I don’t know if this is of any interest to anyone. I’n currently in Shanghai and just got back from Beijing. In some of the Olympic merchandise stores you can get pin sets. I bought a set of the 2008 Triathlon pins. It has three pins, a swimmer, cyclist and a runner and they all come in a nice little display box. I don’t know if you can get them online or in the states though. The set cost me 98 rmb or $13 US.
Be careful, those things are addictive. I’ve got the Sydney and Athens triathlon pins, as well as a bunch of other pins that I traded for. The Chinese delegation at Torino 2006 had a bunch of pins to trade. It is a great way to meet people from other countries.
$13 for three pins is actually a pretty good deal. I would imagine that the price will go up in the future, especially as the Japanese start snapping them up. There will also be individual country triathlon pins.
I got hooked on pins when the olympics were in LA back in 84!
Still have lots of them… why, i don’t know.