Evan Lysacek is right where he wants to be.
U.S. speed skater Shani Davis' season got off to a blistering start in Berlin last weekend. Davis brought home his first two long-track gold medals of the season, winning the 1,000 meters on Friday in 1:08.53, a half-second faster than the previous track record.
Saturday marks 1,000 days until the London 2012 Olympic Games, and officials promise the event is on track and on budget.
The torch for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics was lit in a ceremony at the ancient Greek site of Olympia on Thursday, less than four months ahead of the games' opening ceremony.
One more reason to buy a ticket to Rio in 2016? Tiger Woods.
My gracious, but this has been a difficult time for us sports troubadours. We do better with simple games, with the tic-tac-toe offensive and defensive Xs and Os, as opposed to the exes and ohs that refer to past marital tense and current romantic joy. I mean, hardly had I begun to digest the news that Lamar Odom of the NBA had married Khloe Kardashian of reality show fame -- ohhh! -- than comes word that Chris Evert and Greg Norman, America's senior sweethearts, had broken up, potential exes-to-be.
In answering the question of when rather than if, the USOC announced that acting CEO Stephanie Streeter will be on her way out from the top of the U.S. Olympic Committee. Consider it a good start.
Rio's Olympic bid coup on Friday may have the lyrics to "Copacabana" playing on a loop in your head, but it's still too early to squeeze into a Brazilian bikini -- you can't even book a flight to the 2012 Olympic Games in London yet.
Whenever President Obama has traveled overseas and offered pointed and direct assessments of the United States, some of them critical, Republicans have ripped him for criticizing America, saying a president should always defend the United States.
COPENHAGEN -- These are the wee hours of the morning after an IOC vote in Copenhagen and the fun is just beginning. Rio, one of the perceived co-favorites to win the rights to hold the 2016 Olympics, won the vote. No surprise. Chicago, the other perceived co-favorite finished fourth, behind Madrid and Tokyo. Surprise. How did that happen, especially when the buzz around the Marriot hotel where IOC members were staying suggested momentum might be swinging in Chicago's direction?
Evan Lysacek is right where he wants to be.
U.S. speed skater Shani Davis' season got off to a blistering start in Berlin last weekend. Davis brought home his first two long-track gold medals of the season, winning the 1,000 meters on Friday in 1:08.53, a half-second faster than the previous track record.
Saturday marks 1,000 days until the London 2012 Olympic Games, and officials promise the event is on track and on budget.
The torch for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics was lit in a ceremony at the ancient Greek site of Olympia on Thursday, less than four months ahead of the games' opening ceremony.
One more reason to buy a ticket to Rio in 2016? Tiger Woods.
My gracious, but this has been a difficult time for us sports troubadours. We do better with simple games, with the tic-tac-toe offensive and defensive Xs and Os, as opposed to the exes and ohs that refer to past marital tense and current romantic joy. I mean, hardly had I begun to digest the news that Lamar Odom of the NBA had married Khloe Kardashian of reality show fame -- ohhh! -- than comes word that Chris Evert and Greg Norman, America's senior sweethearts, had broken up, potential exes-to-be.
In answering the question of when rather than if, the USOC announced that acting CEO Stephanie Streeter will be on her way out from the top of the U.S. Olympic Committee. Consider it a good start.
Rio's Olympic bid coup on Friday may have the lyrics to "Copacabana" playing on a loop in your head, but it's still too early to squeeze into a Brazilian bikini -- you can't even book a flight to the 2012 Olympic Games in London yet.
Whenever President Obama has traveled overseas and offered pointed and direct assessments of the United States, some of them critical, Republicans have ripped him for criticizing America, saying a president should always defend the United States.
COPENHAGEN -- These are the wee hours of the morning after an IOC vote in Copenhagen and the fun is just beginning. Rio, one of the perceived co-favorites to win the rights to hold the 2016 Olympics, won the vote. No surprise. Chicago, the other perceived co-favorite finished fourth, behind Madrid and Tokyo. Surprise. How did that happen, especially when the buzz around the Marriot hotel where IOC members were staying suggested momentum might be swinging in Chicago's direction?
He just couldn't resist, could he? Sports is always so tempting for the politician: Starry-eyed fans, a docile crowd bursting with civic or national pride, all those softball questions from commentators happy just to get time with the big man ... what's not to like? Best of all, there's that wonderful finality about athletics, so seductive to one used to spending months on the slow, incremental grind of health care reform or the murk of Afghanistan. Sports seems so clear. There's a winner and a loser, a final score. It's kid stuff: Fun.
Very few cities know how to celebrate better than Rio. The party that will climax at the 2016 Olympic Games got underway in earnest on Friday in Copenhagen, where the IOC chose the Brazilian city to be first from South America to host the Games. As the bid members headed over to the Skt. Petri hotel downtown, where balloons and loud music awaited them, their leadership was still coming to grips with the piece of history they earned. It has been a non-stop push from being considered a long shot to win the bid back when Brazil hosted the Pan-Am Games in 2007.
Despite their personal appeal, the Games will be go to Rio de Janeiro instead
From hot dogs in the American heartland to the sexy samba on South American beaches, from traditional Kabuki theater amid high-tech modernity to European culture and sophistication, four international cities hope to showcase what they have to offer the world on the Olympic stage.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee announced Friday.
The announcement that Chicago, Illinois, will not host the 2016 Olympic Games took the hopeful wind out of many in the Windy City.
Supporters of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics were shocked Friday by news that the city was the first of four finalists to be eliminated from consideration.
Chicago lost its bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics Friday to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
After flying through the night for seven hours aboard Air Force One, nobody would blame President Obama for being at least slightly groggy when he arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark, for a quick four hours to make the final pitch for Chicago to host the 2016 Olympics.
COPENHAGEN -- As Barack Obama was walking out of the Bella Center in Copenhagen following Chicago's Olympic bid presentation earlier this morning, the president stopped before leaving the building and told assembled reporters, "The only thing I'm upset about is that they arranged for me to follow Michelle. That's always bad." Indeed, after much speculation whether the President would come to Denmark, it was the First Lady who gave Chicago's bid to host the Olympics in 2016 the emotional appeal it otherwise lacked.
The battle to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games appears to be heating up between Chicago, Illinois, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, two sources close to the process said Thursday.
If there was any question about whether President Obama would do anything to bring the Olympics to Chicago in 2016, he's put those doubts to rest.
What are the first thoughts that pop into your mind when you hear the word Olympics? Probably something synonymous with excellence, greatness, excitement, achievement.
On Friday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will choose the city that will host the 2016 Summer Olympics. Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, the four finalists, will each make a 45-minute presentation before the IOC members Friday afternoon in Copenhagen. They are likely to highlight their bid's assets and address some of the questions raised in the IOC's site evaluation report released earlier this month. The winning city should be announced between noon and 1 p.m. Eastern Time in the U.S.
Like many a transplanted Chicagoan, I'm eager to show off my hometown after spending most of my adult life in New York City. I want my coast-centric acquaintances to know what real pizza looks like; that Chicago has a majestic skyline with the country's tallest building; that one of the world's two outdoor Picasso sculptures stands by City Hall; and that, no, you cannot skip a rock across Lake Michigan. (It's more than twice the size of New Jersey! And three times as clean!) I can't help but get a little tingly when I consider that the International Olympic Committee might award the 2016 Summer Games to Chicago on Oct. 2, when its members meet in Copenhagen to choose a site from a final four that also includes Madrid, Rio De Janeiro and Tokyo. And I'm not the only one. A slightly more famous ex-Chicago resident, President Barack Obama, will be in Copenhagen to schmooze IOC members.
With help from hometown heroes like the Obamas, Chicago is aggressively lobbying to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. But making the games profitable would not be an easy win.
President Obama's decision to head to Copenhagen, Denmark, later this week to make a push to bring the 2016 Olympic Games to Chicago is not without political controversy.
First lady Michelle Obama vowed Monday to "take no prisoners" as she and her husband launch an unprecedented bid for Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid.
President Obama will travel this week to Copenhagen, Denmark, to make a big push for holding the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Chicago, Illinois, the White House said Monday.
The announcement this morning that President Barack Obama will go to Copenhagen to pitch the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid to the IOC membership this week is a potential game-changer. If recent history holds, personal appeals from world leaders sway votes. Granted, Rio will bring Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Spain's King Juan Carlos will stump for Madrid. Tokyo is expected to enjoy firsthand support from incoming Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Crown Prince Naruhito, but no drawing card will be stronger than Obama, who only finalized his decision to attend the IOC Session this morning. The 108 IOC members will make their selection from the four finalist cities on Friday and the final choice is likely to come down to a handful of votes.
CALGARY -- The vox populi in the Calgary Herald decided Monday in a result often associated with Soviet elections that the esteemed Jarome Iginla should be the next Captain Canada, the man with the scarlet letter (on the white uniforms) when a hockey-daft nation plays in the Olympics next February in Vancouver.
Throughout the week, the organizers paid tribute to Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals in this Olympic Stadium at the 1936 Olympics. In particular, his victory in the long jump resonates years later because of the story behind it. With two jumps complete in the qualifying round, Owens had fouled twice and was one jump away from failing to qualify for the finals. Luz Long, a German competitor, suggested to Owens to start his jump far behind the take-off board, since he clearly had the distance needed to qualify. Owens took the advice, qualified and later won the event. Organizers invited Owens' granddaughter, Marlene Dortch and Long's son, Kai. The act of sportsmanship remains a highlight from the Games that Adolph Hitler had hoped would propagate the myth of a master race just three years before the outbreak of war.
The IAAF World Championships in track and field kick off on Saturday morning in Berlin and run through Sunday Aug. 23. Here are five things to look for at the upcoming championships:
Tiger Woods already has 14 major titles. He could be adding an Olympic medal to his collection soon.
BERLIN - The IOC executive board voted Thursday to recommend golf and rugby to the Olympic program for the 2016 Games, rejecting the hopes of five other bidding sports, including baseball and softball. The board also passed over karate, roller sports and squash.
On Thursday in Berlin, the 15-member IOC executive committee will vote to nominate two sports -- from a field of seven -- for inclusion onto the Olympic program, starting in 2016. When these two nominated sports go to the general membership for a vote in October, they'll need only a simple majority from the 107 voters to be approved, a lower threshold than the two-thirds majority needed in 2005, when karate and squash fell short. Here, then, is a case for and against the seven sports in question.
When Katy Wilson was born with Down syndrome, doctors told her mother that the infant likely would never walk or talk.
Flavio Canto spent most of his teenage years training in judo, in hopes he would achieve Olympic gold. But today, the Brazilian athlete considers his defeat at the 2000 Olympic trials one of his greatest victories.
These lists are not mere compilations of all-time bests in their respective sports but all-time bests at quickening the pulse and evoking a visceral response from those fortunate enough to have witnessed their artistry.
These lists are not mere compilations of all-time bests in their respective sports but all-time bests at quickening the pulse and evoking a visceral response from those fortunate enough to have witnessed their artistry.
NHL MVP Alex Ovechkin is offering his help to organizers of the first Winter Olympics in his native Russia.
Our underdog soccer team's success last week in South Africa was a sweet surprise till Brazil caught us -- but, in the meantime, in the year's other major international sports competition, we're the heavy favorite. But can we hang on down the stretch this next time against Brazil? Can Chicago beat out Rio for the right to hold the 2016 Olympics?
In his first competition since winning eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics last summer, Michael Phelps came to the Charlotte Ultraswim meet in North Carolina well-rested and with some new style: he debuted a new straight-arm or "windmill" stroke technique for some of his freestyle events, a stroke that allows him to slice throw the water more efficiently.
Michael Phelps -- the Olympic gold-medal swimmer who jumped into hot water over a photo of him holding a bong -- has returned to competition for the first time since the Beijing Olympics.
Battered by the current economic recession, Hawaii's economy could get a strong boost from two key sporting events.
This article is reprinted from the December 8, 2008 issue of Sports Illustrated.
Jim Scherr's abrupt resignation as Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Olympic Committee leaves several questions: Why is he out, what does it mean for the USOC and could his resignation affect Chicago's chances to land the 2016 Olympics when the IOC awards those Games in October? Is an organization that had righted its ship after years of dysfunction now setting itself up for another era of wayward management or merely adjusting its priorities in a tough economy?
Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps admitted to "regrettable" behavior Sunday and vowed it wouldn't happen again after a British newspaper published a photograph of the swimmer smoking from a bong.
Sada Jacobson may be a world champion fencer with three Olympic medals, but dressed in a T-shirt and sweats, she looked like any other student getting a lesson at the gym.
For Sebastian Coe, one of Britain's greatest athletes, the glory of winning Olympic gold medals comes in second to clinching the Olympics Games for London in 2012.
The party of the year in the swimming world took place not in Beijing's Water Cube in August but in a New York City hotel ballroom the week before Thanksgiving. The occasion was the Golden Goggle Awards, the Oscars of the amphibious set, and most of the 43 members of the U.S. Olympic swim team turned out for the splashy event. With their short skirts, high heels and ripped biceps the women were visions of powerful femininity. The dudes wore their tuxedos ironically, with shaggy hair and bow ties askew. Before the awards show began, there was a rip-roaring cocktail hour. The view of midtown Manhattan from the ballroom revealed the grand old Ziegfeld Theatre, which on this night was hosting a red-carpet premiere for the latest overwrought Hollywood drama. Despite the constellation of paparazzi flashes the assembled actors couldn't match the star power at the Golden Goggles.
Post-Olympics Beijing is a vastly changed landscape from the one that existed in 2001 when the city won the bid.
China opened the 29th Olympic Games on Friday with stunning fireworks as the Asian nation kicked off one of the most heavily scrutinized games in history.
Without proper food, shoes, or support from his government, Hem Bunting, the Cambodian Olympic marathon competitor, prepared for the Olympics and hoped for international support in late July.
Brits are known for theater, pageantry, music and humor. But if stodgy politicians have their way, none of that may come through in the 2012 Olympics
True to the script, an outstanding Argentina team brushed aside all opposition in Beijing as it successfully defended its Olympic gold medal. La Albiceleste proved far superior to all the teams it faced in China as Sergio Batista's squad cruised to six successive victories, scoring 11 goals (second only to Brazil) while only conceding two (best at the Games).
The record-setting American calls the ceremony a "great start" to the 2012 games
As spectacular as the sports were, the Games in the end had become more of an extravaganza for the Chinese, with the rest of the world tagging along
He predicted the U.S. would win basketball gold in Beijing. Spain came close to spoiling it all, but James came through
BEIJING -- There are no fairy tale endings when a good man dies brutally and senselessly, nothing a victory in an Olympic final can alter.
So-called "age-doping" may be the scandal about to break over women's gymnastics. But are there lab tests to quantify how old you are?
BEIJING -- The gaggle of major-league scouts was seated just to the left of home plate in a section reserved for Olympic family, but no one was getting too comfortable on the hard plastic chairs.
The International Olympic Committee has asked gymnastics officials to look into whether China's women's gymnastics team used underaged competitors, an IOC spokeswoman said Friday.
On Oct. 2, 2009, the International Olympic Committee will convene in Copenhagen to vote on the city that will host the Olympics in 2016. Chicago is one of four candidate cities, along with Rio de Janiero, Madrid and Tokyo. Chicago Bid Chairman Patrick Ryan talked with SI.com about the prospects of the Chicago bid.
As other U.S. women win gold, the one surefire team, softball, was shocked. And now the sport is leaving the Olympics. Superstar Jennie Finch shares her pain
SI.com checked in with Sports Illustrated's Selena Roberts shortly after Japan's stunning 3-1 win over the U.S. in the gold medal game in softball on Thursday. It was the first Olympic loss for the U.S. since 2000, and ended its run of three consecutive Olympic titles.
Though rarely asked these days, the question "What is mixed martial arts?" was a common inquiry not too long ago. The best response came from Randy Couture: "Take elements of wrestling, boxing, judo and taekwondo, and you've got MMA."
The vaunted Olympic spirit is terrible for competition. What we need, says Joel Stein, are some anti-medals, and a new scoring system
In a dream world, the best baseball players on the planet would stop whatever they're doing every four years, pick up their bats and their gloves and their pine tar and make a pilgrimage to the Olympic Games, where national pride and Olympic ideals would combine to provide us with the world's greatest baseball spectacle.
MINNEAPOLIS -- If the quality of play in Olympic baseball competition was consistently more suited to a beer league than to Beijing, if the value of an entire sport depended solely on the names in that day's lineup, if someone was trying to pass off the worst-of-the-worst as the best-of-the-best, then dropping baseball beginning with the 2012 London Games might make some sense.
BEIJING -- It remains the most arresting track and field moment I have ever witnessed live.
When it comes to this nation's stick-and-ball sports as worthy Olympic pursuits, the United States apparently is damned if it dominates and damned if it doesn't.
BEIJING -- Television executives as a rule are an over-caffeinated bunch. They spit out platitudes with machine-gun frequency and sell their content with the same fervor Barnum sold his circus. That's why it's always interesting to check in with NBC Sports and Olympics officials during the second week of an Olympic Games. It's a dog-tired group, gutting out the final days after a month of little sleep. They've read the critics -- the NBC press office onsite gets faxed copies of every major publication daily -- and monitored the ratings with the circumspectness of a jeweler. If the news is good, you'll find smiles through the yawns.
Sports Illustrated photographer Heinz Kluetmeier has covered every Olympics for SI (with the exception of Innsbruck) since the Munich Games. He and his assistant, Jeff Kavanaugh, landed the signature sequence of the Olympics: Michael Phelps beating Serbia's Milorad Cavic to the touchpad in the 100 butterfly. Below, Kluetmeier explains how he got the shot and the difference between Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps as photography subjects. Click here to see the photos.
The American gymnasts closed out their Beijing stay in spectacular style Tuesday, with Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin adding to their medal haul by winning gold and silver in the balance beam, and Jonathon Horton, who'd led the men to a bronze in the team competition, unexpectedly taking the silver medal in the high bar.
Usain Bolt makes the impossible seem commonplace. His running has been so spectacular here that he has forced hard-traveled track scribes to consider the question: Can Bolt break Michael Johnson's 12-year-old record in the 200? The time to beat is 19.32.
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?
This was the Great Wail of China.
A Swedish wrestler who discarded his bronze medal in a protest during the presentation ceremony has been stripped of the award and disqualified from the tournament in Beijing.
BEIJING -- On a sticky Sunday morning when history and mythology were intertwined, a 23-year-old swimmer with the slack-jawed smile and an acute sense of the moment churned through Lane 4 of the Water Cube and into sports immortality and the common currency of the English language. In rewriting swimming and Olympic history with his eighth gold medal, Michael Phelps was rewriting the dictionary. As backstroker Aaron Peirsol, who started the 4x100 medley relay, would say, "The term Spitzian might be outdated now by the Phelpsian feat."
When Chinese officials and the IOC declared the air in Beijing clean for the Games -- IOC president Jacques Rogge said the sun was simply hiding behind fog from "heat and humidity," never mind that, some days, there was less than 60 percent relative humidity -- it gave a seal of approval to pollution-control measures that Beijing has ramped up over years in preparation for the Olympics. And in the last few days, the fervor over Beijing's air pollution has subsided, as pea soup skies gave way to a pleasant azure backdrop, the first of the Games.
Well, there's always 48 Hours Mystery on CBS, and ABC appears to be showing another can't-miss episode of Eli Stone. Of course, if you're reading this, it's a safe bet you'll be watching the Michael Phelps coronation. If Phelps and his teammates win the 4x100 medley relay (bet the house, the vacation house and all your other possessions on it), he will become the all-time leader in gold medals in a single games with eight. The scheduled time of the race is 10:58 p.m., the final event of the swimming program in Beijing. "The U.S. should win unless something goes wrong," says Sports Illustrated's Brian Cazeneuve. "But keep in mind that the last time they swam this event at a major competition -- the world championships in 2007 -- something went very wrong. The team was disqualified because of an illegal exchange. Barring that, I just don't think there is a team with four swimmers at the level of the U.S."
BEIJING -- The track meet starts Friday morning at the Bird's Nest. Ten things I'm most intrigued by at the beginning:
BEIJING -- For a scene to be truly surreal, it has to go beyond the realm of what we call odd or strange. There has to be a feeling of displacement. Time must bend a bit. And there's got to be a bewildering wrench thrown in for good measure, something so incongruous that its absurdity somehow balances out the vague sense of menace in the air.
Key errors ended the US women's team's gold medal hopes. But injuries and a new scoring system also played a role
It's a historic event taking place on an international stage that's been seven years and $40 billion in the making.
He cuts through the water like he's shredding through the record books at the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.
How does NBC spell ratings? Two words: Michael Phelps. The Golden Boy takes to Water Cube on Tuesday for the men's 200 freestyle final (10:16 p.m. ET on Monday night). "Coming into the competition, I thought that would be one of his easier races," said Sports Illustrated's Brian Cazeneuve, who predicts -- surprise! -- gold for Phelps in the event.
The U.S. has sent nearly 600 athletes to Beijing for the Olympic Games. But who are they? America's new set of Olympians are from 47 of the 50 states -- as well as athletes who were born in 28 other countries -- and includes identical twins, teenagers, a cancer patient and the daughter of a Super Bowl champion. Who's from the smallest hometown? Which team is the brainest? Which college is represented by the most Olympians? Get to know a little more about Team USA.
A Chinese man wielding a knife stabbed an American couple in central Beijing on Saturday, killing the man and seriously wounding the woman before jumping to his death from an ancient tower, said U.S. Olympic officials and state-run media.
An Iranian swimmer at the Beijing Olympics who withdrew from a race that included an Israeli did so because he was ill, authorities said Monday.
The Beijing Games have officially become the first "YouTube" Olympics.
BEIJING -- The situation called for delicate diplomacy, but not by No. 41 and No. 43 on your Bush presidential dial. Bush senior and junior were simple hoop fans among rowdy Olympic spectators Sunday night -- the only Americans without face paint in the arena -- when the U.S. men opened its competition in the Beijing Games against China.
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.
Fireworks, athletes and pageantry on a scale never before seen in the Olympics opened the Summer Games in Beijing on Friday as the Asian nation kicked off the biggest and most scrutinized Games in history.
BEIJING -- Who's got more pressure on them in Beijing? The Chinese women's gymnastics team, which has never won an Olympic team title and is looking to ride a wave of hometown support to end that surprising drought? Or the U.S. women, the defending world champions, whose only Olympic team title was brought home by the legendary "Magnificent Seven" in 1996?
China's determination to keep the Games safe and free of dissent has taken some of the fun out of the host city
BEIJING -- On Friday morning, Lopez Lomong sat before a room full of journalists and was asked to tell his story. Twenty-six minutes later, he stopped. And if this constitutes the longest press conference soliloquy that many in attendance had ever heard, it was also scarcely long enough to embrace Lomong's remarkable young life.
"We have the power to unite the people. If we can unite people who are willing to take a stand, miracles can happen. In Darfur, hundreds of thousands have been murdered, mutilated. Families torn apart...we have the power to save lives. Restore lives." -- Kobe Bryant, in a widely distributed PSA
BEIJING -- This night was supposed to be different. Seven years ago, I was a student here when the city was awarded the 2008 Olympics. An amateur Olympics nut then, I watched the entire IOC meeting on Chinese national television that July 13, 2001.
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