Who gets the web gold? The bigger the star, the blander the blog

Hugh MacDonald, Canadian reserve archer for the Olympics, was not a happy blogger. Stuck in Canada nursing...

Hugh MacDonald, Canadian reserve archer for the Olympics, was not a happy blogger. Stuck in Canada nursing his frustrated Olympian ambitions, MacDonald was suddenly ordered to pack his bags to fly to Beijing, after one archer who had beaten him onto the team, John David Burnes, fell ill.

Before MacDonald could board a plane, Burns recovered enough to compete, but he shot poorly. Perhaps unwisely, Burns later conceded that he was maybe not yet ready for the Olympics.

8220;This is the Olympics. There isn8217;t room for 8216;I8217;m not sure.8217; If you have doubt, get out,8221; fumed MacDonald on his Canadian Broadcasting Corporation blog.

MacDonald8217;s unusually acidic web diary 8212; with gems like 8220;This Olympic experience is over and can never be mine8221; 8212; is among the huge swathes of cyberspace taken over by athletes8217; blogs during the Games. Hundreds of Olympians are tapping away about their experiences in Beijing, some providing diaries and opinion for newspapers or broadcasters, while those who cannot get paid for it update their own personal blogs.

Most of the biggest stars such as US basketball hero Kobe Bryant and tennis champion Roger Federer host their own websites, dripping with sponsor-links and the occasional 8220;Dear Fan8221; updates on how well everything is going. Sites are often filled with mind-numbing snippets, tourist pictures and a never-ending quest to locate the 8220;Olympic spirit8221;.

And the unwritten blog rule appears to be: The bigger the star the blander the blog and the bigger the corporate tie-ins.

Serbian Ana Ivanovic, the French Open tennis champion, has a website typical of the exclamation mark-filled mundanities. 8220;My bags got lost again! It was a bit of a worry because I have a special Olympics outfit to wear, but luckily they arrived today,8221; she said.

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The averted luggage crisis sat alongside other exclusives such as she would like to go on holiday to the Maldives and her favourite Leona Lewis song is 8220;Bleeding Love8221;. US swimming phenomenon medalist Michael Phelps chose a question-and-answer format on his website, instead of the blog. Would he date a swimmer, one cheeky fan asks? 8220;I try to separate my personal life from swimming,8221; Phelps reveals.

Chinese NBA basketball star Yi Jianlian was patriotically on-message in his blog insisting the Olympic head-to-head with the United States was similar to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao8217;s visit a few days earlier, as both occasions required China to up their game. But while much of the blogging is frustratingly controversy-free, some blogs do throw up quirky insights.

Simon Whitfield, an Olympic triathlete from Canada, relived one of the increasingly common athletes8217; rituals, the drug test, with an official dressed in green extracting his blood. 8220;I settled into the chair and 8216;miss green8217; stabbed me in the arm,8221; he winced.

8220;When I say 8216;stabbed8217;, I mean Freddie Cougar has nothing on greenie,8221; he added, presumably referencing the horror film character Freddy Krueger.