And this is it! I can't believe I posted all these ridiculous entries, many so late after the Olympics ended. But now it is over.

• Venue: Bird's Nest
  
• Commentators: Bob Costas, Dan Hicks, Mary Carillo, and Joshua Cooper Ramo. Much better than the Opening--I generally like Hicks and Carillo.
  
• TO BE COMPLETED.
  

I generally watched the Americans wrestle until they lost. Wrestling is kind of like boxing (and judo and taekwondo) in that you sort of know what gets a score but don't understand it at the same time. I especially don't get Greco-Roman wrestling. In that discipline, most matches go 0-0 into a "par terre" position. Often both wrestlers get a ( Read more... )

I actually watched quite a bit of weightlifting and enjoyed it immensely. The athletes and crowd really get into it. In fact, I think this would be a great event to attend (London 2012, maybe?).

• Venue: Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics Gymnasium
  
• Commentators: Pete Pranica and Shane Hamman. Former lifter Hamman did a fantastic job ( Read more... )

Water polo is somewhat hard to watch on TV because (1) the ball is sometimes hard to see and (2) there are tons of whistles that make no sense. But I watched a good amount.

• Venue: Yingdong Natatorium
  
• The U.S. men were led by Terry Schroeder, former player and model for the male athlete statue at the L.A. Coliseum. He managed to bring the team ( Read more... )

Beach volleyball was again a major event on NBC, which makes sense because the Americans did very well. Indoor volleyball wasn't often featured in prime time, but it got plenty of coverage (often live in late night), and was the final event shown before the closing ceremony.

• Venues: Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground (beach), Capital Indoor ( Read more... )

Triathlon came and went so fast! But I managed to watch a good portion of the races, sometimes too much (since they showed them in their often boring entirety).

• Venue: Ming Tomb Reservoir Triathlon Venue
  
• Aussie Emma Snowsill wasn't selected for the 2004 team, but in 2008 she managed to hold off rival Vanessa Fernandes for gold. Another Aussie ( Read more... )

USA showed a lot of live tennis early in the mornings. I couldn't really watch all of this, but I did watch the complete men's singles and women's doubles finals by fast-forwarding between points!

• Venue: Olympic Green Tennis Court
  
• In men's singles, Roger Federer continued his slide by losing to American James Blake in the quarterfinals.
  
• Blake, ( Read more... )

Taekwondo was one of the three sports not shown on TV. I caught exactly one match online, and apparently I was a curse...

• Venue: Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium
  
• For the U.S., the Lopez siblings were impressive. Mark won silver, while Steven and Diana won bronze. (Their older brother Jean is their coach.) It was the first ( Read more... )

Table tennis got a lot of coverage on NBC--maybe they are trying to inspire Americans, since it is one of the three sports in which we have never medaled!

• Venue: Peking University Gymnasium
  
• Doubles was replaced with an odd team competition. Each team had three members, and they played up to five matches (first to win three won the whole contest ( Read more... )

I watched a handful of synchro routines, but not as many as 2004 when Victoria was here.

• Venue: Water Cube
  
• In the duet, Russia won, followed by Spain and Japan, with China, the U.S., and Canada after them. Wasn't the U.S. once good at this sport?
  
• The same six teams did the best in the team competition. Russia and Spain got gold and silver, but ( Read more... )