Spring vacation and I were full of cheers to welcome the spring flowers and enjoy my trip to the Longwood Gardens. Mom said it was time for gardening and Dad said that he could not wait for the Summer Olympics that were fast approaching. Olympics? I wondered...what a weird word! I had never heard it before. Well, I just let it pass by with a question mark in my mind.
I was so happy because I had just learned from Dad to read the newspaper online and got the chance to be a little News Reporter every morning. MY audiences being my Mom, Dad and my wonderful dog, a Welsh Corgi. During one of my news reading sessions, I caught sight of Summer Olympics 2008, once again. This time, I decided to find out more about it and asked my dad for help.
Dad was more than thrilled to help me with this effort. He gave me a list of sites online where I could do my research on the Olympics. The library was, of course, my primary den for this effort.
I discovered that the Original Olympic games were held as athletic competitions between the city-states of Greece. As the name "Olympics" says, it was first started in 776 B.C. in Olympia, Greece and continued till 393 A.D.
The Olympic Games were held in 4-year intervals, and later, the Greek method of counting the years even referred to these Games, using the term Olympiad for the period between two Games. Unlike the modern olympics, only the Greek people were allowed to participate and it contained only one event. The prizes seemed very different in the form of olive wreaths, plam branches and woven ribbons.
The Olympic games were revived back in 1859 as Modern Olympic games by the Greek Philanthorphist, Evangelis Zappas. Today Olympic Games are an international, multi-sport event subdivided into summer and winter sporting events. It is every athelete's dream come true.
This summer, the Olympics will be held in Beijing, China, as decided upon by the 112th IOC session in Moscow which was conducted on July 13, 2001. With the opening ceremony on Aug 8th, 2008 it will be over a 2-week long celebration untill August 24, 2008.
The official emblem, the "Chinese Seal-Dancing Beijing", represents the Chinese character "JING" which stands for the name of the host city, Beijing. The artwork in the symbol stands for the following:
The Chinese culture
The color of red china
Beijing welcomes friends from all over the world
To challenge the extreme and achieve the perfect and promote the Olympic motto of" Faster, Higher and Stronger)
The program for the Beijing 2008 Games is quite similar to that of the Athens Games held in 2004. The 2008 Olympics will see the return of 28 sports, and will hold 302 events, which is one event more in total than in the Summer Olympics held in Athens.
The Slogan, "ONE WORLD, ONE DREAM" is really beautiful. It is a call to unite in happiness and friendship.
My research helped me in understanding not only about Olympics but its importance in the form of Unity and Friendship.

Here are some references from the above article, used by the Author:
Eyewitness Olympics, by Chris Oxlade
Stories from the Olympics from 776 B.C. to Now, by Frank Gault
Ancient Olympics, by Richard Tames
http://en.beijing2008.cn/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Olympic_Games