In the early spring of 2000, I pitched an idea to my editors that to my surprise bought me a roundtrip ticket to Australia.

For three incredible weeks, I got to cover the biggest sporting event in the world.

My idea was simply to do a profile on each bay area athlete who was hoping to make it to the Olympics. I wanted to show the readers the hard work and dedication it took to be good enough to qualify.

I proposed a weekly profile on each athlete with 3 - 4 photos. The editors liked the idea so I was given all the time I needed to work on the project. It was a full-time job so I did nothing but Olympic profiles from April until the Olympics in August.

One month into the project, my editors felt we needed to follow through on the athletes who did qualify so I started filling out the paperwork to go to Sydney. I could hardly believe it because we didn't send a photographer to the Atlanta Olympics or even the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and here they were sending me all the way to Australia!

Hope you enjoy the photos and stories.