One of the Olympics most endearing qualities is that it celebrates sports — and often life — on a massive scale just as well as it celebrates the Jamaican bobsledder. Spectators all over the world are in awe of the world-class athletes that perform awesome feats at the Games, but those with heroic stories are often just as memorable.

The thing about the Olympics is that nearly every athlete has a heroic story and a history of hard work and devotion that fans find fascinating. It is why athletes we know only in Hawai'i can be just as intriguing as Michael Phelps and Liu Xiang. And why Robyn Ah Mow-Santos, starting in her third Olympics while still grieving the loss of her mother, means just as much to us as Kane'ohe's Bryan Clay, who might be considered the World's Greatest Athlete before the month is over.

These Beijing Games will feature larger-than-life and relative unknown in the most massive doses in Olympic history. And that does not apply only to the athletes. Everything from smog to wake-up calls will be dissected the next 19 days.

Did you know that NBC paid $1.5 million for the rights to the Tokyo Games in 1964, and $894 million this year? The sum is so staggering that two "feature" sports — swimming and gymnastics — were convinced/coerced into having finals in the morning, to allow the network to air them live in prime time (China is 18 hours ahead of Hawai'i).

Did you know that some "Free Tibet" flags were made in China?

Did you know that goalie Brandon Brooks' startling decision to return to the U.S. water polo program, and his selection as the team's only Olympian not from California, gives Hawai'i a presence in the net for the fifth time in the last six Games? And that McKinley graduates Evelynn Kawamoto Konno, Ford Konno and William Woolsey won six medals, including three gold, in the 1952 Olympics to beat out all but 15 nations?

These vague and invaluable historical facts helped draw Punahou graduate Chris Duplanty — a goalie for the 1988, '92 and '96 U.S. water polo teams — to the U.S. Olympic Committee after he helped coach the U.S. women in 2000. Duplanty was one of the 125 members on the USOC board before the last Olympics, and part of the task force that cut the unwieldy organization down to 11 in 2003.

He is now in his second term as the USOC's Board Liaison and works with the sports' national governing bodies. It is a dynamic and demanding position that changes almost hourly. Duplanty sees it as his way of giving back to a movement that touched him deeply.

In April, he was among the 80 to carry the Olympic torch through San Francisco, the only North American city to host the relay. The torch run was secretly re-routed to try and avoid pro-Tibet and pro-China demonstrations, in another example of how the Olympics can hit emotional highs in different octaves simultaneously. With China as host, Duplanty expects nothing less.

"I think it will be a tremendous Games," Duplanty said. "It will be an event like no other because of the scale of China. And the timing of the Games themselves, and what's happening in the world."

CHINA MAY BE STRONG

Some in the USOC have said China has the strongest team going into the Games, and that the U.S. might not be in the top five as far as financing its Olympians. A British study quoted by Sports Illustrated predicted the host team, with "home-field advantage" and a 7-year-old initiative designed to make inroads in medal-rich water sports and track and field, could win 46 gold medals. Bookmakers expect China to beat out Team USA for most medals overall.

Duplanty won't even discuss medals, other than to say the U.S., China and Russia will be "really strong." Even as a player, medals were rarely on his mind.

"My perspective relating to any sort of medals is, go and compete and try to represent yourself and your country the best you can," Duplanty said. "The performance will ultimately take care of itself. ... Let other people worry about medal counts."

MISSED CONNECTIONS

There are people who will not get their opportunity to shine: