Salon Olympics Daily

Posts on Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Dare to struggle, dare to win!
Nike darling Liu Xiang let down his nation. Shouldn't the poster boy for the new China have crawled across the finish line -- no matter what?
Gymnastics tiebreakers are nuts!
Crazy rules cost American Liukin a gold. Then again, all gymnastics rules are crazy, and sane ones wouldn't have helped her.
Why do runners "shut it down"?
Saving energy for the final is one thing, but slowing down before the tape in heats looks like a recipe for disaster.
Memo to NBC gymnastics commentators: Shut up!
Their overheated, U.S.-obsessed reaction to Monday night's uneven-bars final made America look like a banana republic.
Mom favored for Sap-o-Meter gold
Slate has a scientific method for measuring the mawkishness of NBC's coverage.
Fool's gold
The real question to ask after Liukin and He's routines: Why can't there be a tie?
Paulie Walnuts has been located!
The scary "Sopranos" mobster showed up in Beijing, cunningly disguised as an American pole-vault coach.
The eternal flame
Like all the Olympics, the Beijing games leave us with abiding memories -- and a spark of inspiration.
Tuesday, Aug 26, 2008 00:30 EDT
Scoring the Beijing Olympics
They get a 9 for pomp and spectacle, but only a 3 for furthering world understanding and a 2 for the fan experience.
Monday, Aug 25, 2008 19:30 EDT
Athletes are just people
The outrage over Usain Bolt's chest-pounding proves that we expect athletes to be heroes -- and when they're not, we turn on them.
Monday, Aug 25, 2008 19:00 EDT
What happened to the real Olympics?
By only showing snippets of classic events like the decathlon, high jump and pole vaulting, NBC is missing what makes the Olympics special.
Saturday, Aug 23, 2008 23:20 EDT

Recent posts

Scoring the Beijing Olympics
They get a 9 for pomp and spectacle, but only a 3 for furthering world understanding and a 2 for the fan experience.
Athletes are just people
The outrage over Usain Bolt's chest-pounding proves that we expect athletes to be heroes -- and when they're not, we turn on them.
What happened to the real Olympics?
By only showing snippets of classic events like the decathlon, high jump and pole vaulting, NBC is missing what makes the Olympics special.

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About the Authors

Gary Kamiya is Salon's writer at large. He covered the Olympics for the magazine in Nagano, Sydney and Athens.

King Kaufman is Salon's daily sports columnist.

John Krich has been covering China for 20 years, most recently as the Asian Wall Street Journal's main food/sports/culture writer. He's the author of "El Beisbol," "Won Ton Lust" and other literary travelogues.

Jennifer Sey is the author of "Chalked Up," her memoir about the ups and downs in internationally competitive gymnastics. She was the 1986 U.S. National Champion and a seven-time national team member.

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