Having inspired the international fashion world’s name for bikini, the Marshall Islands will now join the international sporting world, competing for the first time in the Olympics. The Pacific nation’s entire team of five athletes could fit around the dinner table, which seems somehow apropos, considering that its best athlete is a chef.

Anju Jason, a tae kwon do athlete who has spent most of his life in Hawaii, cooks for Panda Express, one of the largest chains serving Chinese fast food in the United States. He finds some culinary feng shui in the alignment of his job and the Games in Beijing. “It’s pretty ironic,” Jason, 20, said.

The Marshall Islands, a scattering of islands and atolls located about halfway between Hawaii and Australia, will field one of the smallest of the 205 teams competing in Beijing. The islands have gained visibility primarily as the site of post-World War II nuclear testing, not competitive running, jumping and swimming. The country’s Olympic athletes, like its consumer goods and foodstuffs, are mostly imported.

The nation’s running tracks are made of grass and only about four or five gyms house indoor basketball courts, according to Terry Sasser, the secretary general of the Marshall Islands National Olympic Committee, whose website contains no listings for national records and whose telephone number is disconnected. “The main thing with the Olympics is to show people that we exist,” Jason said. “No one knows about us.”

Olympic recognition came in 2006, allowing the Marshall Islands to begin receiving financing and training scholarships supplied by the International Olympic Committee.

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