Eyes out for big 'losers'

The Olympic movement has a long history of loveable losers but debate rages over whether they embody the spirit of Games or are a distraction unworthy of competing alongside the world's top athletes.Ski-jumper Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards, swimmer Eric "the Eel" Moussambani and the Jamaican bobsleigh team all caught the sporting world's attention at the Olympics, even though they never had a hope of winning a medal.Despite the misgivings of Games officials, the wildcard system that allowed some of the worst performers in Olympic history to compete remains in place for Beijing and speculation has already begun about potential flops in the making.Moussambani, from Equatorial Guinea, remains the highest profile loser to emerge at a summer Olympics following his inept but dogged performance in the pool at the Sydney Games in 2000.Urged on by a roaring crowd and monitored closely by concerned lifeguards, Moussambani flailed his way to victory in a 100m freestyle heat after his only two rivals were disqualified for false starts.Gasping for breath, he finished in 1:52.72, a minute slower than other heat winners.He later revealed he had learned to swim only months before the Games and had never before been in a 50m pool.Moussambani gained instant celebrity and a short-lived sponsorship from a swimwear manufacturer, overshadowing many athletes who had trained for years to reach the Games.It was a similar story for Edwards, who became a cult hero ski-jumping for Britain in the 1988 Calgary winter Olympics, and the Jamaican bobsledders, who competed at the same Games and had a Hollywood movie made about their exploits.But IOC president Jacques Rogge said in 2003 that he would like to get rid of the wildcard entries that give rise to such accidental heroes, even though he acknowledged the underdogs were always wildly popular with sports fans."We want to avoid what happened in swimming in Sydney," Rogge said at the time. "The public loved it, but I did not like it."The Olympic Games are a mixture of pure quality -- that is, the best athletes in the world and at the same time athletes of lesser quality who achieve universality."Regardless of Rogge's view, the wildcard system remains, giving a shot at Olympic glory to athletes from developing nations represented by six athletes or less at the Games.Britain's Observer newspaper last month nominated Elis Lapenmal, a female 100m sprinter with a personal best of 13.10, and Palestinian swimmer Hamza Abdu, who practises in a half-size pool, as potential successors to Moussambani.Should either of them achieve, maybe they would surely reflect the sentiments of the founder of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin: "The important thing is not winning but taking part. What counts in life is not the victory but the struggle; the essential thing is not to conquer but to fight well."