And with medals to be handed out in 26 different sports, there's always the chance of a shock upset or the emergence of a shining new talent to captivate the crowds.

CNN: First 2012 Olympics contests kick off

Michael Essien wasted a good chance by shooting wide before Rosenborg took a shock lead after 24 minutes.

BBC: Chelsea 1-1 Rosenborg

This time around there will be no Super Eight phase, and each team will be guaranteed at least six matches, which the organisers hope will mean less chance of one of the leading nations suffering a shock early elimination, as happened to India and Pakistan four years ago.

BBC: Cricket World Cup: Andrew Strauss wants shorter event

While the Shock didn't have much of a chance in OT against the Mystics, they went back and forth with the Liberty on Friday night.

WSJ: Diggins and Shock off to slow start

Yardeni matter-of-factly compares the Y2K problem to the '73-'74 oil shock and he is currently predicting a 40% chance of a global recession because of this problem.

FORBES: Y2K fear merchants

In Italy, Lazio spurned the chance to leapfrog AC Milan into third place after they went down to a shock 3-0 defeat at Siena .

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Professor LUIGI ZINGALES (Economics, University of Chicago): If you got scared, basically had a bad system in place, you got hit by a major shock, you almost sort of got killed, you got a second chance to live, you're not ready to go back to operation as nothing had happened.

NPR: Why Haven't Credit Problems Been Resolved?