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Track and Field

Hench items
The U.S. track and field debacle and NBC's shabby treatment of the games' glamour event. Plus: Keri Walsh. And: Teddy Atlas.
By King Kaufman August 22, 2008
The U.S. track team loses its grip
In a nightmarish 30 minutes, the world's track powerhouse is humiliated -- while amazing little Jamaica laps it again.
By Gary Kamiya August 22, 2008
Rogge: Usain in the membrane
The IOC chief criticizes the magnificent Bolt for celebrating. Is he an idiot or just crazy?
By King Kaufman August 21, 2008
Sweet swift deities in spikes
My day of track and field was glorious, but I long to turn the Olympics back to the purity of my boyhood dreams.
By John Krich August 20, 2008
Lolo Jones' Olympian failure
Steps from gold, she clips a hurdle and falters, leading to an agony that's unique to the games.
By King Kaufman August 20, 2008
Paulie Walnuts has been located!
The scary "Sopranos" mobster showed up in Beijing, cunningly disguised as an American pole-vault coach.
By Gary Kamiya August 19, 2008
Why do runners "shut it down"?
Saving energy for the final is one thing, but slowing down before the tape in heats looks like a recipe for disaster.
By King Kaufman August 19, 2008
Dare to struggle, dare to win!
Nike darling Liu Xiang let down his nation. Shouldn't the poster boy for the new China have crawled across the finish line -- no matter what?
By John Krich August 19, 2008
Short people got no reason to live
It isn't enough that tall men get all the girls and win all the elections. After Usain Bolt's ridiculous world-record sprint, now we can't even run away from them anymore.
By Gary Kamiya August 18, 2008
Grace under pressure, and over power
It would have been great to see Shawn Johnson's explosive athleticism win the women's gymnastics gold.
By King Kaufman August 15, 2008

Recent posts

Scoring the Beijing Olympics
They get a 9 for pomp and spectacle, but only a 3 for furthering world understanding and a 2 for the fan experience.
Athletes are just people
The outrage over Usain Bolt's chest-pounding proves that we expect athletes to be heroes -- and when they're not, we turn on them.
What happened to the real Olympics?
By only showing snippets of classic events like the decathlon, high jump and pole vaulting, NBC is missing what makes the Olympics special.

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About the Authors

Gary Kamiya is Salon's writer at large. He covered the Olympics for the magazine in Nagano, Sydney and Athens.

King Kaufman is Salon's daily sports columnist.

John Krich has been covering China for 20 years, most recently as the Asian Wall Street Journal's main food/sports/culture writer. He's the author of "El Beisbol," "Won Ton Lust" and other literary travelogues.

Jennifer Sey is the author of "Chalked Up," her memoir about the ups and downs in internationally competitive gymnastics. She was the 1986 U.S. National Champion and a seven-time national team member.

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