Top StoriesSome of the U.S. gold medal winners. (File photos) LONDON — Freestyle wrestler Jordan Burroughs came to the Olympics with two objectives: to become the champion in the 163-pound weight class and to restore Team USA to what he considered its... |
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Gymnastics
Swimming
Hungarian breaks pentathlon swim record
Hungary's Sarolta Kovacs broke the Olympic record for the swimming leg of the women's modern pentathlon on Sunday while her compatriot...
Track & Field
Shobukhova back for Chicago Marathon
Russia’s Liliya Shobukhova will try to become the first runner to win four straight Chicago Marathon titles.
Basketball
Krzyzewski goes out a winner with U.S. men's basketball
LONDON — All at once, years of pressure trapped inside Mike Krzyzewski started to escape.
More Olympics news
NBC's closing ceremony draws big ratings
NBC continued to enjoy extremely strong ratings to conclude the London Games, with Sunday night's fast-affiliate rating of 9.1 for the...
Olympics shot put champ stripped of gold for doping
Olympic women's shot put champion Nadzeya Ostapchuk has been stripped of the gold medal she won at the London Games a week ago after testing...
Despite criticism, NBC wins ratings gold
But can network endure another Olympics ignoring demands for live TV coverage of marquee events?
Day 16 roundup: Isaksen misses bronze by 8 points
LONDON -- It's not quite the fraction of a second that separates medalists from also-rans in other sports, but in modern pentathlon, where...
For some countries, leaving London feeling empty
LONDON — The age-old rivalry between Australia and Britain has provided one of the more entertaining subplots at the 2012 London...
London postcard: The winds that carry you through the Games
LONDON — It's officially time to go home when the volunteer at the media shuttle bus stop asks — in unsolicited fashion —...
London postcard: We're left with the legends
LONDON — Usain Bolt charged through the finish to obliterate another world record Saturday and then he got started. He decelerated...
London postcard: Not every great moment came with a medal attached
LONDON — I'm not a sports writer, but I know the rule.
London postcard: Missing the flame in so many ways
LONDON — The one good thing about the ridiculous hours we worked at these Olympics was the late-night walks.
London postcard: Oscar Pistorius stands apart
LONDON — When they make the movie of Oscar Pistorius' life, I look forward to telling my son I was there for what could be a great...
Olympic achievements shared by athletes and those who watch
LONDON -- Every four years, some of us who type for a living lose about three weeks of our lives to gain a lifetime of experiences. It is...
U.S. wrestler Jake Varner earns gold medal at London Olympics
LONDON -- Jake Varner learned to wrestle in Bakersfield. From his father, Steve. From his cousin, Andy, who coached Jake to two California...
Croatia end long wait for gold in water polo
Croatia won gold in the men's water polo Sunday, overpowering Italy 8-6 to take...
Russia fights back to win volleyball gold
Russia beat Brazil to win the Olympic men's volleyball gold medal on Sunday,...
It's a golden age for U.S. women at Olympics
— The day after Claressa Shields punched her way to a gold medal in women's boxing, she was walking through the Olympic village Friday...
DePaul coach Bruno on gold win: 'Great honor'
LONDON -- One of the first people Doug Bruno hugged Saturday night after the U.S. women’s basketball team’s 86-50 victory over...
For Durant, most important part is "Team" USA
LONDON — Kevin Durant is one of the more polite and accessible stars in the NBA.
U.S. women lose volleyball gold to Brazil
LONDON -- Perfect endings are for novels. Not so much for real life, or for volleyball teams and coaches.
Games have gone off without anything going off
LONDON — After a chaotic and embarrassing start, the Olympic security operation wraps up this weekend without major incident or much...
Hersh: Wrestler Herbert is not happy to just be there
LONDON – When Greek artists portrayed wrestling on red and black figure vases, when it became part of the first ancient Olympics, it...
Day 15 roundup: 2nd wrestling medal for U.S.
LONDON -- The U.S. won its second wrestling medal of the Olympics when Coleman Scott came back to win a bronze in the 132-pound class on...
London postcard: Games' way to my heart is through my stomach
LONDON — Every day, the shuttle bus passes some iconic tourist attraction, Buckingham Palace or Tower Bridge.
Mexico's 2-1 upset of Brazil in men's soccer not a total shock
LONDON -- Mexico's national anthem played at a medal ceremony for the first time in the London Olympics on Saturday, following its men's...
USA Boxing may not have a fighting chance till 2020
— It wasn't all that long ago that U.S. amateur boxers ruled the world.
A leaner, meaner modern pentathlon
LONDON -- Modern pentathlon has been in the Olympics since 1912, when Baron Pierre de Coubertin thought soldiers and cavalrymen needed their...
U.S. biker Georgia Gould snaps bad-luck cycle for bronze
— Toward the end of a recent World Cup mountain bike race, Georgia Gould was leading until her leg cramped up and she was overtaken....
Japanese soccer team gets upgrade; Korean men's team gets reprieve
LONDON -- Japan has upgraded its women's soccer team for its flight home despite the fact the reigning World Cup champions failed to win the...
Larry the Donkey is still making predictions
They love their horses here in London -- splashed all over the front pages, at every turn -- and the adulation has spread to another four-...
Karch Kiraly still making impact on volleyball
LONDON — There’s no coastline for miles, no sand in sight, but Karch Kiraly seems fine.
Hersh: U.S. track and field prospers
LONDON — Doug Logan's legacy from a brief and controversial two-year tenure as chief executive of USA Track and Field is a number.
U.S. women sprinters set world relay mark
LONDON -- Allyson Felix could not believe what the Olympic Stadium scoreboard was telling her.
Patton leaves failures in the dust
LONDON — It took a fraction more than 37 seconds to change so much for Darvis Patton.
U.S. has too much firepower for Argentina in semifinal win
LONDON — Kobe Bryant sank three 3-pointers and a reverse dunk in the first 4 minutes, 12 seconds. Kevin Durant drained four 3-pointers...
Haugh: Dream year just keeps getting better for Davis
LONDON — They took the Chunnel to Paris to gawk at the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre.
U.S. faces surprising France for gold medal
LONDON — Obviously, Sue Bird can't join the British populace who are allowed to wager on these Olympic Games.
Sports psychologists raise their game
LONDON — Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings worked with a sports psychologist en route to their third consecutive gold medal.
Day 14 roundup: Bronze for McPherson
LONDON -- Paige McPherson started the long-and-winding day with a victory over world champion and local favorite Sarah Stevenson of...
U.S. women's soccer team faces an uncertain future
LONDON — The U.S. women's soccer team sang and danced and partied deep into the morning after winning its third consecutive Olympic...
Sprinter Nellum to carry U.S. flag in closing ceremony
Bryshon Nellum, who was shot in the legs four years ago and endured three operations to return to the track, was selected...
Party time at the London Olympics national hospitality houses
LONDON — It was close to midnight and miles from the nearest venue, and the liveliest medal ceremony of the Olympic Games was...
Connor Fields crashes out of BMX final
LONDON — On the day he dreamed of winning a medal, Connor Fields dressed in red, white and blue. At the end of his event, the color...
American McPherson takes taekwondo bronze medal
LONDON -- Paige McPherson started the long and winding day with a victory over world champion and local favorite Sarah Stevenson of...
Spanish men to play for hoops gold
LONDON -- Spain beat Russia 67-59 on Friday to reach the Olympic men's basketball final for the second successive time.
After time to think, Demus reaffirms her pursuit of hurdles gold
LONDON — Lashinda Demus cried before her 400-meter hurdles final on Wednesday, overwhelmed by the pressure she had put on herself to...
Fitting himself for a halo, Bolt diminishes its aura
LONDON – Maybe it was all part of the act. Maybe Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt was putting us all on by calling himself a...
Once again, Lysacek says he is coming back
LONDON – For the second time in a year, reigning Olympic champion Evan Lysacek has announced his return to competitive skating with...
Steven Lopez loses first match in taekwondo
LONDON -- The Olympics is turning into a non-event for the Lopez family, at least in taekwondo.
Haugh: Bolt races into Olympics history
LONDON — Moments after providing track and field's enduring snapshot of the 2012 Olympics, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt grabbed a news...
Bolt makes history with gold in 200
LONDON — These are Usain Bolt's Olympic Games. Everyone else is simply running, jumping, swimming, cycling and rowing in his happy...
Hersh: A great debate ... Bolt or Eaton?
LONDON — How do you measure greatness? By two events that lasted fewer than 30 seconds combined? By one 10-part event that ground on...
Eaton strikes gold for U.S. in decathlon
LONDON -- The YouTube footage is humorous, the inexperienced subject half-somersaulting, half-back-flipping over a relatively low bar into...
U.S. women's soccer golden again
LONDON -- When the clock finally ran out on the U.S. soccer team's gold medal win over Japan on Thursday, a group of players ran from the...
U.S. women's water polo wins 1st gold medal
LONDON — Go figure, Maggie Steffens was in the middle of everything as the orchestral music swooned through the Water Polo Center...
Day roundup 13: U.S. qualifies 4 for BMX semis
LONDON -- The U.S. qualified four of its riders into the semifinals of the BMX competition on Thursday and Connor Fields is looking like...
Andres Nocioni, just like you remember him
LONDON — Wrapped in his country's flag, his voice hoarse from screaming and sinus problems, Andres Nocioni tried to summarize the bond...
U.S. women survive 1st true test, reach gold-medal game
LONDON — The U.S. women's basketball team has won games with its talent and tenacity, its defense and depth.
London postcard: When the sport is Royal watching
LONDON —The Royal Family certainly has gotten around at these Games.
Green with envy, Haley Anderson gets silver
LONDON — U.S. swimmer Haley Anderson admits she felt a tad envious when her older sister, Alyssa, won gold in the women's 800...
U.S. women's volleyball beats South Korea to reach gold-medal match
LONDON — Someone cut Destinee Hooker from a volleyball team once.
17-year-old Shields saves U.S. Olympic boxing gold legacy
LONDON — The boxing gold medalist from the United States stood proudly on the highest step of the podium Thursday as they played the...
Plaschke: U.S. women use head, heart and Solo to win soccer gold
LONDON -- On a rollicking night when England's sporting cathedral swelled with their relentlessness, the USA women's soccer team didn't...
David Rudisha sets world record in men's 800
LONDON — David Rudisha of Kenya broke his own world record in the 800-meter run Thursday night, a feat met with roars from the crowd...
Weightlifting's agony and ecstasy, Lego-style
Only the Guardian can make the Olympic men's weightlifting event look more interesting -- Lego-style, brick by-brick -- than the actual...
U.S. relay runner Manteo Mitchell finished race on broken leg
LONDON — If there’s an Olympic award for courage on the field of play, runner Manteo Mitchell should get a strong nomination.
Did Victor Conte give USA Boxing another black eye?
LONDON -- USA Boxing is already facing a firestorm of criticism after its men's team failed to win a medal for the first time in Olympic...
U.S. men's relay team advances; Oscar Pistorius to run again
LONDON — The U.S. men’s 1,600-meter relay team got the baton around without incident and tied the Bahamas relay team for the...
Yao Ming on display at British Museum, but few notice
LONDON---Most Olympic Games are a paparazzo's dream, with celebrities showing up in the VIP seats at every venue.
What to watch for on Thursday
There are seemingly thousands of events every day at the London Olympics. Here is what to keep an eye on Thursday:
Rivals challenge Bolt's back-to-back golden goal
LONDON -- Usain Bolt is performance, and performance art. He eggs on the crowd, eases up and dares other runners to catch him, strikes his...
Olympic Park's grandeur meets the ideals of its design
LONDON — When Juan Antonio Samaranch was president of the International Olympic Committee, he had a habit at closing ceremonies of...
Merritt leads U.S. to big night in track and field
LONDON — Aries Merritt dominated the 110-meter hurdles most of the season, and he again demonstrated his superiority Wednesday by...
Hersh: Felix gets redemption with gold in 200
LONDON — Someone else might have celebrated the end of the frustration with a scream or a cartwheel or a collapse on the track or...
Haugh: Regina George runs her own way
LONDON — Sprinting down the hallways for track practice at St. Gregory High School on the North Side, of all the unlikely places,...
Bryant breaks out of slump to lead U.S. into semifinals
LONDON — Even Kobe Bryant's teammates kept waiting for that look, that competitive countenance that fuels one of his scoring barrages.
U.S. pair get a little misty after 3rd gold medal in beach volleyball
LONDON -- The most decorated Olympians in beach volleyball history ended their storied partnership Wednesday with a gold medal, a sandy...
U.S. women takes winning streak into semifinal
LONDON — Lauren Jackson became the Olympics' all-time leading women's scorer in Australia's quarterfinal victory, which clinched a...
Day 12 roundup: U.S. gets bronze in wrestling
LONDON--The U.S. picked up a surprise bronze medal in the 105.5-pound class of women's freestyle wrestling. Clarissa Chun, 30, lost her...
U.S. men's water polo team loses to Croatia
LONDON — Long after the flag-waving ceased and the partisan chants went mute, Ryan Bailey hopped out of the pool, tossing his water...
Plaschke: Not just another day at the beach
LONDON -- On one edge of the court was Westminster Abbey. On another edge was 10 Downing Street. Towering in the distance was Big Ben.
Olympic run for U.S. men's volleyball team ends in loss to Italy
— The U.S. stunned the men's volleyball world in the 2008 Olympics, streaking to its first gold medal in 20 years.
Competitors in the Olympic 200 keep Wallace Spearmon on his toes
LONDON -- Usain Bolt is performance, and performance art. He eggs on the crowd, eases up and dares other runners to catch him, strikes his...
U.S. looks for payback against Japan in final
LONDON -- The U.S. women's soccer team has won more than 80% of its games since Abby Wambach was added to the roster a dozen years ago....
U.S. boxer Shields to vie for gold; Esparza takes bronze
LONDON — Marlen Esparza couldn't stop sobbing. And Claressa Shields wanted to weep.
