An American in Lima

The Republic of Nauru, the world's smallest island nation at 8.1 sq. miles, in the South Pacific, is represented in the Beijing Olympics by weighlifter Itte Detanamo

I was feeling rather forlorn about Peru’s small Olympic delegation of 13 athletes. Then I stumbled upon Mashable’s “18 Smaller Olympic Countries to Root For.”

Sean P. Aune writes:

It’s easy to get wrapped up in all of the big name countries that go to the Olympics, such as the United States or Russia, but have you ever thought about those countries that don’t have as much money for a team or only have a few athletes who qualify?

My family has a tradition of picking one or two of the smaller countries that can only send one or two athletes to the games, and sort of “adopting” them for us to root for over the course of the competition.

This year I am going to be watching Itte Detenamo in weightlifting.  He is from the Republic of Nauru, the world’s smallest island nation at only 8.1 square miles.  GO ITTE!

Check out Sean’s Olympic country maps of lonely onlys and tiny duos, including Grenada, Botswana and the Republic of Mauritania.