The Olympics are really coming up fast and furiously and the buzz has begun. The United States has fielded a very strong team in track and field – not just in the sprint and middle distances, but in the long distances too.

Tuhabonye: Don't look for a fast marathon.

The U.S. will be well represented, and so will my fellow Texans - with 19 athletes going to the Olympics who are current or former Longhorns from the University of Texas. We'll be watching our friends Leo Manzano and Sanya Richards as they will face incredible competition in the international arena but they are both looking really strong.

We cannot ignore the teams from the great continent of Africa, either. The Kenyans and Ethiopians are both sending very strong teams. The competition will be tough and exciting. One of the great aspects of the Olympics is that even when you know a country has great teams and the athletes have trained well, there is always the element of surprise. People can push themselves to extraordinary limits in sports and in life.

Speaking of the Kenyans - Kenyan-American Bernard Lagat has been living and training in Arizona and looks really strong this year. He will do well against the international field in the middle distance. I wish him the best!

In the marathon, I am really rooting for Ryan Hall and think he's got a decent shot at being on the podium. Ryan has run great marathons all year long, including a terrific showing in London. I don't want to make any predictions about him, I'll leave that up to sportscasters, but I know that he has been training very hard and I hope he has a great race!

For all the runners, but especially for the marathoners, they have to carefully adjust to the weather and the air quality. In fact, because of the condition, no one is expecting the marathon to be a very fast marathon.

From my own country, I just found out that three Burundians are going to the Olympics - in the men's marathon Joachim Nshimirimana will run; Francine Niyonzima will run in the women's 5,000 meters and Elsie Uwamahoro will compete in women's swimming. Good luck to me country men and women!

BEIJING, China - Not interested in spending $500 a night for a Beijing luxury hotel room during the Olympics? Why not savor the ambiance of living with a local family?

About 600 Chinese families are opening their homes to tourists during the Summer Olympic Games, charging about $50 – $80 a night.

What can Olympic visitors expect if they stay with a host family? CNN spent a night with one family to find out.

Ten flights of stairs gets you to the fifth-story home of the Chen family, who live in a well maintained Soviet-style apartment near Beijing's famous Food Street.

"Welcome to Beijing," says Grandpa Chen, emphasizing each syllable equally. His grandson, David Chen, is the family's official ambassador - he's fluent in English.

Chinese tourism officials carefully screen host families. They inspect apartments to ensure they're clean and safe, and that at least one family member speaks English.

The bedroom for visitors is neatly appointed - clean white walls, an armoire, a desk, and a bed with a playful orange and white bedspread. There's a TV too, with government-run channels that broadcast in Chinese.

Before settling in, foreign visitors check in with the local police - it's a short walk from the Chen's apartment to the local station.

"It's to protect foreigners," David Chen says.

With formalities out of the way, it's time for a home-cooked dinner from David's mother, Chen Ling. "I think other foreigners would love to come here and see how the Chinese
really live," she said.

Grandpa says everyone will be treated like family - and that includes getting first dibs on the shower.

All families hosting tourists must live near Olympic venues or tourists attractions, and the Chens are just a short distance from Beijing's colorful Food Street, where dozens of kiosks and shops stretch for blocks.

Vendors call out, trying to entice passers-by with delicacies like lamb testicles and snake. If those don't tantalize your taste buds, you can always have starfish, silk worm pupae on a stick or scorpions.

For now, though, dog is off the menu. Officials were afraid that Western visitors more used to treating their pets than eating them would be upset.

Despite some social miscues, the cultural exchange is one that suits both hosts and visitors.

Back at the apartment, the Chens anticipate their next guest - a man from the United Kingdom. Chen Ling says he looks like soccer star David Beckham.

If the Beckhams are in Beijing, they're more than likely in one of the capital's luxury hotels, but a host family can dream, can't it?

MAMELODI, South Africa – In the swashbuckling world of fencing, Sello Maduna is ready for some serious swordplay.

He's softly spoken and slightly built, but South Africa's first black Olympic fencer likes to talk tough. "You don't want to be my opponent. I am mean, dangerous and you don't want to get in my way," he says.

It's this attitude that helped the 21-year-old old to qualify for Beijing and break racial stereotypes along the way. But his Olympic coach, Gennady Tyschler, a Russian living in South Africa, says that Sello is "very dedicated. He is a fighter; you can see he is a fighter."

Sello Maduna's road to Beijing started in Mamelodi, which is a dusty, poor and crime-ridden township outside Pretoria, where he lives with his mother and grandmother in a small house.

Unemployment is rife here, which is why Sello's friends earn what little money they can washing cars. Every day, between morning and evening training sessions, he hangs out with them at their make-shift car wash a few blocks from his house.

It from these young "homeboys," as Sello calls his friends, that he says he got a lot of the emotional support needed to become an Olympian. While they shine hubcaps and soap down dirty car bonnets, Sello and his friends talk and talk and talk. With their ragged T-shirts and dirty shoes, they are an unlikely band of sports psychologists.

"I am his encouragement," Elias Magaguna says. "I don't have funds. He is looking for sponsor, for his swords and suits. But mentally and spiritually I am there for him."

Back at his house, sitting on the outside steps of his small room, Sello proudly displays his medal collection from regional and national competitions. Gazing at the colorful array of medals, Sello says the first time he saw people fencing - when he was in primary school - "I thought it was something silly. And why would they wear white clothes and play around with swords?'

But, he says, he was intrigued so he returned when he was older, joining the Mamelodi Fencing Club. This ragtag bunch of township amateurs still practice in an abandoned old school classroom.

Nowadays, Sello trains them three times a week. He says he wants to give back to his community and he hopes one of his students will follow in his footsteps and make it to the Olympics too.

Just before Sello left for his own Olympic adventure, his old school, a state high school called Jafta Mahlangu, gave him a hero's send-off.

He was invited by his former teachers to address the current pupils during a school recess.

In front of about 200 high school students, Sello's mild-mannered voice was strong and commanding as he urged them to follow their dreams and reminded them that they, too, could travel beyond the ghetto-like confines of Mamelodi Township. "I didn't have any special treatment where I came from. I just set myself a goal and focused on it." He said.

And then his voice faltered as he said, with a whisper of disbelief, "I am going to the Olympics."

When he finished talking the kids whistled and screamed. Sello put his arms above his head in a victory salute.

He was treated like a rock star.

The girls tried to kiss him. The younger kids asked him to autograph the collars of their clean white school shirts.

He did it all with a wide smile on his gentle face and grace of young man who knows just how far he has come.

For the last 3 weeks, I have been at over 2000m above sea level in a remote location in the Austrian Alps with my coach and crew. We come here once a year in the summer to train our bodies harder than at any other point in the season. This is called a "work camp".

Pete and the crew training at high altitude in Austria.

Being so high up has a big affect on our bodies. The air is much thinner than we are used to so whenever we are out rowing or lifting weights it feels like you are having to breathe through a few drinking straws.

We have to do more than the usual training load with less oxygen to fuel our muscles, and after 3 weeks of this we become more efficient machines able to cope with higher loads back at sea level. At Beijing level.

The weather up here can turn in minutes and we have seen everything from burning hot sunshine and blue skies to snow storms, with everything in between – all in the same weekend.

This is my favourite training camp for so many reasons. I love the solitude that the team gets and the focus that we have so close to our big goal. The scenery and fresh air are more spectacular than I have ever seen and the excitement for what is now on our doorstep keeps us going through the toughest times.

The coxless four is in a good way and so are the other Olympic crews. We are really starting to shape up into a good team. Team GB.

BEIJING, China - The expatriates who live have another name for the 2008 Summer Olympics: Many call it "Beijing's War on Fun Campaign."

Beijing's bar scene: Suspension of the good times?

It started months ago, when security guards at a local apartment compound tried to stop a 4-year-old's birthday party in a common green - complete with menacing bouncy castle - because, the parents were told, so many children in the one place at the one time was a threat to Olympic security.

In other compounds, gatherings of more than four people require a special permit, extra police patrols now roam the Sanlitun area - a popular hangout for expats, filled with bars, restaurants and night clubs. Elsewhere, bars are being forced to close, visa regulations are enforced to the letter (like never before) and thousands have been kicked out of the country.

But perhaps this past weekend came the official declaration the war is on in earnest: The regular weekend golf round has been cancelled because new restrictions on travel into the city are creating delays of up to three hours for documentation and automobile inspections, read an e-mail from the golf organizers.

Since most of the golf courses are outside Beijing, and until the golfers get a better idea of how to deal with the new rules, they won't be swinging clubs on the weekend.

Let the Games begin - and be over as soon as possible many here seem to be adding under their breath.

Rebuilding is never easy for an athlete. You always remember what it was like when you were at your peak and you felt the best. Regrouping and healing can be a frustrating process. I see it with my athletes all the time. Sometimes we need to stop and listen to the body and learn from our mistakes.

Getting back to your best can take a long time.

I think getting older has helped me as I’ve grown more patient with myself and my body. After London, I decided to just come back slowly and focus on getting well, and not focus on the next race or marathon.

I have not tried to get back up to running 80-100 miles a week. In fact, for an entire month, I only ran 7 miles a day for 5 days a week – just 35 miles for an entire month. This is hardly any mileage for me at all. But, I focused on building my core and slowly have come up to doing 10 miles a day, 5 days a week. I still have not done a long run, but I am now closer to training the way I did before I got hurt.

And, my patience is beginning to pay off and it shows in my running. Just last week, I was running with some high school and college kids. I was pretty tired and the pace picked up, so the group took off and I let them go.

My goal was to run a 6 minute pace and we had dropped to 5:45 pace with 4 miles to go. I watched them pull ahead and I knew they would really kick it in at the 2 mile mark. Somehow, I was able to drop my own pace from 6:20 to 5:40 and I was still feeling really good. I could see the group ahead of me struggling, so I pushed myself harder to 5:19 and then suddenly, a 5:03 pace. I was thrilled! I haven’t run that fast since before I got hurt.

Sunday, I wanted to go for a run that I knew would recharge my body and my soul. I went alone to the Greenbelt here in Austin, which is a trail with a good amount of hills, rocks, water and solitude. It was a beautiful morning, with hardly anyone around but few hikers.

I really took it easy and just enjoyed the scenery and the quiet. I just ran one hour up the trail, jumping over rocks, running through water and up and down the hills. It is really important to change your running patterns and trails so that you test the limits of your body and engage new muscle groups. I watched my form and controlled my body and my breathing. I returned back down the trail in 45 minutes.

It was really a great run and I left feeling rejuvenated and motivated again. I have been building up my body and my confidence and I am feeling very strong and ready to take on a new challenge – maybe starting with a 10K very soon.

Well, I am back in Germany now and practicing hard. I am actually very excited to be back and to start playing; I feel very motivated to practice hard and to become better.

Claudia (third from left) back in training in Germany.

I was one of the first one to come back to the training camp after vacation, so the first day I went running and did some light gym work because I was still feeling a little bit tired from the 15 hours flight.

I got a surprise when everybody else came back. They had been practicing a little bit on vacation so when we went to run together at 6am I couldn’t keep up with the speed. It’s amazing how much you can lose in a couple of weeks without practice…

After that I realized that in life there’s always going to be people who try harder than you and you can not just be careless and relax.

The good thing is that for me it takes only three days to get back on shape but in the meantime my whole body hurt and right now it is even hard to sit.

Not much else has really happened considering that my entire life involves around training, sleeping and eating. I am often going to physiotherapy. Before the vacation I had some problems in my Achilles, I had a lot of pain even when walking and the doctor told me I should rest, but I was in the middle of Olympic qualifications so I couldn’t. I needed to play tournaments to qualify and I though after resting it, it would be ok.

However it is still hurting so I am a little bit worried, but we will see with the time what happens…

I have a lot of things in my mind right now but one that’s keeping me from sleeping is that maybe I will not be able to go to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

We start playing the 9th at 9am and the opening ceremony is the night before. I have heard that it takes a lot of time, and we have to be standing and waiting so it will be exhausting. I don’t now what to do because maybe this will be the only Olympics I will go to (because after I have to focus more on studying) and I don’t want to miss the most emotional moment of the Olympics, for me. But I have to sacrifice some things if I really want to play my best badminton in the Olympics.

BEIJING, China – A month to go and do you want to know how bad the pollution is in Beijing? Check out today's photo from my living room. There's another photo of what it looks like on a clear day (which was Sunday, our one good day after weeks of smog and haze).

View from my living room shows what Beijing looks like on a clear day and then after the smog.

But I have absolute faith the air will be fine by the time athletes arrive. In less than two weeks half the cars will be taken off the road – odd licence numbers one day, even the next – hundreds of factories will be closed, and half a million tourists will arrive and think all the news reports about pollution have been greatly exaggerated. Trust me we're not mad, the air is terrible. I have a four-year-old daughter with a regular cough which seems to clear up whenever we leave. I wonder what the other billion or so Chinese people do who can't get out for oxygen breaks.

There are serious questions being asked about the lasting environmental legacy.

But Beijing will dazzle the world with amazing venues, beautiful gardens, and a population eager to please. It even seems security guards and police may have gone to smile school.

They smile a lot these days when they politely say no. No is a word reporters hear a lot in this country, especially when it comes to Tibet – as in no way on the planet are you going to be allowed to go there, despite press freedom being the one solid promise the Chinese made to the IOC (apart from the bricks and mortar of sporting venues).

One month to go, and after seven years of construction and controversy, billions and billions of U.S. dollars, Beijing is ready and for the most part, they've done all of this on their terms.

As far as a sporting spectacular goes, it's right on the money... It's just hard to breathe easy about anything else.

BEIJING, China - Rarely has a nation's pride and expectations rested on one athlete's foot. But for the upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing, China's collective hopes may pivot on Yao Ming's left foot.

Yao Ming is rehabilitating from surgery.

Yao Ming is China's biggest sports star. But the weight of 1.3 billion people's hopes and dreams is a heavy burden to bear, even for a man who stands more than 7 feet (213 centimeters) tall and weighs more than 300 pounds (136 kilograms).

By excelling in the National Basketball Association in the United States, the towering Shanghai native has single-handedly put China on the world map of professional basketball. He is the tallest symbol of the NBA's booming global appeal.

Yao is idolized as the pillar of the "walking Great Wall"; he has helped make basketball quite possibly the most popular sport in China. Small wonder Chinese basketball fans pin high hopes on Yao to lead China's national team in the Olympic Games, which starts on August 8 in Beijing.

Yao was averaging 22 points and 10.8 rebounds per game Yao when he suffered a stress fracture to his left foot in February, forcing him out of the NBA season. That came as a blow to the Houston Rockets and their fans. "No one saw this coming," one blogger wrote. "I feel like crying." But that was nothing compared to the shock that rippled through China. Would their national hero recover in time to represent China at the Olympics? Lingering doubts sent fans and sports officials into a panic. Yao himself conceded that missing the Games would be "the biggest loss to my career."

Yao Ming has already come a long way from his rookie years. In June 27, 2002, I interviewed him in our CNN Beijing bureau the day he was picked by Houston Rockets as the NBA's No. 1 draft that year. Shy and soft-spoken, Yao then could only muster a smattering of English. "Hi, Houston," he said haltingly during a live interview. "I'm coming." The Rockets picked him for his towering frame, soft shooting touch and "limitless potential," but doubts lingered whether he had what it would take to break into the world's elite league.

Six years into his NBA career, Yao Ming is now a superstar athlete celebrated in America and idolized in China. Yao's demeanor on and off the court has endeared him to the media and public, who admire his modesty and maturity. After a massive earthquake devastated Sichuan province last May, Yao was one of the first sports celebrities to pledge donations for the quake relief. Still, he was a target of criticisms, in the Chinese media and the blogosphere. Critics complained that his initial pledge was too little compared to what he earns yearly in NBA salary and commercial endorsements. (Forbes magazine ranks Yao as one of the richest persons in China.) Last week, Yao unveiled the Yao Foundation Web site - yaofoundation.cn - which aims to leverage his iconic stature to generate funds for future philanthropic projects, such as building schools for Sichuan's quake survivors.

Meantime, Yao is itching to play ball. Three months after undergoing surgery and rehabilitation, the NBA superstar is back in Beijing to train with China's national team. Could Yao cope with the mounting pressure?

"To me this Olympic Games is biggest opportunity of my life," he told reporters who packed a hotel ballroom in Beijing. "Intense pressure always goes hand-in-hand with major competitions." Yao says his foot is now 80 percent healed and he expects to be fit to play soon. He now wears a customized pair of sneakers, "made according to the shape of my feet and the average tension they sustain."

Yao and his team will open their Olympic campaign against Team USA on August 10. Their group also includes world champion Spain, African champion Angola and two European qualifiers yet to be determined. "The U.S. and Spain are much stronger than China and I don't think we can beat them," Yao opines. "So if we want to advance to the next round, we will have to beat Angola and one of the two qualifiers from Europe."

That will demand optimum contribution from Yao. His fans are wary that his hasty return on court could put his career at risk. The physical rigors of playing with the world's basketball stars have taken their toll on his body. In the past two and a half years, Yao has suffered a broken foot, a broken leg, and an infected big toe. Full recovery from a stress fracture usually takes one year, but the Olympics is just a few weeks away and Yao says he is determined to play for China in August.

Would he be trying as hard if the Olympics were not going to be in Beijing? The 27-year-old Yao says: "Since there is no ‘if' that the Olympics will be held in Beijing, I too have no ‘if'."

– With additional reporting by Sherisse Pham

Last weekend, my cousin Bernard and I headed out on Lady Bird Lake for a run together. It always feels good to run with Bernard as we push each other along. I have been running a lot more lately and feeling really good about my physical progress.

Gilbert with Paul Carroza of RunTex.

But running also helps me strengthen my mind and spirit. The trail always reminds me so much of home and my life back in Burundi. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how we are all connected and how sometimes this is a very small world.

A friend sent me an email with a link to a website – www.marathondelapaix.org – and, when I went to the website, it really touched my heart. A group of athletes from Burundi have organized a marathon for peace for December 6, 2008.

I was amazed and delighted that people are organizing to make peace happen in my country. I was really struck by the number of people who are committed to giving back to their country and their people. It motivated me to seek out some of my friends.

It had been a long time that I talked to so many of my friends as we all have become so busy in our lives. I spent the weekend trying to find their numbers and re-connect with them. I was delighted to find out that even though we are all in different parts of the world, we all remain committed to giving back to Burundi. Several of my old friends came together to put on this race that has a message of hope and peace for Burundi.

I talked to Vénuste Niyongabo, who won gold medal in the 5,000 meters in the 1996 Summer Olympics, becoming the first champion from Burundi. Vénuste lives in Europe now and plans to head to the Olympics this year, but not to run. He is now the president of the team Burundi Olympian and will be attending on behalf of his employer.

I also reconnected with Patrick Nduwimana, who used to run for the University of Arizona and is now in graduate studies. He is studying how civil war affects the use of natural resources, especially on crop productivity.

Arthemon Hatungimana, who now lives and coaches a club in France, left Burundi in 1992. It was so good to hear his voice – we picked up where we’d left off last. I remind him of the Adidas running shoes he gave me before he left Burundi.

The day of the massacre in Burundi, my captors really wanted those shoes from me and I actually hesitated to give them up. These details of our lives are sometimes lost until we reconnect with others again – I had forgotten about those shoes until we talked the other day.

What a great weekend spent reminiscing, telling jokes, and talking about the good times. Talking with these old friends reminded me so much of wonderful times in Burundi in the 80’s and early 90’s before the violence. I’m so proud of these men who have achieved so much personally and still want to give back to their country in an attempt to bring about hope and peace.