CAUTION: No NASCAR here (well one reference), it's only one of the tags as that's where most of my stuff goes. It's all Olympics here. It's also my first whirl at pictures in a blog post, and as you can tell by the title, I'm not starting small.

There are only a handful of days before the 2008 Olympics, the 29th edition of the "Greatest Show on Earth" starts in the Chinese city of Beijing. Over the 16 days there will be 302 events, covering 28 sports, with roughly 10,500 athletes from 205 competing nations. There will be tears, cheers and at least one really good argument during that time, as well as a few events that not even the sports experts paid to foresee don't expect. Ahead of the opening ceremony on the 8th August - the date 8.8.08 is seen to be lucky in Chinese culture - here's my look at a few storylines and the sports and events I'm looking forward to.

The Storylines

Drugs

Sorry to start on a pessimistic note, but there can be no doubting that drug doping is the main story in athletics (and all sports more or less) this year. British Sprinter Dwain Chambers will not be travelling to China, despite winning the national trials championship, after he failed to overturn a ruling that bans him from the Olympics for life after testing positive for THG in 2003. Former Olympic champion Marion Jones is currently in jail on perjury charges linked to her taking drugs. The 2000 Olympic US 4x400m relay team handed back their winners' medals last week in the wake of Antonio Pettigrew admitting to taking drugs during the tournament.

Drugs have been a central part of so many historic Olympic moments - the scenario with Ben Johnson in 1988 - the rather more comical "scooter accident" that befell two Greek sprinters in 2004. There WILL be a drugs based disqualification at the Olympics this year, the only question is who and when we'll get to the truth.

China

Right, this is going to make sure that FOXblogs will never get through one of the fabled Chinese Internet filters. The very fact that the Olympics in China is a marvel. The run up to the games has been blighted with political unrest.  The protests - in France, the US and UK - during the Olympic Flame's world relay over China's treatment of the people of Tibet set the undertone. Even today in what has been termed a "terrorist attack" 16 Chinese policemen have been killed. The event was well away from Beijing itself, but it's not the news you want to here from a host country this close to the opening ceremony.

There are the before mentioned internet filters - allegedly internet sites such as Amnesty International have been blocked from the computers at the Olympic media centre. China claims this filter has been removed giving what the IOC describes as 'unprecedented' internet access in China. While this is, or course, worrying you do have to wonder what sports journalists want with sites about human rights organisations. As well as this there is the smog. The TV coverage over here have been keeping track of the pollution levels and they are, as of today, roughly twice the target for developing nations, despite the fact that the city's main polluter - a steel works - has been shut down and half the cars have been taken off the roads. The exact levels are dependent on the weather - winds, temperature, rain - and so difficult to predict in the long term. However it is expected that the endurance events to take place in the city itself - the marathon and the cycling road race - may be postponed if pollution levels are deemed too high.

What to watch

The individual sports and events you might watch will differ from person to person - the events your nation stands a good medal hope in, the sport you follow outside of the Olympics - but I'll try my best take off my Union Jack underpants and present this largely unbiased.

The obvious thing is you MUST watch. Watching the Olympics you are always aware that you have the chance of witnessing history. In my era it's Donovan Bailey's 100m run in Atlanta, or Marion Jones' win, which will forever be engrained in my mind thanks to the British TV commentary of "This is Olympic Games, you're not supposed to win by that much" (in hindsight this was right). The more senior of you may name Mark Spitz's 7 swimming golds, or the Israeli athletes sad fate in Munich. No matter what age you are, if you watched an Olympics you can probably remember something.

Athletics

The athletics is the obvious sport to watch. It'll be where the main storylines come from and where heroes (and villains) will most likely be made. In the Blue Riband 100m there is the three way battle between American Tyson Gay and Jamaicans Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell. There are the incredible feats of endurance in the distance running, and the sheer absurdity of the 3000m Steeplechase and its trademark water jump. The all round athleticism of the women in the heptathlon and the men in the epic decathlon has to be admired, although many of them seem to finish the two day events appearing to be held together by straps around their joints. Plus the chaos of the jostling and change-overs in the relays, especially the 4x400m.

     The water jump of the 3,000m steeplechase is cleared by runners for another lap.

Swimming

Although it may be dismissed - "swimming is not a sport, it's a way of not drowning" - swimming is very much the second Olympic sport. It may not be the most spectator friendly sport around but it will undoubtedly be the highlight of the games' opening week. On top of this place American Michael Phelps on going quest to emulate Mark Spitz's 7 golds and immediately you have a recipe for  a piece of history you can watch from your front room.

A chance to watch history as Michael Phelps goes for 7 gold medals. And his name on his hat is the best chance you have of ID-ing him mid-race, unless you'd recognise his back, shoulders and rear end from the top row of the arena.

Track Cycling

It's sad yes, but I have a soft sport for the madness that is Olympic cycling. Take away the relatively restrained events - the pursuits, time trials and sprints and your left with three events - the points race, keirin and Madison that have to be seen to be believed. The points race - 20+ cyclists and 160 laps  with points being awarded for leading laps and lapping the rest of field. Madness. The Madison teams of two cyclists and 200 laps in a relay format. Actually scratch that " relay" doesn't do it justice. One rider grabs the other by the forearm and slings him forward in the least safe Olympic event ever, frequently with results that will have you referencing Talladega NASCAR wrecks for comparison. And now the pinnacle of insanity - the Keirin. In the most bizarre start of any event riders follow a moped to a pre arranged speed for a handful of laps before racing for 2km in an event that often has more disqualifications than finishers. If these descriptions don't take your fancy then I haven't done well enough, but you should still watch them.

                       The Keirin - what the Japanese invented when they were drunk

I'm sure you all have your favourite events and the reasons for them, and could (and feel free to) make passioned claims for them, but those are mine.

With any luck I can keep up with events as they happen in Beijing and keep updating here.