Altogether, 201 nations, territories and city-statesplus the island of Taiwan, which competes under the nebulous title of "Chinese Taipei"joined the parade of athletes in last Friday's Opening Ceremony of the 28th Olympiad. Some, including the Americans, Russians and Chinese, are hoping to burnish their countries' reputations with bulging medal counts. Others, including Bhutan and East Timor, which is competing for the first time, are simply happy to wave their flags. Unlike high-profile gold-medal hopefuls, many of whom travel with their own personal trainers and a fridge full of optimal training food, athletes from these smaller nations exist in an alternate universe of constant anonymity and more-than-occasional cash crunches. "I heard the team from Kiribati is selling its [Olympic-souvenir] pins so they have enough money for daily living," whispers Chhetri, Bhutan's Olympic chief of mission, referring to the tiny South Pacific nation that is participating in its inaugural Games. Chhetri hands out two Olympic pins as a gift, anxious to show that Bhutan suffers no such difficulties.
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Less than a year later, Amaral attended the Sydney Olympics, as an independent athlete competing under the Olympic flag. This time around, as she represents her nation for the first time, Amaral is hoping for a better finish than her 43rd place in Sydney. But the 32-year-old runner is not sure she'll even be competing. Although her airfare, as well as that of fellow marathoner Gil Da Cruz Trindade, was paid by the International Olympic Committee, funds that had been raised in Australia for their pocket money have mysteriously gone missing. Sitting in a caf in the Olympic Village and hesitating over the price of bottled water, Amaral isn't sure she'll be able to afford to stay until the marathon is run in late August. "We will have to fly back home if the money doesn't appear soon," she says, refusing to speculate about where in the East Timorese sports hierarchy the money might have stalled. "We can't concentrate on our race if we have to spend our whole time thinking about economics."
For Bhutan's Chhoden, her Olympic competition will be over this week, but not because of any financial intrigue. In last week's qualification round, Chhoden placed 54th out of 64 archers, a better ranking than she had expected but still low enough to foretell her likely exit in the first elimination round. "I'm just glad I wasn't 63rd or 64th out of 64," she says. "That would have been a little embarrassing for Bhutan." Instead, Chhoden will be able to spend the rest of her fortnight in Athens teaching people where her homeland is and, more important, how a woman from the land of the thunder dragon got to shoot, not sing, her way into the pantheon of great archers.