olympic sports

BEIJING -- The massive crowd falls silent as the Chinese doubles team begins to serve.It's Wang serving.Of course it's Wang serving.The Chinese doubles team consists of two men named Wang. Try beating the feared Wang-Wang team in table tennis in Beijing.Or anywhere, for that matter. Try beating the Chinese table tennis team anywhere.

As someone whose 50th birthday isn't too far off, this isn't easy for me to say -- because I'm old enough to remember 1972 and the Munich Olympics.I'm old enough to have seen Mark Spitz swim.

BEIJING -- For awhile there Jeremy Wariner looked unbeatable.The young Texan won double gold in the 400 meters and as anchor on the 4 x 400 relay at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. He duplicated that at the 2005 World Championships, then repeated it at the 2007 World Championships.Back then it looked like Wariner had only one real rival.43.18.

BEIJING -- At the 2004 Olympics, Brunei was one of three teams represented by just one competitor. But Brunei is down to zero, having been excluded from these Games after failing to register a single athlete.

BEIJING -- The end of the U.S. medal drought in men's water polo is now tantalizingly close.When the U.S. held off Germany 8-7 on Monday afternoon at Yingdong Natatorium -- after Italy had upset Serbia earlier in the day -- it not only assured the U.S. a place in the medal round, but vaulted them to the top of the Group B standings in pool play at the Olympic tournament.

BEIJING -- No man is an island.That might be true. But Nauru is a one-man island team.During the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, Itte Detanamo was the proud flagbearer for Nauru, a tiny speck in the South Pacific. But it wasn't as if too many meetings were held to decide who would do the honors.

BEIJING -- Granted, China's state-controlled press is hardly the hard-bitten U.S. bunch, and reporters from many countries cheer their own at the Olympics. But still. Reporters generally weep only when the free food runs out.

BEIJING -- She exhaled twice to settle her nerves and looked down the long and daunting runway.Alicia Sacramone had one last chance to salvage her Olympics, to brighten her dark memories with a golden one.She had fallen off the balance beam during the team competition. She believed, to her core, she had cost the United States the gold medal.

BEIJING -- Deena Kastor spent months planning and training, running hundreds of miles and arranging her schedule -- her life, really -- to prepare for the Olympic marathon.In an instant, with a pop, all of that was lost.

BEIJING -- While some guy named Phelps was making Olympic history Sunday, just a few miles down the road a couple of California girls were playing in the sand.But Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor don't expect a Phelps-like spotlight.They play beach volleyball.