With help from British star power, China concluded its debut as Olympic host Sunday after 16 days of near-flawless logistics and superlative athletic achievement -- coexisting awkwardly with the government's wariness of dissent and free speech
Recently I asked a Chinese journalist about the underage gymnast controversy. What, I asked her, did Chinese sportswriters who cover gymnastics think about the assertions that at least three of the members of the Chinese team were under 16? Was it western prejudice? Sour grapes? A cultural misunderstanding?
More athletes are competing in Beijing under foreign flags than ever before in the Games' history. Is switching teams a betrayal of the Olympic spirit -- or just smart sportsmanship?
The Chinese gymnasts could have picked out their leotards from Thumbelina's closet as they performed gymnastics in miniature on Wednesday. Wearing blue eye shadow with their hair pulled back, He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin looked like girls who had just rummaged through their mothers' makeup. This was a ladies' final, though somehow it was hard to see how they qualified as women.
"In general, any form of exercise, if pursued continuously, will help us train in perseverance. Long-distance running is particularly good training in perseverance." -- Mao Tse-Tung
BEIJING -- The team that was too good for its own good returns for the final hurrah, an overwhelming favorite to win the fourth and, for now, last, Olympic softball gold medal.
BEIJING -- Brian Sell, the colorful Egg McMuffin-eating, Fu Manchu-sporting, self-described redneck marathoner from Michigan, is concerned. And understandably so, with pictures of smog-obscured buildings and smog-swallowed mountains coming out of Beijing.
Once-reclusive China has commandeered the world stage, celebrating its first-time role as Olympic host with a stunning display of pageantry and pyrotechnics to open the Summer Games
The wall of gray haze around the National Stadium and across the city cut visibility down to a mile. On the eve of opening ceremonies, Beijing's polluted air took center stage Thursday as the most visibly pressing problem for Olympic organizers who had promised to clean up the Chinese capital.
With help from British star power, China concluded its debut as Olympic host Sunday after 16 days of near-flawless logistics and superlative athletic achievement -- coexisting awkwardly with the government's wariness of dissent and free speech
Recently I asked a Chinese journalist about the underage gymnast controversy. What, I asked her, did Chinese sportswriters who cover gymnastics think about the assertions that at least three of the members of the Chinese team were under 16? Was it western prejudice? Sour grapes? A cultural misunderstanding?
More athletes are competing in Beijing under foreign flags than ever before in the Games' history. Is switching teams a betrayal of the Olympic spirit -- or just smart sportsmanship?
The Chinese gymnasts could have picked out their leotards from Thumbelina's closet as they performed gymnastics in miniature on Wednesday. Wearing blue eye shadow with their hair pulled back, He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin looked like girls who had just rummaged through their mothers' makeup. This was a ladies' final, though somehow it was hard to see how they qualified as women.
"In general, any form of exercise, if pursued continuously, will help us train in perseverance. Long-distance running is particularly good training in perseverance." -- Mao Tse-Tung
BEIJING -- The team that was too good for its own good returns for the final hurrah, an overwhelming favorite to win the fourth and, for now, last, Olympic softball gold medal.
BEIJING -- Brian Sell, the colorful Egg McMuffin-eating, Fu Manchu-sporting, self-described redneck marathoner from Michigan, is concerned. And understandably so, with pictures of smog-obscured buildings and smog-swallowed mountains coming out of Beijing.
Once-reclusive China has commandeered the world stage, celebrating its first-time role as Olympic host with a stunning display of pageantry and pyrotechnics to open the Summer Games
The wall of gray haze around the National Stadium and across the city cut visibility down to a mile. On the eve of opening ceremonies, Beijing's polluted air took center stage Thursday as the most visibly pressing problem for Olympic organizers who had promised to clean up the Chinese capital.
I'm like anybody else. I watch the Olympics because I want to see who wins. But the 2008 Summer Games are intriguing for reasons that go well beyond the 100-meter final, Michael Phelps' bid to become the greatest Olympian ever or the daily mine-is-bigger exercise of comparing medal counts.
Iraq will be allowed to compete in next month's Olympic Games in China after agreeing to restore its independent national Olympic panel, the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday.
Olympic organizers unblocked some Internet sites at the main press center and media venues Friday while others remained off limits for journalists covering the Beijing games.
An Olympic official said Thursday he felt like the "fall guy" after promising reporters at the games they would have uncensored Internet access, only to find that the Chinese had blocked certain Web sites.
About this time every year, a few months before the Summer Olympics begin, there is often a certain amount of anxiety. Usually, it relates to whether all the facilities will be constructed in time for the sappy opening ceremonies. And usually, everything comes together, and fellowship and brotherhood once again reign on earth.
The Olympic torch relay in San Francisco went well compared to the chaotic scenes in London and Paris earlier this week, the head of the International Olympic Committee said Thursday.
That sound you hear is China crackin' heads and takin' names in Tibet as it tidies up and puts on its best face before the guests arrive in August. But not everyone is willing to ignore the sound of servants being beaten in the back room while cocktails and horse doovers are served, so calls for a boycott have arisen from folks who are more than passively concerned about human rights.
The pitch for softball's Olympic reinstatement goes something like this: at a time when the IOC is trying to promote women's sports, here is a team event that was voted off the Olympic program three years ago under dubious circumstances, is growing in popularity around the world, would make for good programming on NBC and could share a venue with other sports in order to save money.
On Feb. 5 a court in Hangzhou sentenced dissident journalist Lu Gengsong to four years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power" with his critical essays about the ruling Communist Party. Lu responded by yelling, "Long live democracy!" Then he was taken away.
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