OLYMPIC NAME GAMES

BEIJING, CHINA: Popular former Australian Swimmer PAUL LEE has arrived in Beijing to continue his Olympic Odessy. Paul is giving the Hanson Sports Media website browsers an insight into the many aspects of Beijing as the Olympic Games gets closer.

During the days preceding the Games the names of athletes and officials are scrutinised and validated by the Organising Committee and the International Federation to make sure that they appear correctly in the results and on the scoreboard and TV. While undertaking this process I have noticed some interesting names and a quick look through the entries for Swimming shows that the coaches and managers will have some challenges ahead.

The Australian team have a number of girls with names ending in an ‘ee' sound. Angie, Bronte, Sophie, Sally, Felicity, Stephanie, Melanie, Emily, Tarnee and of course Libby. The only one missing seems to be our Kylie. While there is a Butterfly event there is no ‘Budgie' event which could explain it...

The Americans have a clutch of girls beginning with ‘K'. Katie, Kate, Kathleen, Kara and Kim will join Chloe, two Christines and a Caroline whose names don't actually start with a ‘K' but they certainly don't help the situation. On the Men's side they have a few guys who sound like they should be racing NASCAR - Larsen Jensen, Klete Keller and Ricky Berens.

The Chinese team has a Fang, a Yang, two Tang's, three Wang's and a Pang and that's just on the Women's side. The Men's team isn't helping the situation either with three Zhang's.

The commentators will need to be clear in their pronunciation of Thomas FUCIK from the Czech Republic.

South Africa's George du RAND may be in the money if he performs well in his events while Linda BANK from the Netherlands could also join him there as she is part of the Dutch 4x100 Freestyle relay team. While George Bovell III from Trinidad and Tobago sounds like he should be inheriting lots of money from somewhere.

Nabil KEBBAB from Algeria won't have to wait long to tuck into his favourite food as he is only entered in the 100m Freestyle and is unlikely to proceed any further than the heats.

Istvan MATE from Austria could easily slide into the Australian swim team as everyone would instantly know his name.

And finally a New Zealand name that is sure to test the capacity of the scoreboard width - Orinoco FAAMAUSILI BANASE PRINCE.