KEY POINTS:
The Herald's reporters in Beijing pick who to watch and what to avoid at the Olympic Games:
Eugene Bingham:
The New Zealand bolter will be ... Joanne Kiesanowski. The Christchurch road cyclist will have to battle hard to stay in the hunt because she will be riding
solo, without teammates. But in Athens, she rode solo virtually from the start and finished 17th. Watch her for a gritty performance.
The New Zealand gold medal I most want to see is ... Valerie Vili in the shot put. If anyone deserves a gold, it's Vili and her coach Kirsten Hellier. Vili has combined raw talent with a phenomenal work ethic, determination and motivation to climb to the top of the world.
The event I'm most looking forward to ... is the men's 1500m on the track. And not only because we're hoping to see our own Nick Willis in amongst it with a lap to go. This year, the race is wide open and the podium places could be occupied by any combination of about 10 runners. Watch for plenty of drama.
The culinary delicacy to avoid ... has to be the Big Mac. When the Olympics roll into town, a parallel universe descends, bringing with it the acoutrements of the West, rolling straight over the top of the local culture. I'll be showing my support for the local cuisine by avoiding Big Macs. At least I'll try ...
At the end of the Games, the name on everyone's lips will be ... the Dalai Lama. Oh, come on, you don't think that at some point during the two weeks someone won't speak out over Tibet? When they do, it will turn into a circus, a la the torch relay, only making matters worse.
The sport I know nothing about but wouldn't mind catching is ... handball. For years, I thought it sounded like a game from high school PE classes, but, no, handball is deadly serious stuff. And who can't say they won't be glued to their TV screens to see how the Croatians get on without their key player ruled out of the tournament when his finger was ripped off? Ouch.
David Leggat:
My bolter for a New Zealand medal is ... kayaker Erin Taylor. Her progress since getting serious about the sport two years ago has been remarkable. Ranked around No 25 a year ago, Taylor has chopped that at least in half and has pulled off a string of tidy results in Europe. New Zealand's first Olympic women's canoeist, the Red Beach student could be the big surprise.
The New Zealand gold medal I'll most want to see is ... Nick Willis winning the 1500m final. Pipe dream? Most likely, but he's a podium chance. Think Lovelock, Snell and Walker. New Zealand's is a proud record in traditionally the blue riband track event.
The event I'm most looking forward to is ... the men's 100m final. Given that there are three outstanding gold medal candidates - Jamaicans Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell and American Tyson Gay - it's a short-odds bet that Bolt's world record of 9.72s will get a touch up. Preening, posturing showponies perhaps, but they can get from one line to the other seriously sharpish.
The culinary delicacy to avoid is ... Grilled brochette of scorpions.
At the end of the Games, the name on everyone's lips will be ... Tibet. Oh all right, Michael Phelps, either because he'll have broken Mark Spitz's 36-year-old Olympic record seven gold medals, or because he won't, which will be deemed a failure. Four, five or six golds a failure? Funny old world, isn't it?
The sport I know nothing about but wouldn't mind catching is ... an old favourite, Greco-Roman wrestling. All those peculiar positions which seem more suited to the Karma Sutra. A great sport for photographers looking for that "take a look where this guy's got his head" image.
