Olympic athletes train their entire lives for a chance to represent their country on the international stage, but once they make it to the Big O (that's for you Beijing Boyce....), they sure do get decked out!

Australia's Olympic athletes arrive in Beijing this week and one of their first stops in the nation's capital will be the Western Academy of Beijing gymnasium where they will pick up their official national team kit. What was once home to the mighty WAB Asian Tigers has been transformed into something like an Olympic shopping mall, stocked wall-to-wall with all the vestiary needs of soon-to-be Olympians.

Everything from Adidas runners for daytime training to Mileno black leather pumps for nighttime mingling can be found among the shelves of WAB's swag center (in sizes ranging from 3 to 19... who wears either of those sizes?!). Tailoring services are also available to make sure each athlete looks their very best in the Opening and Closing ceremony uniforms (which are under top secret 'embargo' and cannot be revealed until after 8/8/2008 -- I got a sneak-peek and trust me, you're not missing much).

By the time most athletes have made their way to the check out station, they are carrying three giant bags full of free stuff. In fact, most need a push cart just to make it back to the bus. Regardless whether they're defending champions or rookie benchwarmers, they all get hooked up with the same sweet stash of gear.

And in my books, that makes them all winners.