who had won six gold medals and set a world record in the 400 meter freestyle.
Natalie repeated the same Commonwealth feat four years later in Melbourne. With the Olympics out of the way, she will now switch back to the pool to defend the five Paralympic swimming medals she won in Athens 2004: the 100m Butterfly, 100m Freestyle, 200m Individual Medley, 400m Freestyle, 50m Freestyle (all gold), and aim to go one place better in the 100m Backstroke, in which she won a silver medal. Her double-selection also means she's had to shape a training schedule to meet the demands of both events. She focused on endurance for the Olympic 10k Swimming Marathon and will now switch to speed work for the Paralympics.