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BEIJING 2008

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Gift bracelets give athletes and their friends a way to remember Beijing
[Ed.'s Note: When Mag senior writer Alyssa Roenigk got back from her trip to the Olympics, her computer was completely fried. This story was nearly a casualty of techincal difficulties but was miraculously pulled from the wreckage today.] When athletes arrived in the Olympic Village in Beijing this year, they received everything from free jackets and T-shirts to haircuts and dental care. But none of the Olympic swag created buzz like the pairs of bracelets developed by 2004 Olympic rowing silver medalist and IMG Olympic consultant Kate Johnson for Johnson & Johnson's Hearts of Gold program.
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Team USA volleyball comes full circle.
Shortly after the U.S. men's indoor volleyball team's stunning upset of Brazil in the gold medal game Sunday afternoon, Gabe Gardner and Ryan Millar wrapped themselves in U.S. flags. Then, after several minutes of tears and team hugs and celebration, they made their way toward the media. "I told these guys every day, 'You have to put it all out there," Gardner said, his arms and voice shaking. "There is no tomorrow at this tournament, no tomorrow at the Olympics."
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GE gives doctors a whole new look on athletes
There's a competition after the competitions that makes for some interesting analysis—the contest among Olympics sponsors for attention. Big companies vying for a piece of rings pie try to get out their message at tremendous cost, whether it's that Usain Bolt wears Puma or Michael Phelps uses Visa. We came away impressed with one pitch in particular: that of GE Healthcare.
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Running into paralympian Kevin Michael Connolly on The Great Wall
Hiking The Great Wall Saturday afternoon, we expected to encounter many things: spectacular views, strange-looking Chinese insects, teams of athletes hiking/walking/racing up and down the seemingly endless stories of stone steps. What we didn't expect was to see 2007 Winter X Games monoskier X silver medalist Kevin Michael Connolly roll past our group. Connolly is a professional photographer and competitive skier who was born without legs.
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Meet a few people behind the Olympic pin trade
Marlee Baker hasn't missed an Olympics—winter or summer—since 1984. Every two years, she meticulously plans a two-week vacation around The Games, then packs up her pins and heads to the host city. But she never pre-buys tickets. Her pins take care of that.
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Why we love Aussie pole vaulter Steve Hooker
Why do we love pole vault gold medalist Steve Hooker? Let us count the ways.
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For all their gold medals, China could have used one more in volleyball
A poll conducted by Xinhua before the Olympics found that the two gold medals the Chinese most desired this summer were for hurdler Liu Xiang and women's volleyball, two defending champs in events traditionally won by Westerners. China may dominate its share of sports, like badminton and ping-pong, but those capture no imaginations. Liu Xiang and women's volleyball, on the other hand, are revered because they are seen as symbols of the country's ability to "play with the big boys." They win what they're not supposed to, and that's empowering. It's the classic underdog story writ large.
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A message to the IOC
This is rich. IOC president Jacques Rogge said Usain Bolt overdid it with his celebration following the most remarkable run any sprinter has ever had. "That's not the way we perceive being a champion," Rogge said Thursday.
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Did Japan just win the last Olympic softball gold?
This is not how it was supposed to end. Sure, with the announcement that softball was being dropped from the 2012 Games, we knew Team USA's gold-medal streak would come to an end—but not like this. Not in its last game, it its last Games, against a Japanese team it had beaten 4-1 just 24 hours earlier and 7-0 earlier this week.
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A trip to the Forbidden City with Cheryl Haworth and Jennie Reed
U.S. weightlifter and three-time Olympian Cheryl Haworth finished competing Saturday afternoon. The Sydney bronze medalist took sixth place in the 75kg-and-over division but says injuries kept her off the medal stand. And while the 25-year-old ponders coming back for the London Games, she and her family made the most of their time in Beijing. By Wednesday, they'd already visited the Great Wall, had dinner in a hutong, bartered in the silk and pearl markets and braved the crowds of Tiananmen Square.
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The happiest woman in Beijing.
After Usain Bolt set the world record in the 100 meters Saturday night, Jamaica's Sports Minister Olivia Grange had to wait more than an hour in the media mix zone to congratulate her country's newest Olympic gold-medal winner in person. Wednesday night, after the 200-meter finals, she was having nothing of the sort.
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BMX in Beijing.
[Ed.'s Note: Alyssa has already written an Olympic BMX preview, this piece for espn.com, a feature on Donny Roinson (with video!) and this piece on Mike Day]. Before the first riders dropped into the BMX supercross course Wednesday morning, no one knew what to expect from the newest Olympics cycling discipline. But everyone involved in bringing BMX to the Games knew a lot was expected. Fortunately, the races didn't disappoint.
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Luke Cyphers heads into the Beijing protest zone
Okay, you've enjoyed Phelps and Bolt and the pole vault. Now it's time for some vegetables. Yesterday we scouted out one of the three approved "Protest Zones" Beijing allegedly set up for The Games, where the many people who have beef with the Chinese government were supposed to be able to express themselves. And what we found at Ritan Park was what other reporters found. Nothing, except for some tai chi and chai tea.
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The Olympic softball gift exchange
The five furry mascots representing the Beijing Olympics (Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini) are collectively called the Fuwas, or Friendlies. The BOCOG is doing everything possible to bill these Olympics as the "friendly" Games. Nowhere was this spirit of friendship more apparent than at the U.S.-China softball game Monday afternoon.
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The Olympic Village People: Anna Rice
Okay, so we can't take you truly inside the athlete's village, as (non-rights-holding) media cameras aren't allowed within its walls. We can have the athletes bring the village to you. Which is what we'll do over the next few days, starting with a report from Canada's top female badminton player Anna Rice.
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USA Softball to become USA Team Handball?
Since arriving in Beijing, the 15 members of the U.S. women's softball team have graciously answered questions about the removal of their sport from the 2012 Games. They've smiled and given polite answers when a reporter asks if they think they should back off on the scoring or implies that outfielder Jessica Mendoza should let a ball or two get past her once in a while. If they used the mercy rule less and mercy a bit more, perhaps their sport would still be around come the London Games. But there's more than one way for these girls to play ball in 2012.
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An interview with the Perfect 10 herself, Nadia Comaneci
[Ed's note: You can read more from Alyssa on this topic here.] To the eager journalist, the Olympic Green is a wealth of opportunity. Everyone from athletes to coaches to Debbie Phelps is wandering around, just waiting for someone to approach them, request a photo or stick a recording device in their face. Our first find: the First Family of Gymnastics, Nadia Comaneci and husband Bart Connor, who are in Beijing working for Mexican TV station Televisa. They'd just returned from a trek to the Great Wall with their three-year-old son Dylan and were visiting the Coca-Cola hospitality suite in the Sponsor Village, where Nadia was receiving the Live Positively award for her work with the Special Olympics. So, since Nadia and her seven 10.0s at the 1976 Olympics made the "Perfect 10" a household term, we wanted to know what she thinks of gymnastics' new open-ended scoring system. And, what the heck, we asked her hubby, too.
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Alyssa Roenigk reports from the 100M finals in Beijing
We get it. Michael Phelps is a big story. He's such a huge story that most folks in Beijing have taken to calling a swimming ticket a Phelps ticket. As in, "Hey, did you get tickets to see Phelps on Sunday? Yeah? Me too!" But Phelps is not the only story of these Games. And swimming certainly isn't the only Olympic sport worth watching live. (We know it's not the only sport NBC is showing live. But it's the only sport they're showing live every day.)
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Alyssa Roenigk reports on Phelps' biggest fans
One world. One dream. That's the motto of these Olympic Games. But no one dream has united the world this week like Michael Phelps' quest for eight gold medals. Athletes from around the world woke up early Sunday morning and headed to the Water Cube to see Phelps make history. The entire U.S. swim team, wearing softball-style team jerseys with their names on the back, filled a section in the upper tier, away from the distraction of autograph-seeking fans and the over-caffeinated media. (But not all media, see below.) A few tiers down, athletes from Brazil, Australia, Canada and Spain filled the entire family section. For once, it was tough to spot an empty seat in the house.
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China gets their first Olympic baseball win
One of the wildest baseball games you'll ever see happened yesterday in Beijing, where China beat Chinese Taipei 8-7 in extra innings. Frankly, we're still in shock. Let's unravel that first sentence a bit and maybe you'll understand why: China was playing its second ever Olympic baseball game.
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The Olympics is the biggest sporting event in the world. So where the heck is everybody?
Friday morning, we woke up, went outside and saw an old friend none of us had seen since arriving in Beijing: the Sun. Thursday night's rain storm was the worst we've experienced in the 10 days we've been here, and its affects on the atmosphere were astonishing. Thursday had been the smoggiest day yet, and the visibility was terrible. Today, there is barely a cloud in the sky, and you can actually see the mountains. The rains last weekend certainly improved the air quality, and even revealed a glimpse of blue in the sky. But, unlike today, the sun remained hidden behind a wall of thick, white clouds. Not so today, where the sun is shining brightly, which might explain the crowds finally walking around the Olympic Green.
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S.O.S.—Save Our Softball
S.O.S.—SAVE OUR SOFTBALL Given that we based our whole Olympic preview issue on the premise that The Games are all about the women, we decided to stop by a press conference with people determined to preserve softball as an Olympic sport. In 2005, the IOC unceremoniously dumped softball for the 2012 Summer Games in London. This despite the fact that the sport has grown from 86 countries to 130 since its inclusion in the 1996 Games, despite its popularity in the big TV markets of the U.S. and China, despite the fact that (shameless plug alert) ESPN shows it all spring, and despite the fact that Cat Osterman has a really cool Under Armour commercial, not to mention a wicked peel-off dropball.
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Some people will do anything to feel less like a tourist in Beijing
Everybody wants to be part of the Olympics party in Beijing. So they'll do just about anything to feel like more than just a tourist.
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Luke Cyphers goes face-to-face with a Chinese tank
So about four days into The Games, the space in front the Olympics Main Press Center was invaded by a white Chinese urban assault vehicle of some sort. (If any readers can ID it, by the way, please help we left our well-thumbed copy of Jane's Military Vehicles and Logistics back home. D'oh!) Anyhow, the tank turned out to be occupied by soldiers, which one would think would make it intimidating. But the intrepid sports media were not cowed! Recalling another famous time in not-so-distant Chinese history, they began to stand in front of the tank.
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Georgia and Russia settle their differences ... in bikinis
We cannot add much to the story of the day (no, Michael Phelps, you are routine by now)—the Georgia-Russia beach volleyball match—that our ESPN colleague Jim Caple did not mention. Because really, after you describe all the bikini tops and bikini bottoms, and the pop muzik backdrop, what else is left? But we do think this piece of, uh, analysis, is important.
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Guam's best hope for a medal comes in 435-pound Ric Blas Jr.
There's something about the softball diamond that brings out the chattiness in people. While taking in the U.S.-Venezuela game at Fengtai Softball Field yesterday, we struck up a conversation with Richard Wyttenbach-Santos, grandfather-in-law of Ric Blas Jr., Guam's flag-bearer in the Opening Ceremonies and one of five Guam athletes in these Games. Blas, a judo wrestler listed at 399 pounds—he weighs 435, according to Wyttenbach-Santos—may be Guam's best chance for its first Olympic medal. "He's a sweet kid. Modest. Sweet kid," Wyttenbach-Santos said of Blas Jr. "If he got a medal, he would be the best known athlete in Guam for the next generation."
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Ten reasons we miss the ten.
Watching the women's gymnastics team final Wednesday afternoon at Beijing's Indoor National Stadium, one thing came to mind over and over again. (No, not that the women's team choked.) This sport is much less engaging to fans without the 10-point judging system. So, with that, we give you the 10 reasons we miss the 10.
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Croatia Men's waterpolo finds the power of the 'stache
We enjoy jaywalking into the intersection of geopolitical conflict and sports: USA-USSR. Argentina-England. Michigan-Ohio State. That's why we'll be at the Georgia-Russia beach volleyball match this morning. And that's why yesterday we couldn't resist checking out the Serbia-Croatia water polo match. Like Russia and Georgia, Serbia and Croatia have had issues. We expected to see some animus. And we did see a bunch of muscley fellas beating the cevapi out of each other underwater during Croatia's 11-8 victory. We also saw fans on both sides bellowing nationalistic chants. But mostly, we saw good sportsmanship. And mustaches.
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Natalie Coughlin's family enjoys another gold.
There are few things more nerve-wracking than the start of an Olympic finals race. The sweaty palms, the fluttering heart, the shaky hands. That seemingly endless moment just before the start bell sounds. And that's just what an athlete's family goes through.
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Think Michael Phelps has it bad? Check out the media frenzy around his mom Debbie
Three hours after the U.S. won the men's 4x100 relay, Phelps made an appearance at the Speedo Sports Club in Beijing's Chaoyang Park. More than 100 members of the international media rushed from locations around the city for a chance to score an interview with the newest, biggest, must-have celeb. "I had no idea this many members of the media would come here," said one member of Speedo's PR squadron. The media crush was so intense that several Speedo reps began acting as security guards in order to control the chaos. "Step back, everyone," one rep said, literally stiff-arming the press. "Mrs. Phelps will have time for all of you."
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China copes with early Games upsets of their heavily favored athletes
The Olympics weren't a day old when a shocking murder-suicide took some of the glitter off the previous night's Opening Ceremonies. The fatal stabbing of American Todd Bachman is a sober reminder that sometimes even all the preparation in the world can't pave over the cracks in human nature. The Games, however, are set up to be a foil against the ugliness of reality. The Olympics celebrate the distinctly human, from triumph to defeat and everything in between, and the first weekend had plenty of it all as The Games went on.
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Luke Cyphers finds out what the Opening Ceremonies really meant for China
Sometimes, to get the big picture of the Olympics you have to look through a small lens. And we're lucky enough to have a great local viewfinder for The Games and window on what it all means for China, courtesy of Xu Lihua.
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China's basketball obsession begins and ends with Team USA
The shiny new Olympic Basketball Gymnasium opened its doors Saturday, and we were there to see it. There were thousands of happy spectators around us, some who meandered aimlessly and snapped pictures with silly, carefree grins. This was the first day of competition, after all. We took in four women's basketball games over 10 hours, highlighted by contests involving the U.S. and China (but not U.S. versus China—that would be the next night). Here are a few things we learned:
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Alyssa Roenigk reports from Beijing, Day two
After the men's gymnastics qualification Saturday afternoon (Olympic time), we asked the Team USA athletes to let us sneak a peek at their Facebook status updates. Here's what we gathered.
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A viewers guide to the Opening Ceremonies.
Greetings from the future, where the Opening Ceremonies of the XXIX Olympiad have just finished, and we know who lit the Olympic torch. The event begins tonight at 7:30 EST on NBC. But in case you don't have four-and-a-half hours to spare, we've provided you with a cheat sheet. [Insert Olympic cheaters joke here.]
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Reporting From ... Ditan Park
Well, we just saw the Opening Ceremonies, stuffed inside Ditan Park (Temple of Earth) with thousands of others. The big screen wasn't as good as the real thing—feel free to rub it in, Luke and Alyssa—but even standing outside in heat and humidity, and fighting off mosquitoes, there were moments that made our jaws drop. Seriously. That was pretty cool.
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Clip Reel: Opening Ceremonies
Love them or hate them, much of the world watches the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. With the Olympics starting on Friday in Beijing, we felt the need to transport you via ClipReel to a variety of opening ceremonies. Though we have no idea what's going on in it, we recommend viewing the 2004 EURO Portugal Opening Ceremony.
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Play an Olympic Frogger-style game right here
The Olympic Torch's journey has been long and arduous. It's traveled tens of thousands of miles, avoided the ire of angry protesters and even survived an earthquake. But now, with the Opening Ceremonies set to kick off tonight, the torch is in the home stretch. It's up to you to lead the torch past its final obstacles and save the Olympics Frogger style. No pressure or anything.
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