Month: August 2008

Wrestling, track, diving, gymnastics — what’s not to love? Again, great thanks to FInneye for these links, including a surprise U.S. gold medal wrestler (right). Links after the jump. Wrestling, track, diving, gymnastics — what’s not to love? Again, great thanks to FInneye for these links, including a surprise U.S. gold medal wrestler (right). Links […]

A surprising thing happened tonight at Citizens Bank Park. It was Gay Community Night at the Phillies. That's not the shocking thing. Tonight's event was the 6th such event. I had a brief word with Larry Felzer, one of the organizers of the event and longtime friend of Outsports, who informed me that they sold […]

It’s not easy to find much on the Web about Russian volleyballer Yury Berezhko. One of the few tidbits I was able to uncover was that his favorite kind of music is “club music,” which would make him gay in the U.S. but in Europe makes him like just about everybody else. He’s one of […]

Out at the Rowing/Canoeing Park, the atmosphere was surprisingly casual. One little grandstand full of people, Chinese rock music playing, and 25 women diving off a jetty for the start. Since they weren't swimming in lanes, they had huge black numbers inked on their arms. Camera crews in boats got you as close to the […]

It was "focus on females" as the network honed into synchronized swimming, more gymnastics and the individual dressage finals. While the frenzied Phelps medal race was on, the Netherlands' Anky van Grunsven has been quietly pursuing her third Olympic gold. This is a huge achievement in dressage, where you can't pile up medals the way […]

A few days back I wrote an item called “Woe Canada,” that detailed how the nation of 33 million had yet to win a medal. I wasn’t alone as it became a constant theme in the Great White North. Things have changed in a hurry, with 13 medals in four days. Included in that group […]

Number twenty-six in a series. Broadcast: Texas Rangers on FSN Southwest, Tampa Bay at Rangers, 8/15/08; Announcers: Josh Lewin (play-by-play), Tom Grieve (analyst), Jim Knox (reporter) With a few hours until the deadline for signing draft picks (a team that didn’t sign a drafted player lost the rights to that player, who goes back into […]

I have never been a Rafael Nadal fan, but man is he earning my respect. I always dismissed him as a clay-court wonder, which he was until this year. Now he adds Olympic gold to his 2008 march; and his rival, Roger Federer, doesn't have any Olympic singles medal. Love or hate those cutoffs and […]

It was rather touching to see Brazil's Cesar Cielo cry after winning the men's 50-meter freestyle. He cried in the pool, he cried after getting out of the pool and he cried on the podium. "I am overwhelmed by emotion," he said. It was cool that he let the world see his emotions. There was […]

New to the Olympics: marathon swimming, to be held at the Rowing-Canoeing Park in Beijing starting tomorrow, August 20th. The Park is a lake-size sheet of water where the winds can kick up some nasty 2-3-foot whitecaps. The 10K swim for women is August 20, and the men's swim on August 21. Swimmers will make […]

Bob Ballard of the BBC is covering the diving competition in Beijing. He wrote for Outsports about the first day of competition for openly gay diver Matthew Mitcham: By Bob BallardBBC for Outsports I hadn't even considered the possibility and I doubt if he had either, but Matthew Mitcham came mighty close to not making […]

Out Aussie diver Matthew Mitcham has qualified for the semifinal round with his six dives in today’s 3m springboard prelims. Mitcham qualified 15th; eighteen divers qualified. Predictably, Chinese men sit first and second. Both American divers, Chris Colwill and Troy Dumais, also qualified. The semis will be held Monday night at 10pm EST and can […]

Soccer stud David Beckham, not content to cede the media spotlight to Michael Phelps, will appear at the Olympics next week as part of the official handover ceremony from Beijing to London on Aug. 24. Becks will arrive at the Bird’s Nest atop a double-decker bus and kick a soccer ball into the crowd. Phelps, […]

Another batch courtesy of Finneye, including gymnastics, rowing, canoeing, track and field and more. Right, is a happy silver medal gymnast from France. Links after the jump. Another batch courtesy of Finneye, including gymnastics, rowing, canoeing, track and field and more. Right, is a happy silver medal gymnast from France. Links after the jump.

And you thought swimming had finished. Wrong again! NBC is touting this on their prime time schedule Sunday: And you thought swimming had finished. Wrong again! NBC is touting this on their prime time schedule Sunday:

The only place where the action in Beijing seems to be lacking is the Olympic Village. The 10,500 athletes on hand for the Games aren't picking up free condoms that were all the rage in Sydney and Athens. I guess the Redeem Team and Kobe Bryant brought their own. There's 100,000 free condoms up for […]

Australian diver Matthew Mitcham, the only publicly gay male at the Games, dives for the first time on Monday. He has a website that allows you to send a “shout out.” Click on the front of his site and the “Shout Box” is on the left. It would be cool if Outsports readers let him […]

Just watched Denmark lightweight fours win the gold medal in rowing and seeing the four celebrate after was like watching a photo shoot for A&F. Among them is Joergensen, 23, a single student majoring in finance. More great shots of the four Danes after the jump. Just watched Denmark lightweight fours win the gold medal […]

From the L.A. Times comes this weird tale about the crowds — or lack of them — at many Olympic venues. All the tickets for all the events have been “sold out” for weeks, yet an event might have only 25% of the seats filled. No one knows exactly why, but now organizers are busing […]

I always love seeing the variety of vehemence in that eternal argument about which Olympic sports should be axed — and whether the Games themselves should be axed, and why. I tip my hat to Ryan Quinn for leading off the current round of screaming and yelling about this. But in my opinion it's an […]