Just nine weeks to go before the commencement of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing China. This Olympics may prove to be somewhat controversial on many fronts whether it be the fact that China is not a free society, the issue of its government and its policies in particular Tibet, and finally the issue of the pollution that seems endemic to that part of China which may affect athlete performances.

But all of that is to be talked about by others. What I am more interested, as always, is the performance of Canada’s athletes at the games.

There has been a real switch in emphasis in high caliber athletics in Canada. Where once it was the Summer Games that garner the attention of Canadians, it is now the Winter Games that receive most of the attention. There are many reasons why this is so. First of all, it is helpful that athletes actually start winning medals at the highest level in sports and for the past two Olympic cycles, it has been the Winter Games athletes that have been winning more medals than the Summer Games athletes despite the face that the Summer Games has over four times as many opportunities to win medals. Why have Canadian been more successful? Government sponsorship has been key in sports funding and the push to get a Winter Olympics selection, successful for 2010 in Vancouver, meant that Canada wanted to ficus on athletes that have the greatest impact and since Canada is a winter nation, it only stands to reason that the winter sports would start to get more attention. People who have aspirations for Olympic glory even at an early age can determine which sports will get the most funding and attention from government and corporations. More funding means better venues and training facilities and better chances to compete at the international level. But Canada is not a nation that fund every sport out there in the manner that will produce Olympic caliber athletes. It has to be selective and more often than not now, it is the winter sport that will get the preference over a summer one.

Still there are some great athletes for the upcoming summer games. Unlike the winter games where Canada can dominate a sport like speedskating, the summer games, with perhaps with the exception of the rowing an canoe events, are most individual achievements like Ty Christopher in the 400m or Simon Whitfield in triathlon. They will also be relatively few in number but consistent with past Olympics where Canada’s haul somewhere between 10-16 medals. It should be no different this year.

Much like what I did for the winter games two years ago, I will be providing bios of the various athletes for Canada in advance of the Games and provide daily commentary of the results with a focus on Canada’s achievements. It may turn out that there may be days between medal results for Canada but that is something that we just have to accept.

A big partner in my drive to write about the Olympics will be the NBC network. Being in the summer means that network will be providing heavy coverage throughout the day using its variety of networks: NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, and Oxygen and its Spanish speaking networks. The key network will be NBC as it will be on the HD signal. Of course, being 12 hours in time difference will mean that most broadcasts in prime-time will be tape delayed and I will probably will know the results well in advance. As for the various allocations on what network will carry what sport is still yet to be determined.

Just can not wait until it gets here.