One of the standards in the doldrums of summer print journalism has long been “the series.” Find a couple of people on the staff who aren’t on vacation, and have them spend a bunch of time reporting, and get the graphics people involved, and the photo editor …

And let’s put on a show!

Let’s fill several pages with carefully planned copy and layout!

It may not be an original concept, but it often makes for  good reading.

Such is the case, I dare to suggest, of our seven-day Greatest Olympians series, which is now all on line at The National’s website. It all starts here.

The peg here is … the London 2012 Olympics begin one year from tomorrow.

This is how we organized the series: We chose seven individual sports — track and field, gymnastics, swimming, boxing, weightlifting, diving and wrestling — and ranked our top 10 in each. We did big stories on the No. 1s, smaller stories on the next two, and listed the top 10s.

Who finished first?

You might be able to figure it out if I tell you who finished second.

Track and field: Usain Bolt.

Gymnastics: Olga Korbut.

Swimming: Mark Spitz.

Boxing: Cassius Clay … as he was known then.

Weightlifting: Pyrros Dimas.

Diving: Greg Louganis.

Wrestling: Alexander Medved.

Remember, those were the No. 2s.

For the No. 1s? Follow the link.

The seven parts were written by Chuck Culpepper, my colleague here, and … me. At the risk of sounding immodest, between us we have covered about 20 Olympics, and I’m fairly certain Chuck was actually in the arena when his No. 1s (swimming, weightlifting, diving) did whatever it was that made them unforgettable. His recall is amazing; his pieces are particularly well done.

Have a look. If you’re a fan of the Olympics, you will like it.