Editorial: The ultimate quest for glory

Bigger, better, faster, stronger.

The ultimate quest for glory has arrived again with the official opening today of the XXX Olympiad (not as it may look, some sort of sex expo, but the mega event more commonly known as the 2012 London Olympics).

And yes, it doesn't seem many but there have been only 29 previous stagings of the modern Olympics, from Athens in 1896 to Beijing in 2008.

And I've watched seven of them.

I'm a bit young to remember much about the 1980 Moscow Olympics, a Games heavily affected by boycott action over the Soviet war in Afghanistan, but as a lad enjoyed watching New Zealand's success at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

It wasn't the Games at which we won the most medals (that was Seoul) but it's seen by some as our most successful Olympics because our athletes came back with eight gold medals - our best effort to date.

Our Olympics heroes often become household names if they're not already: medalists at Los Angeles included Ian Ferguson, Paul MacDonald, Mark Todd, Russell Coutts, Kevin Barry (who beat Evander Holyfield in his semi) and Bruce Kendall.

And Todd's back for London this year, as reportedly our second oldest Olympian.

Let's hope this year's medal list includes some of our local stars.

Check out The Daily Post today for our rundown of the competitors to watch and when to catch them in action.

Our senior sports reporter Greg Taipari reckons rower Julia Edward is one of our top medal prospects, while 4x100m medley swim team anchor Carl O'Donnell and co could go top four in their event.

The Daily Post is in a prime position to bring you all the same-day action from the Games, as well as previews, comment and analysis, and we'll keeping you informed about the progress of our local stars.

I'm sure many of you will be staying up or getting up to see your favourite events as well, so there may be a few bleary-eyed souls around the workplace over the next few weeks.

But if our team can bring home the gold (and we'll settle for the odd silver and bronze medal as well) it'll all seem well worth the effort.