Blogger: Peggy Shinn
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Andy Newell is one of America’s top cross-country skiers. He raced in the 2006… Read More
Henry Cejudo was the first resident athlete I met at the U.S. Olympic Training Center when I visited the facility in June. He was sitting at a table in the cafeteria with a few of his teammates and was the first to introduce himself.… Read More
China is lagging slightly in… Read More
Late Saturday afternoon, we watched badminton on TV. Badminton! And it was riveting, even though neither player was American. It was the gold medal match between two Chinese women, Xie… Read More
When Jason Lezak touched the wall in yesterday’s men’s 4x10 medley relay, he, Aaron Peirsol, and Brendan Hansen (plus Matt Grevers, Mark Gangloff, Ian Crocker, and Garrett Weber-Gale who qualified Team USA in the relay prelims) helped Michael Phelps win his eighth gold medal in… Read More
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My Boston friends were right. With primetime coverage running from 8 p.m. until after midnight, the 2008 Olympics is, for viewers, like the 2007 World Series. Or the 2004 World Series for that matter, and the 7-game playoff series before that, when the Red Sox rallied against the Yankees in game… Read More
Since Michael Phelps won his 11th gold medal in the 4x200 freestyle relay on Wednesday morning, he's been called the greatest Olympian of all time.
By medal count, yes. Phelps has been spectacular, out of this world, a show unto himself. And he has three races still to… Read More
A friend emailed yesterday asking about that little step that gymnasts sometimes take on their dismounts from the various apparatuses. “The poor performer could have done an absolutely perfect routine, a quadruple twist (or whatever) in the air prior to coming down and making one step and… Read More
Every morning, there’s a sense that I have to catch up — to see what I missed while I was sleeping.
This morning, my inbox has eight “Medal… Read More
I tried to stay awake but couldn’t. Ever since having a kid, staying up past 10:30 p.m. is like pulling an all-nighter. We had watched women’s gymnastics and Michael Phelps swim… Read More
It's Saturday morning, my mother-in-law's 83rd birthday, and I'm in the doghouse. My husband is in the kitchen making potato salad, and I can't seem to log off. Every time I try to shut down my computer, another bit of Olympic news pops up - Becca Ward has won a bronze… Read More
Several friends have emailed or called asking how to find Olympic TV coverage - specifically, what sports are on and when. I have pointed them to nbcolympics.com but one friend wrote: "I tried to figure out that NBC TV schedule - forget… Read More
Two days before the Opening Ceremony, the 2008 Olympics quietly kicked off with six first-round women's soccer games. I mean football games. The U.S. versus Norway match was televised on MSNBC, and Norway scored two goals in the first five minutes. Surely the U.S. women could score that many… Read More
Olympic TV coverage starts Wednesday, August 6, in the morning with women’s soccer on MSNBC, men’s soccer on Thursday morning, then the opening ceremonies on… Read More
(Photo: Beijing bound U.S. Olympians Kevin Tan (Gymnastics) and Misty May-Treanor (Beach Volleyball) trying on shoes during Team Processing.)… Read More
No cheering squad is louder or more enthusiastic than a bunch of kids (except maybe silly-hat-wearing, body-painted members of Red Sox nation during the World… Read More
On October 16, 1968, Tommie Smith and John… Read More
On May 17, 2008, mountain biker Georgia Gould collapsed near the end of a National Mountain Bike Series race in Santa Ynez, California. The temperature was around 100 degrees, and the Luna Chix team rider was way out front in the race. But after close to two hours riding hard in the heat, she… Read More
From the outside, road cycling looks like an individual sport. And it is in the time trial, where it's one rider against the clock. Road racing is a different story.
Thanks to the physics of cycling - which lets a rider save over 25 percent of his energy by drafting, or riding behind,… Read More
On July 16, USA Gymnastics announced that Morgan Hamm was confirmed on the men's Olympic team despite testing positive for a banned anti-inflammatory drug during the 2008 VISA… Read More
In early July, algae at the 2008 Olympic sailing venue in Qingdao made headlines. The Read More
As the Tour de France winds into its second week, women's cycling continues to fly way beneath the radar. While many Americans have probably heard of Levi Leipheimer, who automatically qualified for the U.S. men's Olympic cycling… Read More
On Wednesday, July 9, NBC Universal released its TV schedule for the 2008 Olympics. The company plans to present 3,600 hours of coverage on seven different networks and through
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Dara Torres is going to the Olympics. Not the oldest Olympian ever - that honor is held by Sweden's Oscar Swahn, who won a silver medal at the 1920 Olympics in shooting at age 72 - the 41-year-old… Read More
Let's hope Tyson Gay draws lane 1 in his 100-meter sprint at the Olympics. He may get out of the blocks faster.
Or so says a study published in the June issue of
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Although hundreds of sports and their various disciplines have been added to the Olympic program since the first modern Olympiad in 1896, some of my favorites are the discontinued events. Club throwing anyone? A triathlon that combined gymnastics and track & field perhaps? Or running deer… Read More
I’m gearing up for an epic battle this week. Not between Ian Crocker and Michael Phelps in the 100-meter butterfly. Or Allyson Felix against anyone who can catch her in the 200-meter sprint on the track. Or even Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon.
No, this battle is… Read More
In preparing for the Olympics, China hasn't had it easy. Plaguing the country have been the Sichuan earthquake and subsequent flooding, riots in Tibet, and even an algal bloom threatening the sailing venue (although isn't that Hong Kong's problem?). And, even though it's been… Read More
At swimming Olympic Trials on July 1, the NBC commentators noted that Michael Phelps has not lost the 200-meter butterfly since August 2002. And when he broke the world record in 2001 at age 15, he was the youngest male world record holder in swimming history. Since then, Phelps has broken his… Read More
Before bidding to host the 2008 Olympic Trials for swimming, a city would have to have an Olympic-sized pool, right? And by Olympic-sized, I mean 50 meters long and many lanes wide, not those 25-yard pools that hotels and health clubs often refer to as "Olympic sized."
Wrong.… Read More
A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from a friend with "Is China Ready for the 2008 Olympics?" written in the subject line. The message contained a series of photos showing amusing Chinese-to-English translations - or rather, mistranslations - on signs in public places:… Read More
After gymnastics Olympic Trials, the USA Gymnastics press release announcing the men's team was the most commented on article on teamusa.org. Most were upset that Raj Bhavsar was named as a replacement - for the second straight Olympics - not to the team itself.
Bhavsar finished third… Read More
At 5'7" tall, I have never thought of myself as short. But standing in the lunch line at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in… Read More
Underdogs
The wrestling world is aflutter -- if such a word can be used to describe wrestlers -- with Jake Deitchler's upset win in the Greco-Roman 66-kilogram class at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Las Vegas on June 14. Deitchler is 18 and just graduated from Anoka High… Read More
