"The Gold Dragon meets the Red Dragon" Friendship between the Chinese and Cymraig ("Welsh") peoples - Cymraig Athletes at the Beijing Olympics 2008:

Olympic flame burns so brightly for Wales

Combined Cymru/Cymreig diaspora medal tally:

Gold: 15
Silver: 4
Bronze: 1

Ranking: 4

Congratulations to Cymru's Nicole Cooke for winning the Women's Road Race.

Congratulations to Cymru's Tom James for winning the Men's Four Rowing with Steve Williams (Williams is a well known Welsh name).

Congratulations to Cymru's Geraint Thomas for winning the Men's Team Pursuit in the cycling.

Cymru medal tally:

Gold: 3
Silver 1

Nicole Cooke
Tom James and Steve Williams
Geraint Thomas
David Davies

Welsh through and through

"The victory salute from a delighted Nicole Cooke
Photo ©: CJ Farquharson (Click for larger image)

Speaking of competing for her country. Both of Cooke's parents are English, and this desperate English interviewer wondered if there had been any chance of her choosing to be an English - rather than Welsh - athlete. But it was to no avail, "Being born in Wales and having always lived there I could not really imagine riding for England. There was never any question. The first race I won was the Welsh U-12 Cyclo-Cross champs so given the history, the best flag out there and a beautiful national anthem it would be strange for me not to be competing for Wales."

Despite having to ride races like the Commonwealth Games without a team, it seems that Cooke has no regrets about choosing Wales: "I never made a choice, I'm Welsh through and through!" I gave it one last desperate attempt, "Is there any chance of her changing her mind and coming over to race for England?" Cooke's short answer, "Never."

Damn. Sorry England, I tried…. "

Cymreig diaspora medal tally:

Gold: 12
Silver: 3
Bronze: 1

Leisel Jones (Australia) - 3
Stephanie Rice (Australia) - 3
Megan Jones (Australia) - 1
Shayne Reese (Australia) - 1
Michael Phelps (USA) - 8
Cullen Jones (USA) - 1 (Relay with Michael Phelps)

Congratulations Leisel Jones - Gold medal winner in the Women's 100m Breaststroke and Silver medal winner in the Women's 200m Breaststroke (Jones is a well-known Welsh name).

Congratulations Brizzie's Stephanie Rice - Australia's first gold medallist on 2 magnificent golds in the pool. Another Australian of Cymreig descent - the origin of her surname Rice is given below:

Surname:
Origin: Another form of Rys, Welsh, to rush, a rushing; figuratively, a hero, a brave, impetuous man. The same as Rees.

Same surname origin as Reese as in Shayne Reese - congratulations as team member in the Women's 4x100m Freestyle Relay which won bronze.

Congratulations America's Michael Phelps Men's 400m Individual Medley smashing the World Rrecord for Gold, Men's 200m Freestyle and part of the Gold medal winning team that won the Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay.

The Phelps surname is Welsh.

‘This could be the best ever Olympics for Wales’

Barrack for Cymru's Jemma Lowe in the 100m Butterfly semi-final today:

Jemma Lowe wearing the Draig Goch

Barrack for Cymru's Nicole Cooke in the Women's Cycling Road Race today:

Nicole Cooke on the Wiki

Barrack for the British hockey team today in their match against Germany - Cymru's Sarah Thomas is a star player in this team:

Sarah Thomas on Perfect People

Barrack for your favourite Welsh Athletes at the following times (add 2 hours to the Beijing times shown to get Sydney time):

BBC Welsh schedule for Beijing 2008

We can have it both ways on this one :)

Welsh swimming star Dafydd Davies can Hackett in Beijing

Hackett's 1500m WR under threat: Davies

Congratulations Megan Jones for your win in the equestrian events in Honkers (Jones is a well-known Welsh surname).

Bad luck Michael and Cadel in the Men's Road Race - our heart is with you - you tried your best - can't do better than that. (Rogers and Evans are both Welsh surnames - it is good to see so many Australian athletes of Welsh descent come to the top of their field - like our Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Welsh descemt and our Welsh-born Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard did).

Bad luck Cadel Evans in trying again for gold in the cycling Men's Individual Time Trial on Wednesday between 3:30 and 7:15 pm. The name Cadel orginated as a Welsh name. In Welsh, the name Cadel means- Variant of Cadell: Small battle; spirit of the battle (Evans like Jones is a well-known Welsh surname).

"One World One Dream" - "Harmony" - Peace, Prosperity, Friendship and Freedom - An Issue for the London Olympics in 2012:

Olympics: James hails his oar-some gold medal win - Read the Story of How the Draig Goch was flown

Well done to Tom James not only for winning your gold medal but for flying Y Ddraig Goch and defying the ban. A big XIE XIE to our Chinese friends for allowing Tom to fly our flag in defiance of the imperialist pressure and for running such a SUPERB Olympics.

Will Cymru ("Wales") play any role in the 2012 Olympics? For example, will there be any recognition of Cymreig ("Welsh") culture in the opening ceremony or will it be focused on the multiculturalism of London rather than the UK as a whole ?

Another example of Wales being treated as a second class nation (but at least, this time, the English are getting the same treatment !):

Beijing Olympics: Flags showing Cross of St George, Saltire or Welsh dragon banned

Note that despite what this article says, Beth Nesaf has noted that the Chinese did allow the Saltire of Alba ("Scotland") to be displayed in the swim cube when the British relay team was swimming.

To quote one commentator on this article:

"This is nothing to do with China's policies and is just another bald attempt to knock the home nation. I attended the Atlanta olympics with my Welsh flag and was made to put it down on every occasion that I tried to fly it because it was not a flag of a competing nation.
This is an olympic policy not a Chinese policy."

Olympic flags rule sparks anger

Well, the Chinese allowed the flag of Breizh (Brittany) to be waved along the Cycling route and it was pointed out in the TV broadcast that it was the flag of Brittany. Seems the Chinese are much more tolerant than the article suggests.

Ealier I observed that there was not a Draig Goch to be seen when Nicole Cooke won the Women's Road Race. The Chinese had restricted visitors entry to the finish area from accounts I heard. Beth Nesaf is of the opinion that this implementation of restricting access and hence stopping the waving of the Draig Goch at the finish area by Welsh fans was instrumental in disheartening Welsh athletes in the British team at this games. Now with Tom James we see that the Chinese can resist the imperialist pressure.

We feel this is a major issue for the coming games in London in 2012. Will anger from this ban accelerate the breakup of the Union ? Welsh people may indeed consider that Cymru will be better off competing as a nation separate to England. We also consider that Cymru will also thrive economically as a separate nation as Eire has done. Consider how well the Welsh diaspora in Australia and the USA have done at this games in comparison to get an idea of our enterprise, initiative and motivation when free of the shackles of the imperialism of London.