BEIJING, Aug 20, 2008 (AFP) - Hugh MacDonald, Canadian's reserve archer for the Olympics, was not a happy blogger.

Stuck in Canada nursing his frustrated Olympian ambitions, MacDonald was suddenly ordered to pack his bags to fly to Beijing, after one archer who had beaten him onto the team, John David Burnes, fell ill.

Before MacDonald could board a plane, Burns recovered enough to compete, but he shot poorly. Perhaps unwisely, Burns later conceded that he was maybe not yet ready for the Olympics.

"This is the Olympics. There isn't room for 'I'm not sure.' If you have doubt, get out," fumed MacDonald on his Canadian Broadcasting Corporation blog.

MacDonald's unusually acidic web diary - with gems like "This Olympic experience is over and can never be mine" - is among the huge swathes of cyberspace taken over by athletes' blogs during the Games.

Hundreds of Olympians are tapping away about their experiences in Beijing, some providing diaries and opinion for newspapers or broadcasters, while those who cannot get paid for it update their own personal blogs.

Most of the biggest stars such as US basketball hero Kobe Bryant and tennis champion Roger Federer host their own websites, dripping with sponsor-links and the occasional 'Dear Fan' updates on how well everything is going.

Sites are often filled with mind-numbing snippets, tourist pictures and a never-ending quest to locate the 'Olympic spirit'.

And the unwritten blog rule appears to be: The bigger the star the blander the blog (and the bigger the corporate tie-ins).

Serbian Ana Ivanovic, the French Open tennis champion, has a website typical of the exclamation mark-filled mundanities.

"My bags got lost again! It was a bit of a worry because I have a special Olympics outfit to wear, but luckily they arrived today," she said.

The averted luggage crisis sat alongside other exclusives such as she would like to go on holiday to the Maldives and her favourite Leona Lewis song is "Bleeding Love".

US swimming phenomenon medallist Michael Phelps chose a question-and-answer format on his website, instead of the blog. Would he date a swimmer, one cheeky fan asks?

"I try to separate my personal life from swimming," Phelps reveals.

Chinese NBA basketball star Yi Jianlian was patriotically on-message in his blog insisting the Olympic head-to-head with the United States was similar to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit a few days earlier, as both occasions required China to up their game.

But while much of the blogging is frustratingly controversy-free, some blogs do throw up quirky insights.

Simon Whitfield, an Olympic triathlete from Canada, relived one of the increasingly common athletes' rituals, the drug test, with an official dressed in green extracting his blood.

"I settled into the chair and 'miss green' stabbed me in the arm," he winced.

"When I say 'stabbed', I mean Freddie Cougar has nothing on greenie," he added, presumably referencing the horror film character Freddy Krueger.

"After the first stab she quickly realised she didn't get enough out of the war wound she had created and zoned in on my left arm.

"At that moment, just as she was about to slash my left arm Javier Gomez (one of his triathlon rivals) walks into the room.

"Now I'm too proud to show any fear to Javier so I smile, say 'hey mate, nice to see you' and distract myself just long enough to let 'miss green' autopsy my forearm." --AFP