Beijing, China - This is it! Don’t miss Team USA take on Japan to win their fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal live Thursday morning, August 21st at 6:30 a.m. EST on the USA network. Japan battled back and won two in a row to face Team USA in the final. Stuck at work or school? Check out live coverage here.
August 20, 2008 - Here are some highlights from Day 12 of the Summer Games:
BMX:
Jill Kintner, the lone American in the 16-racer field, qualified with a No. 7 seed.
Softball:
US beats Japan 4-1 to make Olympic softball final - Crystl Bustos hit a three-run homer in the ninth inning as the U.S. Olympic softball team beat Japan 4-1 in extra innings and will play for its fourth straight gold medal.
Water Polo:
US advances to gold-medal match -The Women’s Water Polo Team is headed for a gold medal match after 9-8 defeat of Australia. Team
August 20, 2008 - With no shortage of sports activities happening this summer (including this little event in Beijing called the Olympics) Nike is hosting one of the world’s largest one-day running events at the end of the month.
Set to take place August 31, 2008, The Nike+ Human Race 10K is truly a global event. Individuals can either join large groups of runners in 25 different host cities around the world or choose to run where they are and upload their stats via Nike+.
When signing up for the event through the Nike+ website, runners are given the option of choosing a charity they would like to run for including the UN Refugee Agency, the Lance Armstrong Foundation or the WWF.
Registered runners have access to a free Nike training mix that can be downloaded from iTunes. All participants will also recieve an official Nike+ Human Race Day tee (woo hoo), as well as entrance to a free concert (sweet) at the finish line. Performers include the All American Rejects (New York), Kayne West (Los Angeles), Fall Out Boy (Chicago) and Pendulum (London).
Join a million runners for a worldwide 10K like no other. Just do it!
August 19, 2008 - Here are some highlights from Day 11 of the Summer Games:
Beach Volleyball:
May-Treanor, Walsh one step away from gold - May-Treanor and Walsh, ranked second, advanced to Thursday’s gold-medal match by defeating Brazil’s No. 6 Talita Antunes and Renata Ribeiro, 21-12, 21-14.
Gymnastics:
Shawn Johnson wins gold in balance beam-Shawn Johnson finally got her Olympic gold medal in the last event of the women’s competition, the balance beam.
Track & Field:
Dawn Harper wins hurdles gold medal- Dawn Harper of the U.S. won the 100 m hurdles in a personal best 12.54 seconds.
August 19, 2008 - Beijing, China - Tonight’s the night. Undefeated and top seed Team USA (7-0) will take on Japan (6-1), in the first semifinal match-up tonight at midnight on CNBC (EST). The winner will advance to the gold medal game.
After scoring a record breaking 53 runs in seven games, Team USA is on a tear. However, if anyone can stop them, it’s Japan. Japanese pitcher, Yukikio Ueno, has a history of defeating Team USA. During the 2005 Japan Cup final, Ueno shut out the United States, 3-0.
Don’t miss the action tonight. Can’t stay up? Check out amazing up to the minute coverage here.
August 18, 2008 - Here are some highlights from Day 10 of the Summer Games:
Gymnastics:
China’s He edges Liukin on uneven bars - He Kexin has won a tiebreaker over all-around champion Nastia Liukin of the United States for the uneven bars gold medal Monday at the Beijing Olympics. Both scored 16.725, but He got the nod.
Soccer:
Brazil and US will compete for the gold - The United States and Brazil won their respective semi-finals to advance to the gold medal match. Angela Hucles scored twice and Lori Chalupny and Heather O’Reilly added goals as the U.S. had a 4-2 come-from-behind victory against Japan.
Track & Field:
Isinbayeva wins pole vault gold, breaks record -Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia has broken her own world record in winning a second consecutive Olympic pole vault gold medal. Already assured victory over rival Jenn Stuczynski of the U.S., Isinbayeva set the mark of 16 feet, 6 3/4 inches (5.05 meters) on her third and final attempt.
August 18, 2008 - Surf ranged in the 2-5 foot range all weekend and proved that Hawaii is the place to have contests! Sunny skies, big smiles and big moves from all divisions were the standard all weekend.
Sunday started out with Pro longboarding and the show was on. Radical off the lips and smooth nose riding in combination scored high. Early stand outs early were Candice Appleby and Crystal Dzigas, both local Queens Beach girls. Dzigas was going for the largest sets and pulling straight up tops turns and long nose rides on her longboard.
When Semis rolled around Jr. Women winner Carissa Moore worked through the burn in her legs to score big. Moore entered three divisions in marathon manner - after all Kewalos is her home training ground. After winning the ASP Women’s Jr Pro Saturday Moore won all three divisions she entered Sunday, a total sweep of shortboarding, longboarding and the first ever FLHI Girlz Trick competition. Alessa Quizon was not far behind in scoring, just short one turn on the inside.
August 17, 2008 - Here are some highlights from Day 9 of the Summer Games:
Beach Volleyball:
May-Treanor, Walsh advance to Olympic Semifinals - Misty May-Treanor (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Kerri Walsh (Saratoga, Calif.) defeated Brazil’s third-ranked Ana Paula Connelly and Larissa Franca, 21-18, 21-15 to advance to the semifinals of the Olympic beach volleyball tournament.
Branagh, Youngs eliminated in quarterfinals - A crowd estimated at 11,500 cheered the Chinese team of Chen Xue and Xi Zhang on to a 21-17, 21-13 victory over the U.S. team of Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs on Sunday in the quarterfinals of the Olympic beach volleyball tournament.
Gymnastics:
Johnson has gold snatched away by Romania’s Izbasa - Two days after Nastia Liukin edged Johnson for the all-around title, Romania’s Sandra Izbasa — the very last competitor — grabbed the floor exercise gold that was almost in the American’s hands.
Rowing:
US crew win women’s 8 rowing - The United States has won the gold medal in women’s eight rowing, finally knocking off Romania and another crew for a win in the sport’s signature event.
Swimming:
Torres adds three silver medals to her collection - Forty-one year old Dara Torres earned silver in all three of her races in Beijing, earning her 12 medals in a career that began as a 17-year-old at the 1984 Olympics in her hometown of Los Angeles.
Oh - and let’s give the guys some props. In case you haven’t heard, Michael Phelps won his 8th gold medal of the Games; breaking the tie with Olympian Mark Spitz. Guess the number 8 is lucky not just for the Chinese but for Phelps as well. The guy is pure gold!
August 16, 2008 - When Pretty Tough athlete Erica Bartolina finished third in the pole vault at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Ore. we cheered her on. That day Bartolina didn’t just vault her way onto the Olympic team, she sprang to hero status in our eyes.
Erica has an inspirational story and it’s worth telling. She lost her right eye in a freak car accident as an infant (a pair of freshly sharpened trimming shears slid across the dashboard into her eye - yikes!). Doctors tried to save Erica’s eye but the prognosis wasn’t good and she was eventually fitted with a prosthetic eye.
Her parents wanted Erica to fit in and be as normal as possible. In time, Erica grew to embrace her uniqueness but her hand-eye coordination was limited, making sports a challenge. Softball and volleyball particularly were difficult.
Track and field was another matter.
Erica took up pole vaulting as a 14-year-old high school freshman and compensated for her limited vision with an innate sense of timing, honed intuitively over the years.
Like everything, Erica tackled the sport with obsessive zeal. She developed into one of the top pole vaulters in the state at Philomath High and earned a scholarship to Texas A&M. At A&M, she was the first female pole vaulter in school history and won two Big 12 Conference titles.
During her first two years as a pro, Erica gradually improved her marks, finishing ninth at the Olympic Trials in 2004 and fourth at the 2005 USA Indoor Championships.
Just when it seemed Erica was poised for a breakthrough she suffered another fluke injury and dislocated her hip and fractured two vertebrae in her back.
Coached by her husband, Mike, Bartolina returned to the track in the winter of 2007 with renewed vigor. Finally healthy, Bartolina started vaulting with more consistency, and her confidence grew. In practice, she started to clear heights above her personal best mark of 14 feet, 5.25 inches.
Buoyed by a small group of friends and family (she grew up in Oregon, an hour away from the Eugene Trials), Bartolina enjoyed the meet of her life, clearing personal-best marks not once but twice. She eventually finished third at 14-11 and joined Team USA to compete in China at the Summer Games.
Heading to Bejing, Bartolina’s goals were modest. She wanted to make the finals and give herself a shot at a medal. World-record holder Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia and American record-holder Jennifer Stuczynski are heavy favorites for the gold and silver medals. But after that, the competition appeared wide open.
A pair of Americans will be in the women’s pole vault final Monday night but Bartonlina won’t be one of them. Stuczynski cleared 4.50m/14-9 on her first attempt to advance, while April Steiner also cleared 4.50. Unfortunately, Bartolina failed to make her first height of 4.30/14-1.34 and will not be in the final 
Regardless of her Olympic results, Bartolina’s career has elevated to a new level and we’re confident this competitor will continue to perform well on sport’s grandest stage.
Visit — www.ericabartolina.com — for more info on this amazing athlete and be sure to order a copy of the calendar she sells online to help fund her career.
Congratulations Erica - Stay Pretty Tough!
August 16, 2008 - Here are some highlights from Day 8 of the Summer Games:
Softball:
US women shut out Taiwan 7-0 in Olympic softball - Jessica Mendoza hit her third homer in two days and Jennie Finch pitched five shutout innings as the U.S. women’s softball team kept rolling with a 7-0 win over Taiwan to run its Olympic winning streak to 19.
Tennis:
All-Russian final in Beijing - Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina moved into the gold medal match with straight set semifinal wins on Saturday. A medal sweep could be within reach, as Vera Zvonareva fights Li Na for bronze.
Williamses clinch at least silver in tennis - Venus and Serena Williams have clinched at least a silver medal in doubles with a victory in the Olympic semifinals. The sisters beat another sibling pair, Ukraine’s Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, on Saturday.
Track & Field:
Team USA women impress in morning qualifying rounds - The U.S. women - including Lauryn Williams, Sanya Richards, Muna Lee, Torri Edwards, had a relatively easy time in qualifying rounds Saturday morning at the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium.
American Deena Kastor drops out of marathon - Kastor has pulled out of the women’s marathon at the Beijing Olympics with an apparent foot injury.
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