When U.S. Olympic Committee leadership wasn’t apologizing for Beijing organizers, they actually made some interesting points about the changes in the Olympic competitive power structure. What used to be a Big Three (USA, Soviet Union, East Germany) went down to a Big One (the U.S.), moved back up to a Big Two (Russia, U.S.) and […]

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Nothing draws an Olympics crowd quite like the U.S. women’s gymnastics team. We love, love, love them! A late-in-the-day press conference a few minutes ago drew more than 100 journalists — who gathered to hear a half-dozen 16-year-old girls say pretty much nothing. Chellsie Memmel’s ankle is better, thank you. Shawn Johnson is ready to […]

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Diana Taurasi is the shooting guard from Chino who figures to be one of the leading figures for the U.S. women’s basketball team as it makes a run for another gold medal, here at Beijing. The women’s team passed through the Main Press Center today, and Lisa Leslie — who hopes to win her fourth […]

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Marcie Van Dusen is fun. She is the Official Live Wire of the U.S. women’s Olympic wrestling team. And probably its best hope for a medal here at Beijing, too. This is the journalism part of the Olympics. When you go talk to athletes you know and write about them. And the “where” doesn’t matter […]

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That appalling rip job the U.S. Olympic Committee did on four of its own cyclists on Wednesday was something fitting for a totalitarian state. Like, say, the one I’m sitting in right now. Instant discipline, and then a forced apology. I wonder if any of the four cyclists — which includes Sarah Hammer, a Temecula […]

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The most ridiculous thing I’ve heard since I got here? A guy from the U.S. archery federation — on the day that the U.S. Olympic Committee was backing away from the hint of a suggestion of a notion that the air here is filthy — saying the atmosphere really isn’t that bad. This on a […]

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I’ve got to get to the bottom of this. Here at the Main Press Center, and also at the media hotel at which I am staying, signs are posted asking bathroom patrons to put soiled toilet tissue … in a waste can next to the toilet. No paper is supposed to go down the toilet. […]

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Well, that wasn’t one of the more noble moments in U.S. Olympic Committee history. The men who lead the Olympic movement in the land of the free and the home of the brave … turned against four American cyclists who had the temerity to wear masks in the Beijing airport on Tuesday. It seemed a […]

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Did I mention I was going to the Olympics? Perhaps not. Anyway, here I am, in the main workroom of the Main Press Center here in the Olympic Green in the northern part of the city. This is my 13th Olympics. But my first as a freelancer. If you happen to be a sports editor […]

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Most of us are prepared to love the new guy. Whatever the sport. We focus on his positive accomplishments. We think of what he can add to the team. (Some Clippers fans may even believe barking dog Ricky Davis will help their team.) And a few years or even a few months later … we’re […]

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