The Olympics are over (and so for me is this AFL season), so it must be time for elections, elections everywhere.

But first to the Olympics. Which proved, as if any further proof were required, that Australia is one sport-crazy nation. We finished fourth overall, with 49 medals including 17 gold.

To put that in a little perspective in terms of our general sports nuttiness, the US finished top with 103 medals, 35 gold. Just over twice the medals, just over twice the gold. More than 10 times the population. Australia�s population only just tops 20 million. The US�s is what, 300 million?

I am generally a sports nut, as regular readers will be aware, but I always approach the Olympics with pessimistic expectations. Not that the games will be a disaster, but rather with the perspective that every country in the world is there, and we�re only this little, albeit mad, nation. So when I woke up almost every morning of the games to a rundown on the news of one medal after another, it was uplifting in the way only sporting results can be.

So, congratulations to the athletes. The swimmers and cyclists and shooters and divers and hockey players. The walkers and relay runners and women�s basketballers. And may you have a nice break before you prepare to carry our heightened expectations into the next games.

While sport can be uplifting unlike many other pursuits, so can it be depressing. Witness my football team. Four weeks ago fully in the running for the finals. This week completely out of contention and loosing by 113 points. Thankfully the game wasn�t on the box on Saturday night so I didn�t have to sit through that ignominious end to the season and more importantly to the end of the career of great team man Anthony Stevens.

After 292 games, Stevens decided to hang up the boots rather than trying for 300 games and then the club record. Which, again, is only confirmation of what a great club man Stevo was and is. And he also deserves a nice break. Over the last five years he almost died in a freak window accident, had a knee reconstruction, had his wife�s affair with a team-mate and close friend splashed all over the media for months, took on the captaincy of the club, and then gave it up voluntarily. And he did it all with the same soft-spoken dignity and hardness at the ball. Farewell Stevo, we�ll miss you.

So, the AFL and the Olympics are over, and it�s a brief time before the cricket season starts. In the meantime I have Norwich City�s run in the Premier League to keep me occupied (2 draws and 2 losses to start � not as bad as it sounds as they lost to Arsenal and Man U), and that other �sporting� pastime: elections.

John Howard called our election on Sunday. 9th of October � very inconveniently a date on which I will be interstate at a wedding, so I have to apply for a postal vote. The general feeling out there is that a 6 week election campaign, instead of the usual 4, on top of the 6 months of false campaign we�ve already had, is just cruel. And that everyone will be asleep by the time polling day actually arrives.

I am generally a political animal, in that I like to watch the way the whole thing works. I already know who I�m voting for, that doesn�t change, but I like to watch elections from a communications and political strategy perspective. Which means I also have an eye on the US campaign. The two elections are parallel in terms of timing and so many issues that it�s really interesting to watch each unfold in these final few weeks. Not that I�m likely to be discussing it much here. But I will be watching and listening. As much as I can stand, anyway.