It’s interesting how the so-called extreme sports bleed back over into the Olympic movement. Thinking snowboarding, short-track speedskating, in the Winter. Triathlon, open-water swimming and, now, BMX, in Summer. BMX is short for “bicycle moto-cross” … the pedaling version of motorcycle motocross. Riding over rough terrain. Basically, we’ve got 16 men and 16 women out […]

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You oversleep by 20 minutes and still wake up jittery, from lack of sleep. I don’t think I’ve had five hours any of the last three nights. I’m too tired to sit and think about it. OK, I’ll try …

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Here are some quotes collected by the Olympic New Service from the members of the U.S. men’s prelim 4×100 team. The one that dropped the baton on the handoff from Darvis Patton to anchor man Tyson Gay. Rodney Martin and Travis Padgett ran the first two legs.

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It’s been an awful year for print journalism. Something like 8,000 journalists have lost their jobs this year, and it’s not even September yet. It’s a big number, but it’s hard to get your mind around. It reminds me of that Stalin quote, something about “one death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a […]

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If you’re up early in the U.S., maybe you saw this on one of NBC’s platforms, if it’s available … Stop me if you’re heard this one: A U.S. relay team dropped the baton. Oh, yeah. You have heard it before.  Like five minutes ago.

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This is ridiculous. An embarrassment. And it happens at every Olympics, seemingly. A U.S. relay team throws the baton. It just went down in the men’s 4×100 qualifying.  Certain to qualify, the Yanks couldn’t get the baton around the track. Dog bites man. I’m not sure I’ve been to a big track meet (world championships […]

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To read stories that have appeared in newspapers and their websites … here you go. The most recent is one that appeared in L.A. Daily News, on Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh winning the gold in a rain-drenched beach volleyball final. The day before, tiny teen Charlotte Craig lost a semi-controversial match and fell out […]

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I thought about this. I really did. I even made a bit of an effort. But it became clear to me within the first few days here that I was never, ever going to know more than a few words of Mandarin Chinese. Maybe I’m too old to pick up new stuff quickly. But I’m […]

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Well, that turned out to be a lot of hassle for nothing. BMX, the newest goofy sport to make the Olympics menu, was set to run its finals in men’s and women’s competition today, and I was going to follow a kid named Day. The thing about weird sports? You don’t know what they do […]

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It was nothing special. Nothing that will make NBC’s highlights. Just a qualifying heat in the men’s 5,000 meter run. But I happened to be watching, on the big screen here in the press center, and the finish of the event just boggled my mind.

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