So, I’m walking out of the press seating area in the arena to go fetch my computer in the work room … when this really preppy guy in a dark blue blazer walks right up to me and says .. “Are there any American reporters in here?!?” Like, with some urgency. (And why did he […]

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Judo! I thought I had, in some prior life. Knocking out a “hometowner” for some paper in the sprawling Gannett News Service empire, at a previous Olympics. Then they started competing in the gym at the Beijing University of Science and Technology … and I know for a fact I have never seen this. No […]

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A little farther down on this blog I was trying to recall sports I’ve never covered, and was struggling. I suggested badminton, but now I’m thinking I may have done some of that at the Sydney Olympics. Just dropped by to watch the shuttlecocks fly. I don’t remember for sure. But here are two sports […]

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Went to a different sports circus. Saw the elephant. Don’t feel a pressing need to go back. It was interesting, though. On several levels.

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In a strip mall, across the street from the shooting range … Atop a store front, this sign: “Massage by Blind Masseurs.” Actually, that may be a good thing for everyone. Those of us who are less than toned and svelte don’t have to worry about being a visual blight to the massage therapist. And […]

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This is a sport I never have covered. There aren’t many left I can say that about (hmm, maybe judo?). And I will rectify my no-shooting record in a few minutes when the women’s 10-meter Air Pistol event begins. Among the two Americans in the competition is Brenda Shinn, a lieutenant in the Riverside County […]

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OK, sure, China has an authoritarian government. A totalitarian government. Ostensibly a Communist one, though it doesn’t quite have the feel of the two other Big Red countries I visted — Cuba and East Germany. But this isn’t a free-wheeling democracy, by any means. Still, you have to give China this: It can make things […]

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It’s hard to convey just how many “helpers” there are at these Olympics. Tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. They are on every corner. At every turn in a venue corridor.  They ride on every bus, open every door, greet you before every meal, rush to bus your dishes after you finish. They are hovering […]

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Looking a bit stunned from three hours in the Beijing heat, I do not mug for the camera as the U.S. Olympic team enters the stadium. This is my seventh Summer Games, going back to Los Angeles 1984 … and I can say this with assurance: Beijing 2008 was the sweatiest Opening Ceremonies of the […]

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I’m sweltering here at the Bird’s Nest stadium in the Olympic Green, in aisle 209, row 14, seat 8. So far, the best thing about this is that my seat has a lucky number: An 8 p.m. start on 8-8-2008 in seat 8. What more could I ask for? How about a wet towel? I’m […]

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