I first traveled to Barcelona in the summer of 1992 to help cover the Summer Olympics for Gannett News Service. I was very impressed with the place. It had charm. It had class. It organized a very fine Olympics. It seemed like a city people would want to see, if they knew about it. And […]

[Read more →]

For more than a decade, Michelle Kwan represented what we in the journalism call a “standing story”. A standing story is one that is news at any time. Work or play, good or bad, any developments warrant coverage and follow-up because we believe our audience has significant interest in the topic. Particularly so, in my […]

[Read more →]

A few days ago, I watched Tottenham Hotspur’s final match at their ancient stadium at White Hart Lane, where the London club had played its home matches since 1899. Fans were a bit melancholy but the celebrations before and after the match, won 2-1 by Spurs over Manchester United, seemed to mollify them. Actually, they […]

[Read more →]

I’ve never really had winter clothes. Because I always lived in places that either were temperate or Just Plain Hot. Long Beach, then the Inland Empire, then Abu Dhabi. But here in Europe, in France, we can go weeks (!) without a single minute in the 60-degree (Fahrenheit) range in December, January, February. Granted, it’s […]

[Read more →]

This week, the National Hockey League announced it will not be taking a month off next season so its players can compete for their national teams in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. The first reaction from nearly everyone is … “what an awful decision”. The NHL’s players joined the Winter Games in 1998, […]

[Read more →]

I follow two national soccer teams, the United States and the UAE. Both play twice in the coming week in crucial 2018 World Cup qualifiers. I don’t feel good about either national team’s chances. For reasons that apply to both — key injuries, the pressure to produce results and competent opponents. First, the U.S.

[Read more →]

I was reading a story about the planned Los Angeles bid to host the 2024 Summer Games, and that took me back to the 1984 L.A. Summer Games, and I was looking at the wiki page … and on the right side of the page it had a link to a snippet of the “L.A. […]

[Read more →]

After the U.S. women’s national soccer team lost a Rio 2016 shootout to Sweden, a game that ended 1-1 in regulation, goalkeeper Hope Solo was not in a diplomatic mood. She rarely is after losing, God bless her. The Swedes got an early lead, then sat back and absorbed pressure, and when they conceded the […]

[Read more →]

The BBC’s coverage of Rio 2016 came with nightly references to a particular area of the network’s website: The “get inspired” feature. If you watched the Olympics and decided you would like to emulate Team Great Britain’s athletes … the BBC has advice on how to get started. I was thinking about how silly it […]

[Read more →]

The Rio 2016 Summer Olympics wrapped up today. The final few medals handed out, the typical Closing Ceremonies chaos the great migration to the airport in the morning … Here are 10 topics about these Games, the future Games, and the people involved in it all.

[Read more →]