I have to hand it to Paula Radcliffe...

After her strong win in the New York Marathon back in November, passing Ethiopia's Gete Wami to win in 2:23:09, most experts had Great Britain's Paula Radcliffe (left/photo by Paul Merca) as a solid favorite for the gold medal entering these Beijing Olympics.

However, the world record holder's been hobbled with first a toe injury, then a stress fracture since the middle of April.

Now in the lead up to the Olympic marathon on August 17th, she reveals that she missed a few days of training due to a spider bite at her training base in the French Pyrénées and had required emergency hospital treatment.

You can read the full story here...

No matter what happens to her in Beijing, I have to hand it to Paula for the strength and courage to try and come back from a stress fracture to her left femur.