What’s the buzz at the Olympics? For millions of China’s avid internet users, it’s the search for hot athletes. While most of us find the 204 countries entering the stadium a tad bit long, many have also put the images into good use: comparing which country’s flag bearer is the hottest and try to identify good looking athletes from different delegations.

This detective work is China’s big internet phenomenon, ‘人肉搜索/ren2 rou4 sou1 suo3′ or man powered search. It’s actually a combination of the web and real life where an everyday person for whatever reason becomes noticed on the web (more often than not for scandalous reasons). It triggers people to mobilise and contribute or find out information about the person through means from real life and the web.

So far, the flag bearer from Mauritius and a number of Scandinavian girls lead the sexiness tally.