Many Olympians might take for granted the simple opportunity to compete for the honor of their countries. For various reasons, there are still countries on Earth that don't or can't compete at the Games. But there will be an Olympic-record 205 nations in Beijing next month, thanks to three National Olympic Committees minted since the youth of the world met in Athens. Let's meet them! Welcome!

Tuvalu (IOC Code: TUV)

Life is serene in timeless Tuvalu, the smallest country in the United Nations. It's a nine-island chain where 12,000 residents live peacefully, a non-commercialized place where banks are open only four hours a day. If you're American, you can thank Tuvalu for being an important South Pacific outpost during World War II. If you use a .tv web address for your site, you can thank Tuvalu -- in 2000, the government sold its top level domain to a California company for US $50 million over 12 years.

The Olympic flag -- simple, elegant, and relentlessly protected by intellectual-property lawyers in Lausanne, Switzerland. It represents the five continents, and at least one of the five colors appears in the banner of every nation on earth. But messy politics sometimes require that sport's ultimate symbol of peace be used to represent nations or athletes without a flag of their own. Here are six examples.

Unified Team (EUN), 1992

The transition from USSR to individual republics was relatively quick and clean. Despite opposition from Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, 10 former Soviet republics -- Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan -- became the Commonwealth of Independent States in December of 1991 (Azerbaijan and Georgia would sign on later). The charter was drafted, agreed upon and cleared by all countries mere weeks after the Soviet Union's breakup.

With the Winter Games of Albertville approaching in February 2002, the International Olympic Committee had to make a decision on how it was to classify all these new countries, none of which had the time to file paperwork with the IOC. Adding to the confusion were the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which had been granted exit from the USSR in September 1991 but refused to become CIS members.

The temporary solution was the "Unified Team," which would compete in 1992 under the Olympic flag (the abbreviation used was EUN, from the French "Equipe Unifiée"). At the Winter Games, Olympic champions such as figure skater Viktor Petrenko and nordic skiier Lyubov Yegorova looked blankly on from the podium as the five-ring banner was unfurled and the Olympic Hymn -- a wonderful composition, but not one you expect to hear at the greatest moment of your sporting life -- played over the loudspeakers. But when the Barcelona Olympics came around, the Unified competitors (many wearing blank white jerseys) were treated to their own national anthems when they won gold medals.

The 1992 American men's basketball squad, known as the "Dream Team," first announced its presence with a stunning 116-48 win over Angola. Afterwards, "Angola" became a basketball punchline in the U.S., despite the fact that the country went on to hang within 10 points of Croatia, Brazil and Germany (a close 64-63 loss), and was a three-pointer away from defeating Spain in the 9th place game. Truth is, there are a whole lot of other teams in Olympic history that were a whole lot worse. Here are five of them.

Belgium, 1936 (0-2)

Basketball was staged as a demonstration sport in 1904 at St. Louis and at Paris 1924, but wasn't an official Olympic sport until Berlin 1936. "The majority of the spectators belonged to the nations competing in the tournament," proclaimed the Official Report of those Games. "Those countries in which basketball is unknown or has hardly any following were greatly fascinated by the matches, and many new adherents to the game were recruited, especially in Europe."

One place where very few adherents were recruited was Belgium. Under overcast skies (the tournament was held outdoors), the country's entry stumbled out of the gate against Mexico, scoring just two points in the first half. The final score was 32-9. The Belgian basketballers' Olympic dreams were over the next afternoon in the consolation round, when the team was the first eliminated from the tournament -- by a 17-10 count against Uruguay. Belgium has been a basketball backwater ever since, and has not appeared in the Olympics since an 11th place finish in 1948.

Iraq, 1948 (0-5)

It would be easy to fill out this list with host countries since Olympic tradition (and ticket-sales logic) generally allows the home team an automatic entry, which is especially helpful for local interest with sports more popular in other regions. And in London, the British provided a pleasant doormat for Group A, losing all five of their preliminary games. But they were never able to sharpen their skills against the team from Iraq, which propped up Group B by scoring 113 points and allowing 545. The team opened with a 102-30 loss to the Phillippines, and conceded triple digits twice more, including an Olympic record 125-25 blowout loss to China (pictured, above). But perhaps most embarrassing was the 98-20 loss to 1936 milquetoasts Belgium. Iraq withdrew before the placement rounds, allowing Switzerland to claim 22nd position by forfeit.

Four years between each Olympic Games may seem like a long time to you, but imagine how long it is for a silver medalist who has to wait an entire Olympiad for another shot at gold. Only a select few have been successful in that particular brand of alchemy, converting a second-place finish into golden satisfaction at the next Games. Here, we look at the 11 men's track and field athletes who have done just that over the 112 years of modern Olympic history.

Hicham el Guerrouj (Morocco)
1500m: silver in 2000, gold in 2004

In the 1996 1500m finals, the eventual "King of the Mile" collapsed with a lap to go after tripping on the shoe of eventual winner Noureddine Morceli of Algeria. He left the track crying, and used a photograph of his despondent moment as motivation towards the 2000 Games, picking up two world championships and the world record (3:26) in the meantime. At Sydney, he was edged out by Kenyan Noah Ngeny, and once again was inconsolable -- but this time with a silver to drive him forward.

Finally in Athens, El Guerrouj outclassed the field with a 3:34.18 time in muggy conditions, winning the gold by .12 of a second. After the race -- you guessed it -- he sobbed (pictured, right). Happy tears this time, though. The Moroccan legend retired after the Athens Games; he is now a member of the Athlete's Commission of the IOC.

Bronislaw Malinowski (Poland)
3000m Steeplechase: silver in 1976, gold in 1980

Like El Guerrouj would a generation later, Malinowski used a medal near-miss to fuel his fire. He finished fourth in the steeplechase in Munich, and claimed the European championship two years later. But the Montreal 1976 Games were not his time yet -- he was clipped by a full second by Sweden's Anders Gärderud in the final. With Gärderud retired, Malinowski had his golden moment in Moscow, winning in a time just a half-second off his Montreal pace (8:09.7). He was killed in an auto accident 15 months later.

During the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, a group of social psychologists performed a test involving second and third-place finishers. They found that bronze medalists are happier than silver medalists, in general -- they had made the stand instead of empty-handed but for a participant's medal, a diploma and mandated drug test. Silver medalists, it was found, were generally focused on the missed opportunity for gold, what might have been.

At least second place gets you a medal. Those who finish slightly out of the medals after years of preparation, training and sacrifice are, as a group, inconsolable. The founder of the modern Games, Pierre de Coubertin, may have famously said, "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part," but that's of little relief to the fourth-place finisher. In what may end up being an occasional feature on the site, we look at several notable tin medalists in Summer Olympic history.

Marianne Limpert (Canada)
Swimming: Women's 200m Individual Medley -- Sydney 2000

A 10-year veteran of the Canadian national team, Marianne Limpert recorded the fourth-fastest 200 IM time in the world in 2000 at her nation's Olympic trials. Little did anyone know at the time that the number four would come up again in a far more ignominious fashion.

In Sydney, Limpert was as serious contender for 200 IM gold as there was. She had silvered in 1996 behind Ireland's Michelle Smith, who was suspended two years later for tampering with a drug test. And in the early heats, she was the fastest swimmer after the butterfly and backstroke laps in both her qualifier and semifinals before easing up. But in the final, she struggled to keep pace and found herself in fifth place after 150 meters. She had to mount a furious push in the final freestyle lap.