We have lots of Greeks working with us here, guiding us through the language, culture, and geography of this intensely complex and truly wonderful place. We have bonded with Greece in special ways, and therefore we cheer alongside these local friends as their athletes compete. It has not, of course, been easy for Greek sports fans. Their first blow came when two of their best medal hopes - Konstantinos Kenteris and Katerina Thanou, who won silver in the 100m in Sydney.

Kenteris was a Greek hero at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, shocking most of us when he won gold in the 200m, and Thanou won silver in the 100m. Their story began at these Games when they failed to appear for a drug test the day before the Opening Ceremony, and the drama escalated when the two were later hospitalized after what appeared to be a motorcycle accident. It now seems that the accident was staged in order to avoid the drug test, broadening speculation that either or both athletes were dirty, something that they both deny.

And now Leonidas Sampanis, whose bronze medal in weightlifting was Greece's first at these Games, has been stripped of his medal after testing positive for a banned substance.

Weightlifting means a lot in Greece. We all circled around the monitors several days ago to cheer on Sampanis. And we sympathized as seemingly an entire nation had its hopes crushed with the soap opera-esque tale of Kenteris and Thanou. And then last night we paused to watch Greek weightlifting legend Pyrros Dimas, the man who carried the Greek flag in the Parade of Nations during the Opening Ceremony, take bronze. He had won gold at the previous three Games - Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney - so we felt we knew him well. And he literally, as his Adidas ads proclaim, was attempting to lift an entire nation, this time with a sprained wrist. 

His bronze, obviously, is not gold, but it provided our hosts with an Olympic moment to cherish. In the Research Room, the 17 of us still awake cheered Dimas on. At Nikaia Weightlifting Hall some 6,000 people packed the room, chanting "HELLAS" and waving flags of Greece. He is their Michael Jordan, their Alex Rodriguez, their Mia Hamm. And he felt it. He touched his heart, and the tears fell. Not tears over a lost gold, but for a won bronze. It went on for what seemed like days, preventing the granting of silver and gold to the other two athletes - deserving but unnoticed - who waited to take their place beside him on the dais.

After the national anthem of Georgia finally played for the gold medalist, the crowd paid its last respects to the bronze medalist, singing the Greek anthem, "Hymn to Freedom," as if a gold medal hung around his neck and the blue and white flag was being raised before him. 

Now that's getting the arms of a nation around you. And Greece, as I have discovered, is quite a nation.