Author: Milo F. Bryant
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American Clay easily wins exhausting decathlon
BEIJING • There was no celebration after the decathlon. The newest “World’s Greatest Athlete” – Bryan Clay – knew before the event’s final race that all he’d have to do to win the gold medal was finish. Clay finished and about five feet, if that much, beyond the finish line, the 28-year-old laid down on…
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Bryant: Wilder lands lone U.S. boxing medal – a bronze
BEIJING • Deontay Wilder claimed the lone U.S. boxing medal at the XXIX Olympic Games. That’s one medal for a country that used to own the top of the podium in the event. We’re talking one medal, and it’s a bronze. Wilder should be congratulated for the bronze though. The 22-year-old, who spent the better…
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U.S. softball team upset by Japan
BEIJING • Possibly the biggest upset of the XXIX Olympic Games came at the expense of the U.S. softball team. If there is a wrong time to finally give up an earned run or two, Team USA softball team picked it. Team USA had been so dominant in this softball tournament that it was the…
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Bryant: Letter of law squelched spirt of law in 200 DQ’s
BEIJING • There is something to be said about earning your way onto the podium. We don’t have to compete in the Olympics to know that getting to them takes hard work. It takes smart work, too. Lifting, sprinting, stretching, technique, starts, mental work – hours and hours of all of them culminate in one…
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Jamaica’s Bolt doubles with 200 win, world record
BEIJING • The unbreakable rarely is. Usain Bolt proved that again, besting Michael Johnson’s12-year record in the 200-meter sprint Wednesday. The Jamaican covered the distance in 19.30 seconds, .02 of a second better than the record Johnson set at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. “I did a lot of work in the 200 meters, and…
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Springs wrestler brings home a gold
BEIJING • Mom always had the term of endearment. Mis ninos de oro – My golden boys. That’s what Nelly Rico called her sons. No matter the situation, no matter the living standard, no matter that it was a nomadic lifestyle; Rico’s boys knew they were golden – at least to somebody. In front of…
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Springs triathlete learns from 11th-place finish
BEIJING • Sarah Haskins Korteum had barely finished her first Olympic triathlon and she was already talking about the London Olympics and 2012. “It was my first time around,” Haskins Korteum said soon after posting a time of 2 hours, 1 minute, 23 seconds late Sunday. Haskins Korteum finished in 11th place, 2:55 behind Australian…
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Discus winner first American woman to do so since 1932
BEIJING • Stephanie Brown Trafton was a bit surprised to find herself atop the podium after the discus competition at the National Stadium. “There are expert throwers here that have a lot more experience than I do,” Brown Trafton said Monday. “I’m 27 years old, which is young compared to the field. I don’t have…
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Bryant: Losing Liu to injury saddens Chinese
BEIJING • We don’t have a national sports hero, at least not the way China has Yao Ming. Likewise we don’t have a Liu Xiang either. It will be difficult for us to understand what happened to Chinese citizens when injury took their hero before he had a chance to don his cape. Houston Rockets…
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Lomong fails to make finals in 1,500-meter run
BEIJING – One dream is over for Lopez Lomong. Another is just beginning. Lomong ran the 1,500-meter race in 3 minutes, 41 seconds to finish 22nd of 24 and miss the finals of the event. In several ways, the semifinal race surprised Lomong, starting with the beginning. One would’ve thought the start was a standing…