I believe the Beijing Olympics will be the biggest, most expensive, most lavish, most over-the-top Games in Olympics history. And I can’t even imagine when another Olympics might eclipse this one. Let’s consider the factors at work here. And then you can try to create a scenario that might be similar enough to prompt the […]

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Just another example of the host country wanting complete control of its event … There will be no internet connections for computers during the three-plus-hour Opening Ceremonies. The Chinese phone company is taking down its links during the event, presumably so no one will be tempted to try to put up streaming video. Taken by […]

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I’m working in the Main Press Center as the clock ticks down on the start of Opening Ceremonies. Always a very big deal at the Olympics. Problem is, the MPC is packed. Even though the first buses to National Stadium (the site of Opening)  left at 2:40 p.m. for the 8 p.m. event … and […]

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Nothing makes international sports reporters weak in the knees the way the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team does. People with years in the business and scads of experience suddenly become goofy fans, trying to get close to the tall men from the United States. The American men found an hour in their busy day to […]

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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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