Summer Olympian

Did you get your mother a card and some flowers for her special day? Well here’s another gift from the…

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While your watching the your favorite athlete at the Beijing Olympics this year the cameras will inevitably flash to his/her nervous parents. Maybe one of them has left their seat out of anxiety, maybe one has their eyes covered, or maybe they’re…

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Performance-enhancing drugs and the Olympics. The proverbial elephant in the room. Someone’s not afraid to talk about it and it’s none other than Victor Conte, head of the infamous Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco) lab and supplier to countless would-be cheaters. In…

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The Wall Street Journal has had the most thoughtful, insightful, and interesting Beijing Olympics coverage of any English language news source. Their nonpareil work continued today with this excellent Page One article about the Puerto Rican…

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Not every Chinese-born Olympian will be competing for their birth country in Beijing. Dozens of competitors now living throughout the world will be making a homecoming during this years’ Olympics. In fact eight will…

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Now if you thought the Sunday New York Times’ front page article “Witness in Track Doping Case Is Ready to Name…

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Boxing’s second (and final) Americas Qualifier got started on Friday in Guatemala City, Guatemala with three American pugilists aiming to join their eight already-qualified teammates in Beijing.  In their first bout of the tourney middleweight Shawn Estrada picked up a decisive…

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The April 13 Sunday New York Times was a veritable indictment of Beijing 2008 and the Olympics movement. How bad could it have been? The front page upper left hand corner article’s title was ”

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Two weeks ago we wrote here at summerolympian.com about 58-year-old yachtsman John Dane III. He will be competing in the Olympics’s Star Boat sailing competition. At the time we were confident that he would be the oldest…

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Did you spring for that 46” high-definition plasma or LCD extravaganza of a TV for Christmas this year? Maybe you balked but then realized you just had to have it for the Super Bowl? Or maybe you were a savvy buyer and held…

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Pitchers win championships in the intense climate of fast-pitch softball. They stare down their batting adversary from just 43 feet away before whipping the horsehide to home plate at an incredible speed. Hitting a world-class softball pitcher is much more difficult than…

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The United States women’s soccer squad faces the lightly-regarded Costa Rican side this Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. in Ciudad Juaraz, Mexico for a trip to the Beijing Olympics. The Stars and Stripes finished at the top of the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualification Group A table with…

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The path towards Olympic glory is seldom an easy road. For some athletes the quest’s difficult nature is compounded by cultural norms, religious rules, and even personal psychological demons. This weeks Human Interest Saturday looks at articles tracing the journey…

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The 2008 U.S. Softball team was announced last week. It’s a fearsome squad. 10 of its 15 members return from 2004’s all-conquering fast-pitchers. The team, including its three alternates, owns 18 Olympic golds, 10 collegiate National Championships and myriad Pan Am Games…

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Passport information for 437 British Broadcasting Corporation journalists, presenters, translators, and other staff was stolen from the BBC offices in early March, the Guardian reports. What trait did those dispossessed share (other than being BBC…

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