Googling such key words as "Olympics dream", we get both hilarious and sad stories of athletes from different countries. Some have won their berths and are coming to Beijing with high expectations while others are seeing their dreams dashed as a result of injuries or other problems.
Their laughter or tears only enhance our conviction that the simple "One World, One Dream" theme does follow the fundamental principles of Olympism.
Enshrined in the Olympic Charter, these stipulate, among others, the way of life "based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles"; and the service of sport for "the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity".
'Dream' here means aspiration and goal, but I believe even today not many people, especially those in the West who are busy pointing fingers at human rights problems in China, are aware how much humiliation, subjugation, wars and poverty the Chinese have suffered but overcome to realize the one Olympics dream.
While the history of modern Olympics started 114 years ago, the Chinese began to dream of the Olympics in 1908, the year when London hosted the Summer Olympics for the first time.
Until the early 1990s, a nonagenarian in Tianjin still remembered watching a slide show of the gala ceremony of the world sports event along with students from Nankai University. He also recalled seeing the students hanging banners with three questions:
"When will China be able to send athletes to the Olympics?"
"When will China win an Olympics gold medal?"
"When will China host the Olympics?"
It was 24 years since then before the first lonely Chinese, Liu Changchun, embarked on the Chinese people's first journey to the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1932 and competed only in the heats of the 100m and 200m.
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