Olympics/Paralympics

'A journey of a thousand miles stars with one step' said Confucius. Apparently.

And while China's final gold medal haul may not quite reach a thousand, they're certainly going to win plenty and their 'first step' came today from Chen Xiexia.

The tiny weightlifter went into the women's 48 kg competition carrying the burden of the hopes of a nation and still managed to add to that a combined snatch and clean and jerk of 212 kilogrammes to win by a massive 13 kilos.

Silver went to Turkey's Sibel Ozkan and bronze to Taipei's Chen Wei-Ling.

The revelation that 11 Bulgarian weightlifters have failed drugs tests so hard on the heels of a similar scandal involving 11 of the Greek team must call into question the sport's Olympic future.

Don't be surprised, with pressure on the programme to make space for new sports like Rugby 7s and squash, that one of the oldest, and most discredited Olympic events, will now have to fight for its place in 2012.

Behind the scenes, the International Weightlifting Federation was basically told in no uncertain terms after Sydney that it was going to have to get its act together on doping, or face the chop.

Then, three Bulgarians, (surprise surprise,) were caught and had to hand back their medals.

Athletes hoping for a level playing field in Beijing are going to be disappointed.

We've said it before and it bears repeating again: there will be several major sporting nations taking part at the Olympics whose athletes won't have been as rigorously drug tested as others.

Take India. It's one of the nations that isn't yet complying fully with the World Anti Doping Agency code.

Welcome to our Olympics and Paralympics blog, which we are launching as the countdown to the 2008 Games begins in earnest.

Wednesday marks exactly 100 days to go to the 8 August opening ceremony (though oddly enough the football tournament starts two days earlier).

Writers from across BBC Sport, Radio 5Live, BBC London and BBC News will bring you the inside track on all 28 Olympic sports, as well as the Games themselves - which are set to be truly fascinating, if controversial, given China's hosting of them.

One of the uncertainties at the moment from a British perspective is whether the Games will turn out to be a triumph - or a failure. My view is...

A question for you: When the Olympics comes around are you one of those people who a) quite enjoys watching the various sports, but only if there is someone from your country taking part and with a chance of winning a medal? or b) will watch and enjoy anything which provides sporting excellence, intrigue and great drama.

If your answer is "a" then you may well have little interest in the weightlifting competition in Beijing. If, however, you are more open-minded about your sports-watching then the weightlifting is something to savour.

Keep reading this blog for all the latest about the Olympics and Paralympics in Beijing and also for the inside track on the long build-up to London 2012.

News and reports will be on the BBC Sport website but our experts will bring you behind the scenes access to the world's biggest sporting event right here.

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