The Underdogs: The true heroes of the Olympic Games

But this is only the tip of the true Olympic story.

Over two hundred nations have taken part in the modern Olympic Games since 1896, and of them 79 are yet to win a single medal. Most athletes who have traveled thousands of miles across the world to London, and devoted years of their lives to train in a discipline of their passion, are outside bets to win a medal at best, Kazinform refers to CNN.

And many, from the nations who have yet to claim a podium place, are looking to overturn a seemingly one-way current of history that keeps them -- or anyone else from their homeland -- from clutching a sacred circle of gold, silver or bronze.

But it's not just the Olympic Flame that burns eternally, the hope in the hearts of "the underdogs" burns too.

Underdogs like Ricardo Blas Jr, a 218 kg judokan from the small Pacific island-nation of Guam. To remark purely on the 25-year-old's size would be a glib oversight of the Olympian he is.

Inspired by the judo exploits of his father, Ricardo Blas, who became Guam's first Olympian in 1988, Blas Jr has been a judo player since the age of five. He "trains hard, four-to-six hours every day" and studied at a judo college in Japan before qualifying for Beijing and then London.

"In all bar two Olympics since 1988, we've always had a representative from Guam in the judo, and they've usually been from my family: my Dad, my first cousins and now I hope to keep that going," he told CNN.

"I was on the judo mat before I could walk, I've never known anything else. I got into it and then it's like 'if you're going to do something then take it all the way', and here I am at the Olympic Games."

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