2008-olympics

You can easily create your own backyard Olympic games! Make fun events for your family or invite the whole neighborhood to participate. The best part is, you don't have to be a world-class athlete to participate in these Olympic games. Use these suggestions to get started. Think up your own ideas and make sure you share them with everyone here!

The First Olympics - Athens 1896

This awe-inspiring and timeless miniseries about the rebirth of the modern day Olympic games stars David Ogden Stiers, Hunt Block, Golden Globe® winner David Caruso, and inclues guest appearances by Louis Jourdan and Angela Landsbury. In 1896, a dedicated group of men sets out to do the impossible: organize a global athletic competition in Athens, just as the Ancient Greeks once did. Faced with minimal funding, apathy and harsh opposition, finding a group of loyal and dedicated athletes is no easy feat; nor is completing their difficult journey to Athens. But the team's desire to compete - and win - helps reignite the Olympic spirit that had been dark for more than 1,500 years.

Can't make it to Beijing? Now, you can follow the Summer Games no matter where you are. Explore stadiums in 3D, track medal counts, and view live sport results on Google Maps and Google Earth.

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Alicia Sacramone of the United States practices on the balance beam ahead of the Beijing 2008 Olympics at the National Indoor Stadium on August 7, 2008 in Beijing, China.

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The outer wall of the National Aquatics Center is illuminated in different colors ahead of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at the National Aquatics Center on August 7, 2008 in Beijing, China.

2008 Summer Olympics highlights

The 2008 Summer Olympics emblem is known as Dancing Beijing (simplified Chinese: 舞动的北京). The emblem combines a traditional Chinese red seal and a representation of the calligraphic character jīng (京, "national capital", also the second character of Beijing's Chinese name) with athletic features.

The slogan for the 2008 Olympics is "One World, One Dream"

The 2008 Olympic Mascots are the five Fuwa