With the summer Olympics fast approaching, there seems to be growing expectation that the Beijing Games will offer Armenia's athletes a chance to restore the nation's sporting pride after suffering a major blow at the previous contest.

The last Olympic medal won by an Armenian was in Sydney, Australia, in 2000 ? a weightlifting bronze. That followed gold and silver in wrestling during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, USA ? the first summer Games in which Armenia participated as an independent nation.

The disappointment in Greece, where quarterfinals were the closest any Armenian came to a medal, sparked sharp media criticism of the management of the squad and speculation that the country had "eaten away" the reserves of strength from the Soviet-born generation of athletes and coaches while failing to raise a new one.

Now Gagik Tsarukian, a businessman and politician who took over the presidency of the National Olympic Committee after the failure in Athens in 2004, believes his four years of effort will bear fruit in August.

Beyond the glory of the hoped-for medals, the former wrestler, coach and European and world arm-wrestling champion hopes the Olympics in China will restore Armenian pride in contests such as wrestling, boxing, and weightlifting.

"Confidence is all Armenian sportsmen need," Tsarukian, 48, believes. "If you are strong but don't perform with confidence, you cannot achieve a good result."

He bases his optimism on the good results achieved by Armenian athletes in 2007, which, coupled with more financial and administrative resources invested into sport, give reasons to hope that the Olympic team will do well in Beijing.

Armenian athletes competing in various sports at international level won 104 medals, including 27 gold, 41 silver and 36 bronze, in 2007.

Armenia has already managed to qualify at least 23 Olympians for the Games, including six weightlifters, four boxers, six Greco-Roman wrestlers, three Freestyle wrestlers, two judoists, one in shooting and one javelin thrower.

A team of Armenian wrestlers brought back a bronze medal and more importantly two Olympic berths for the country from the world championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, against great odds on the Azeri mat last fall.

Tsarukian, who had negotiated the terms of Armenian athletes' participation in the Baku championship, which could have been endangered by lax security, said then that missing the championships ? even in that hostile environment ? and the opportunity of getting Olympic slots was not an option.

"If something had happened to any of the boys, I would have been the first one to be held responsible by their parents," Tsarukian admitted later. "I felt ill at ease until we finally managed to win a medal and have the Armenian flag raised in Baku."

Greco-Roman wrestler Yuri Patrikeyev (120 kg) won the bronze to force the local championship organizers to raise the Armenian tricolor in Baku. Along with Arman Adikian (66 kg) he will represent Armenia in Beijing.

European weightlifting champion and world vice-champion Gevorg Davtian, who was acclaimed as Armenia's best sportsman in 2007, will also be one of the nation's Olympic hopefuls in Beijing.

"I and my teammates will do our best in China to win as many medals as possible," he says. "I know all of my major rivals well."

Like the rest of Team Armenia, Davtian will have some extra motivation to do well in the Games. For the first time, athletes winning gold at the Games will receive generous cash incentives as the National Olympic Committee of Armenia (NOCA) is ready to reward an Olympic champion with a check for $700,000.

It is already several years that NOCA has offered financial incentives for victories in major international competitions. Weightlifters, wrestlers, boxers ? athletes in sports where Armenians have traditionally excelled ? have received various cash prizes, cars and apartments from Tsarukian for triumphs in European and world championships.

Tsarukian also assigns monthly stipends to about 100 of the country's best athletes and their coaches totaling some $30,000 a month.

But Yuri Alexanian, of the State Committee for Sports and Physical Culture, says cash incentives alone cannot produce good results. "Money won't replace professionalism and dedication," he notes.

"Before winning Olympic gold in boxing in 1956 Vladimir Yengibarian trained in the basement of an amateur sport company. But it did not prevent him from knocking out Americans, Italians who had trained in much better conditions," Alexanian says.

A sum of 89 million drams (about $290,000) has been earmarked from the 2008 state budget to ensure the participation of Team Armenia in the Beijing Olympics on 8-24 August.

Overall, summing up the sport-related programs in 2007, the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs reported that 78 championships of Armenia in different sports were held during the year, with a total of 5,104 sportsmen involved. Armenian athletes also participated in 114 international tournaments.

In terms of infrastructure development, the Ministry report mentions that 59 sport schools were repaired in Armenia in 2007 and another 12 are expected to be reopened after repairs in 2008.

But Alexanian thinks that while funding has increased and work has been done to develop infrastructure, efforts should be made to promote sport to young boys and girls.

"In the last three years the Sport Committee has provided 78 totally new mats for wrestlers across the country. But promotion of sport and healthy lifestyle is needed along with investments to generate greater interest among children and youths," says Alexanian.

The Ministry is also satisfied with the organization and results of the latest Pan-Armenian Games in Yerevan, which, according to specialists, showed just how passionate Armenians are about sports as stiff competition went on in almost all events. And the culmination of the whole sport festival was perhaps the Armenian national football team's game in Yerevan that attracted not only home fans but also Diaspora Armenians from all over the world.

Objectively, team sports have never been Armenians' forte. Rare examples, like the Soviet championship winning Ararat team of 1973 in football, were few and far between.

Alexanian thinks national mentality is a big factor here and puts it into perspective.

"We are generals in a number of individual sports, but we cannot achieve good results as a team," he says. "It's like we behave in everyday life. Everyone makes his home shine, but never minds the dust outside his entrance."

Perhaps one of the best manifestation of the improved "team work" was the surprise rebirth of the national football team last summer. The team that had changed four foreign coaches in as many years before hiring Scottish manager Ian Porterfield looked an underdog against Poland in a Euro-2008 qualifier in June, but managed to beat the Poles at home in style.

The sensational win was followed by an inspired performance against formidable Portugal in August that drew a large partisan crowd to Yerevan's Republican Stadium, including thousand of Diaspora guests who had come to the city for the Pan-Armenian Games.

On the whole, the qualifying campaign started for Armenia with an anxious anticipation of crucial fixtures against military archrival Azerbaijan. UEFA President Michel Platini later admitted it was a mistake to draw Armenia and Azerbaijan in the same group. According to UEFA regulations, European sides drawn in the same qualifying group are understood to play each other twice ? at home and away, something that seemed hard particularly to the Azerbaijani side.

While the Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) insisted the two-leg encounter be played according to the accepted rules, provided security guarantees to Azerbaijan's team and supporters in Yerevan and even volunteered to send its players to Baku first, Azerbaijani counterparts objected fiercely to such proposals, insisting on a neutral venue for both matches. The state of Azerbaijan and its football association did not guarantee the security of Armenian players. Among other reasons speculated on was their reluctance to see Armenian footballers in Baku, Armenia's flag raised and anthem played on Azeri soil.

The matter was resolved by UEFA canceling the fixtures altogether and awarding zero points to either side.

While avoiding Azerbaijan in November's draw for the World Cup 2010, Armenia instead got Turkey as its next rival. With such strong European sides as Spain and Belgium also involved in Group Five, Armenia's Federation stands by its ambitious goal of trying to win qualification to the World Cup ? the most daring goal set by Armenia's football bosses since the country joined international football in 1992.

To achieve that task, Armenia's Federation recruited a new foreign coach in place of Porterfield, who died of cancer last September.

"We must receive the Turkish team in a civilized manner and see them off warmly, proving that Armenians are a developed nation. Perhaps it is with this help of big football that we will be able to ease relations with Turkey," FFA President Ruben Hayrapetian said in January.

Istanbul-based Armenian Agos newspaper editor Aris Nalci believes the fixture will be viewed calmly in Turkey and adds that Armenia is being taken seriously by the Turkish press that gives it epithets like "the surprise team of the group", "a rising team of the former USSR", and others.

Even in sports where Armenians have traditionally excelled, such as wrestling, boxing and weightlifting, a ?muscle drain' is taking place. Many talented young sportsmen have left Armenia seeing better prospects of sporting glory abroad.

Some of them really succeeded. Vic Darchinian (Australia), Arthur Abraham[ian] (Germany) in boxing, Armen Nazarian (Bulgaria) in wrestling and many others have performed well for other nations.

According to specialists, the potential of Armenian sportsmen, including those born in Diaspora communities, is also huge. Alexanian thinks the Pan-Armenian Games can to some extent help engage Diaspora potential, but admits that progress has been slow so far.

"Diaspora athletes feel reluctant to engage in Armenian teams. It's a one-way traffic in fact. Local athletes leave and no one comes," Alexanian says.