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Reaching out to an Olympic athlete used to be as unattainable for the average couch potato as the gold medal itself.

But though they'll be half a world away at the Beijing Games, sharing the experiences of many Canadian athletes will be as easy as clicking a mouse.

For the first time at an Olympics, the International Olympic Committee is allowing athletes to keep online personal journals known as blogs.

"The IOC is allowing athletes to act as journalists essentially during the Games; this is a new era," said Trevor Pilling, the executive producer of the Olympic coverage for the CBC.

The CBC, which holds the Canadian broadcasting rights for the Games, is now incorporating blogs from both athletes and journalists in their online coverage at www.cbc.ca/Olympics.

Blogging provides a point of view on the Games that is completely unique, Pilling said.

"One of the things that viewers and consumers and listeners and readers like so much is to get the behind-the-scenes story, to get that little bit of information that you and I as the general public are never going to be able to access," he said.

Rhythmic gymnast Alexandra Orlando says for her, blogging is everything from a little bit of therapy to a motivation tool to just a simple way of keeping in touch with her family.

"It's such a big expensive trip (to Beijing) and a lot of people would have wanted to come," she said. "But this way they can share the experience with me."

Orlando is writing two blogs during the Games, one at CBC and one at www.alexandra-orlando.blogspot.com, which she started at the request of Lenovo, an electronics company that is a major sponsor of the Beijing Games.

They've enlisted athletes from around the world to blog during the Olympics and keep a list going at www.summergames.lenovo.com

That's about as close to commercial as the blogs are allowed to get.

The IOC rules for blogging forbid any advertising or sponsorship of or on the blogs, unless it's coming from an official Olympic sponsor.

No video or sound of events are allowed either, and photographs from venues can only be posted if they're of the athletes themselves and don't capture any of the action.

The blogs must also follow the Olympic charter, which forbids them being used as a form of political statement or protest.

That's fine with canoeist Gabriel Beauchesne-Sevigny.

"I want to share my athlete's point of view with the rest of the world," he said. "I'm not there to report on anything else but what I'm doing best."

He said he and his teammates, who have a group blog at www.canoe4Canada.com, found the guidelines fairly strict.

For example, a domain name like sevignyOlympic.com isn't allowed, while sevigny.com/Olympic is fine - but only during the Olympics themselves.

Swimmer Annamay Pierse said the rules make her uneasy about blogging and while she's kept an online journal in the past, she's deferring to social networking sites this time around to keep in touch.

Pierse said she uses her Facebook page to help reach out to younger fans and try to be a role model.

"I always had role models and idols growing up, and I knew that was a really big part of how I got here today" she said. "If I can help one kid have the dream and achieve the dream of going to the Olympics, it will be worth it."

The popularity of social networking sites like Facebook means many athletes have online fan clubs cheering on their every move.

Rory Fraser started a fan group for wrestlers Tonya Verbeek and Saeed Azarbayjani.

"I am a big fan of both of them, and so are a lot of people," he said.

"The group was made for them to see how much support they have, and a way for them to keep in touch with their friends in one mass e-mail instead of personal e-mails."

Being able to have that kind of support is priceless, athletes say.

"Even my buddies, they don't send me much but just like hey, keep it going," said windsurfer Zac Plavsic.

"Just three words but it's always like a good thing."