Olympics Page 50 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
This 90-Year-Old Pole Vaulter Is Much Better Than You
The BBC spent some time in Jonesboro, Ark., where 1984 Olympian and USATF hall of famer Earl Bell runs the training program that produced two-thirds of America's pole vaulters in London. Another familiar face around the facility is Earl's father William, who just turned 90, and can still soar with...
Men's Gymnastics All-Around: Kohei "Superman" Uchimura Is Invincible
The gold in today's men's gymnastics all-around went to Japan's Kohei Uchimura, aka "Superman," as it was supposed to. Did that make it boring, like a murder mystery where you know the ending, or like a primetime broadcast of a swimming race whose results were published hours ago? ...
This Is The Deficit Allison Schmitt Just Erased To Win Gold For Team USA In The Women's 4x200 Free
The 4x200-meter freestyle relay just ended, and, as you'll learn tonight on NBC, the American women won gold. The hero of today's race was not Missy Franklin, everybody's favorite teenage superstar, but Allison Schmitt, the 22-year-old from the University of Georgia. (The photo above comes from Tues...
Olympic Media Bus Strikes And Kills Bicyclist
We don't know much but Al Michaels just interrupted NBC's Olympics coverage to say that a media bus struck and killed a cyclist in London....
Meet The Olympics' Newest Heartthrob: Ryan Wieber, Brother Of Jordyn
So the internet is in a tizzy over the rather young Ryan Wieber!...
How Many Times Have Americans Said "Awesome" or "Oh My God" In Olympic Interviews? This Many.
Ah, the post-game interview. A magical moment in sports journalism where reporters try to force a meaningful, articulate comment out of an incredibly exhilarated and emotional athlete. The Olympics are rife with opportunities for these same reporters to ask the same questions and get the same answ...
Find Out How Those Cool Underwater Olympic Photos Get Made
The New York Times ran a piece today about the work that goes into capturing photos of Olympic swimmers from underwater. The process is not as simple or mechanical as you might expect it to be, and requires a great deal of preparation and creativity from the photographers who own the cameras....
A Ugandan Hero Is Trapped In London: Foreign Olympics News That Wasn't Big Enough For Bob Costas
Deadspin and Gelf Magazine bring you the best (or at least the most interesting) foreign-produced journalism about the London Olympics. ...
Going Under: What Happened To U.S. Synchronized Swimming?
There is a YouTube video of synchronized swimmer Mary Killman performing what is called a Rocket maneuver to the song “Johnny B. Goode” as part of her final solo at the 2011 synchronized swimming world championships in Shanghai. Killman, who will compete in this summer’s Olympics, says it is one of ...
What The Jingoists Are Saying Today: "Suck it Russia! 'If You Don't Like America, You Can Get Out!'"
I honestly don't even know what that means. Is it directed at...Russia? Is Russia currently in the United States? If so, has it expressed displeasure with being in the United States? Why is it in quotes? Is it an oft-quoted saying? Now directed at Russia? So many questions. But let's move on to wha...
The U.S. Already Had Gold Locked Up After This Disaster From Russia's Floor World Champion, So NBC Didn't Show It To You
Despite NBC's odd penchant for showing crying gymnasts, the rather amazing image you see above (taken by AP staffer Matt Dunham) didn't make it to air last night. It's the Russian team reacting to the shock of world champion Ksenia Afanasyeva inexplicably falling onto her face on the closing tumble...
Your Daily Olympic Schedule: August 1 - Day 6
In effort to save you the time that it takes to both find and decipher the NBC Olympics schedule while trying to figure out which events are even worth watching, we've created our own (better) daily schedule of Olympic events. All events are listed in Eastern Daylight Time (no math) at the time tha...
Relive McKayla Maroney's Phenomenal Vault In Super-Slow Motion
While judges found room for deductions for which it seems nobody else can, McKayla Maroney's vault early in today's women's team gymnastics final was still strong enough to set an unstoppable pace that resulted in the United States taking gold. (It wasn't a surprise she nailed the vault, though, i...
1984 Olympics PSA Used Celebrities To Encourage Folks Not To Drive
Apparently, in the run-up to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, there was much ado being made about how the legendary SoCal traffic would multiply exponentially in the face of such a massive, international gathering. So Caltrans, which keeps all manner of transportation running smoothly in t...
Olympic Field Guide: Missy Franklin, America's Teenage Swimming Sensation
Name: Melissa "Missy" "The Missile" Franklin...
Happy, Healthy, And Hitting Their Spots: How The American Women's Gymnastic Team Won The Gold
Today, the U.S. women's gymnastics team, which entered the Olympics as the heavy favorite for team gold medal, did what every commentator predicted it would—won the title in a commanding fashion, topping the Russians by five points, 183.596 to 178.530....
The Tunisian Basketball Coach Slapped The Shit Out Of One Of His Players In The Huddle
As we told you earlier, the Tunisian men's basketball team were 54-point underdogs heading into their preliminary game against Team USA. The stress of facing such daunting odds may have gotten to Tunisia's coach (the bald man at the center of the video above), as he unleashed a vicious slap into t...
<em>Denver Post</em> Writer Says He Never Meant To Tweet About How "Horny" He Got While Covering The Olympics
So what prompted John Henderson of the Denver Post to tweet that on Sunday? Denver Westword noted that it appeared in Henderson's timeline not long after he had written separate blog items about a pair of teenage swimmers. Which is ... awkward....
How A Career Ends: Nancy Hogshead-Makar, Olympic Swimming Gold Medalist
Tell Me When It's Over is an interview series in which we ask former athletes about the moment they knew their playing days were over. Today: Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a 50-year-old mother of three, tenured professor at the Florida Coastal School of Law, and the Senior Director of Advocacy at the Women'...
Michael Phelps Somehow Managed To Blow A Lead This Big
This was Michael Phelps toward the end of the 200 m butterfly final. (You can see exactly how close to the finish he was by contextualizing those staccato red marks* with an overhead photo of the pool.) He wound up finishing second to South Africa's Chad le Clos. Once upon a time, Phelps passed othe...