D.C. Sports Bog - By The Washington Post's Dan Steinberg - August 3, 2008

Partying With Jared Leto, Quincy Jones, My New Boss

No idea who these people were, but I love a nice red carpet pic. For me, the real Olympics finally started tonight, in the form of a bizarre mountaintop party featuring hip young Chinese people; pretend hip ex-pat journalists; whole pigs; Very Important business executives, venture capitalists and artists;...

By Dan Steinberg | August 9, 2008; 4:59 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Media, Olympics
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Sports Blog Fans in Beijing

Excuse me a brief moment of self-indulgence. So I'm sitting in the team handball venue, talking to some young American-ish sports fans who confirmed the dominance of sports blogs among a certain set....

By Dan Steinberg | August 9, 2008; 3:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Olympics, Wizards
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Handball Cheerleaders and Thunderstix

The Handball Spirit Squad, dancing with flaming plush. After seven days in Beijing, I went to my first sporting event today: the tail end of the Angola-France women's handball game in pool play, followed by the Sweden-Hungary women's showdown. Some highlights from finally watching sports in China: * Cheerleaders!...

By Dan Steinberg | August 9, 2008; 12:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Olympics
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Scalping Tix With Swedish Women's Handball Fans

Jonas Ahlm, father of handballer Johanna, demonstrates his plan to pole vault over the fence into the venue. Summary: Washington Post staffer helps the parents of two Swedish women's handball players procure black-market tickets for the first Olympic women's team handball match in Swedish history. My two standby entries...

By Dan Steinberg | August 9, 2008; 9:29 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Olympics
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Signs of the Games: Olympic Popcorn

This is sweet butter popcorn. You can get it at the Olympic handball venue for 10 Yuan (something like $1.50). The popcorn is only ok, but reading the back of the package is worth way more than $1.50. I'm considering switching to an all Olympic handball popcorn diet. In...

By Dan Steinberg | August 9, 2008; 7:29 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Olympics
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Kids Protect Kobe With Human Wall

I don't have much to add to this photo, other than to say the mass of microphone-and-camera- yielding humanity that surged around Kobe Bryant got pretty intense today. People were climbing up on stage to surround Kobe, and then leaping off the stage to, among other things, elbow me...

By Dan Steinberg | August 8, 2008; 5:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: NBA, Olympics
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Beijing Embraces Hibachi Lifestyle

(Photos courtesy Enrico Campitelli Jr.) One Gilbert-Arenas-in-Beijing item not enough for the first week of the Olympics? Ok, here's No. 2. Philadelphia blogger and D.C. resident Enrico Campitelli Jr.. just arrived in Beijing, and within moments he was finding massive Arenas shrines in local Adidas stores. Before heading out...

By Dan Steinberg | August 8, 2008; 4:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Olympics, Wizards
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This Week's Top 10 WaPo Sports Stories: Olyhuh?

This week's most popular sports read. (By John McDonnell - TWP) In which we learn the answer to the question: should I, along with 12 other Washington Post employees, really be in Beijing right now? Answer? Get me on the next plane to Ashburn! No no, I shouldn't be...

By Dan Steinberg | August 8, 2008; 3:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Caps, D.C. United, Media, NFL, Nats, Olympics, Redskins, Wizards
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Man the Olympics Are Weird

There are about 700 stories about the Opening Ceremonies on this Web site so I'll just give you the executive summary: the Olympics are Weird. The slightly longer version: I walked around the Bird's Nest just before the Opening Ceremonies started, and what I discovered was sweat, young Chinese...

By Dan Steinberg | August 8, 2008; 1:59 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (20)
Categories: Olympics
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Olympic Linkage

Beijing Sports Smog Special Link Correspondent Lindsay Applebaum here, with some stuff I found by googling "Olympics." It's a science. You wouldn't understand. If geeks ruled the Olympics... (BBspot) Beijing poised to win gold in pollution race! (Wired) Dirk Nowitzki has Olympic fever. (Deadspin) Let's gamble on doping. (The Sporting...

By Lindsay Applebaum | August 8, 2008; 12:30 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Olympics
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Dave Barry Discusses Fencing, Cheese

One question I've grappled with in recent days: how to attempt droll tales of Olympic and dairy-producdt absurdity when some others in my immediate vicinity (ahem, Sally Jenkins) are being all serious and thinking important thoughts and writing about pollution and corporate profiteering and the despoiling of the Olympic dream....

By Dan Steinberg | August 8, 2008; 11:44 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Olympics
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Amanda Beard Talks About Being Naked

(By Alessandro Bianchi - Reuters) I missed the big unveiling of Amanda Beard's ad for PETA this week, the ad in which she's not wearing any clothes. This marks Beard's second prominent journey into public nakedness, after last year's Playboy appearance. I got in touch with Beard while she...

By Dan Steinberg | August 8, 2008; 10:29 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (27)
Categories: Olympics
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Chinese Kids Stalk Dream Teamers

Press Conference Room 1 was packed fuller than a tin of spicy mud carp with lobster sauce this afternoon, as Dream Team Redeem held its main press gathering for a massive crowd. Coach K said a few words, praising the "great country" of China more than once and saying...

By Dan Steinberg | August 8, 2008; 12:41 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (20)
Categories: NBA, Olympics
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Beltway Traffic and Spanish Language Reporters

My walk to the team handball venue revealed four important facts: One should never walk to the team handball venue or any other venues for fear of death by smog, there are tens of thousands of fireworks shells parked all around us, the Spanish language media has a different...

By Dan Steinberg | August 7, 2008; 6:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Olympics
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Inside the Athletes Village Internet Cafe

The Athletes Village, offering censorship and inflatable pandas. During my trip to the Athletes Village, I stopped in at the village's Internet Cafe to see exactly what sites were and were not being censored. WashingtonPost.com: Ok. Free Tibet: Not Ok. Deadspin: Ok. With Leather: Ok. (And with top-notch reporting...

By Dan Steinberg | August 7, 2008; 5:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Olympics
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These Games are All About DeShawn

While waiting to ask LeBron James which Chinese basketball player is most likely to reprise the DeShawn Stevenson role from this spring's playoff series, I came up with this other idea: to ask random Olympians to demonstrate DeShawn's "I Can't Feel My Face" maneuver, earning them lavish praise from...

By Dan Steinberg | August 7, 2008; 4:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Olympics
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Gary Williams Discusses the Olympics

Before a serious event like the Olympic Games, it's good to take the pulse of some of our most important sports personalities, mining their minds for insight into the very important events to come. When I sat down for a conversation with Maryland Coach Gary Williams a few weeks...

By Dan Steinberg | August 7, 2008; 3:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: College Basketball, Olympics
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Let Us Welcome Azerbaijan, Norway, South Africa, Etc.

Azerbaijanis, in suits, sweating. At the top of every daytime hour for the past several days, a handful of Olympic delegations have been officially welcomed to the Athletes Village. "Officially welcomed," in this case, means "being enthusiastically greeted by children who wave on cue, and being forced to repeatedly...

By Dan Steinberg | August 7, 2008; 2:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Olympics
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Gro Hammerseng is the Kobe Bryant of Women's Handball

Handball's Kobe Bryant appeared in an Amnesty International campaign to protect Chinese dissidents. The Norwegian women's team handball practice attracted about the crowd you'd expect when one of the best handball teams in the world takes the court for training. There were seven journalists from Norway, one from Finland,...

By Dan Steinberg | August 7, 2008; 1:14 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Olympics
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Links That Aren't About Brett Favre

Ni Hao again, Interweb. Lindsay Applebaum here, bringing you all (well, some) of the Olympic links that are unfit to print (but great for blogging): * 20 fun ways to die at the Summer Olympics. (Athlists) * Steroids don't work for shot-putters. Hey, more for the rest of us! (Page...

By Lindsay Applebaum | August 7, 2008; 12:34 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Olympics
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Why You Should Never Go to a Gymnastics Presser

Shawn Johnson, practicing, proud, great, happy. (By Paul Gilham - Getty) These are direct, consecutive quotes from today's press conference with the U.S. women's gymnastics team. I'm a horrible public speaker, as this week's video clips are making clear, so I don't want to toss too many stones. But...

By Dan Steinberg | August 7, 2008; 12:14 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Olympics
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Jogging in the Smog (With Sally Jenkins)

At some point during our first week here, I came up with the brilliant idea that Sally Jenkins and I should go for a lengthy jog in the smog with the blog and the bog and report back our respiratory findings. So we did so Wednesday morning, she in jogging...

By Dan Steinberg | August 7, 2008; 11:14 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Olympics
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Behind the Scenes at Eastern Motors Shoot

Let's take a breather from the Olympics for a dose of Eastern Motors trickery, and man is it a beauty. Like, I'm pretty sure nothing in China will come close to this three-minute clip in D.C. sports blogging value. (If you can't see it below, click here.) When I went...

By Dan Steinberg | August 7, 2008; 10:30 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Redskins
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Signs of the Games: Potty Talk

Honestly, I did about a quintuple take the first time I closed one of the stalls inside a media center bathroom. I wasn't sure I understood what I was being asked to do therein. I'm still not sure I do. But--and not to get too graphic--a quick glance inside...

By Dan Steinberg | August 7, 2008; 7:19 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Olympics
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Men's Volleyball Team and Back Hair

A glimpse of sprouting shoulder hair. (By Sergio Moraes - Reuters) This should be it today from the Steinberg-Can't-Post-It-Himself Bureau ... While my plan has been to obsess about the Icelandic men's and Swedish women's handball teams, I'm having second thoughts. There's also the American men's volleyball team, which...

By Jon DeNunzio | August 6, 2008; 6:45 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Olympics
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The Food in Beijing

Exotic Chinese fare available to the media. More from the Sleeping Steinberg: The stateside question I've gotten most often from friends, relatives and Internet stalkers? "How's the food?" Seriously, I travel around the world to cover Scandinavian handball, and all you can ask about is the sautéed celery? But...

By Jon DeNunzio | August 6, 2008; 6:15 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Olympics
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Tour the Hall of Supreme Harmony

We're back, but the Bog-man is (hopefully) asleep. So, in his absence, I'll post his most recent video from Beijing ... it's an inside look at The Post's base of operations at the Main Press Center. Enjoy ......

By Jon DeNunzio | August 6, 2008; 4:30 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (11)

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Chinese Olympic Athletes Embrace Hair Craze

The first Chinese modern pentathlon haircut I've ever published. So it turns out that pre-pubescent boys aren't the only ones in China who have embraced this "shaving Olympic logos into our heads" trend. Chinese Olympic competitors are also on board. At some point this week (days hazy), I randomly...

By Dan Steinberg | August 5, 2008; 5:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Olympics
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Watching the Redskins in Beijing

Where my cab dropped me off. No Redskins here. Following the principle that all WashingtonPost.com sports coverage is improved via use of the word "Redskins," I came up with the idea that I should find the Redskins game on television. The game started around 8 a.m. Monday Beijing time....

By Dan Steinberg | August 5, 2008; 1:44 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Olympics, Redskins
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Olympics on the Interweb

Lindsay "Bonita Appleblog" Applebaum here, with a midnight buffet of Olympic-related linkage: * Lowered expectations: Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang thinks he is the #2 "athlete who could be stars of the show in Beijing." (Fourth-Place Medal) * Dogs in China are really pushing their luck. (Reuters) * Olympic athletes are...

By Lindsay Applebaum | August 5, 2008; 1:00 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Olympics
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These Games Sound Like a Lot of Fun!

Get ready to watch this on Saturday morning. I wandered over to the Bird's Nest this afternoon, iconic site of the Opening Ceremonies. "Bird's Nest" is apparently Chinese for "extremely hot paved stadium area with no shade, offering numerous roving concession carts adorned with the logos of Coca-Cola, Minute...

By Dan Steinberg | August 5, 2008; 11:44 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Olympics
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These Games Are All About Gilbert

(Photo by Dan Oshinsky, the Rocky Mountain News) Gilbert Arenas may not have made the Olympic basketball team--instead, he chose to create extravagant grudges against the team's officials--but no matter: this city will not be deprived of Agent Zero as the Games approach. As reported by the thoroughly excellent...

By Dan Steinberg | August 5, 2008; 10:29 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Olympics, Wizards
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Smog Returns, No Comments, and Other Updates

Welcome to the Olympics. In fairness, after praising the blue skies two days ago, I should admit that most trained weatherpersons would not refer to the skies today as "clear," in the traditional sense. More like "well-insulated." "Or thicker than a binging offensive lineman on anti-depressants." Or, "quite filling,"...

By Dan Steinberg | August 5, 2008; 9:25 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Olympics
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Pre-Competition Music

Dan sits down with various U.S. olympic athletes to find out what pumps them up (or chills them out) before competition....

By Jonathan Forsythe | August 5, 2008; 8:16 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)

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Signs of the Games: Smiling Coppers

This sign spans the road between the Olympic Village and MediaLand, which includes the Main Press Center and the International Broadcast Center. I walked the journey with two coaches from the Australian Swim Team on Tuesday, only to be told that media couldn't enter, at least not from that...

By Dan Steinberg | August 5, 2008; 7:29 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Olympics
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SmogChat: Tuesday at 11 a.m.

Our hard-working "live online" staff has determined that the best time for us to conduct our famousish online chats this month will be 10 pm / 11 pm / midnight Beijing time, which translates loosely to 10 am / 11 am / noon D.C. time. I'm gonna help kick things...

By Dan Steinberg | August 4, 2008; 5:58 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Olympics
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These Games Are All About the Wizards

(Photo by Barry Svrluga) Earlier, I foolishly suggested that these Games were all about the Caps. But I forgot the Wizards. Co-worker and swimming (!) expert Barry Svrluga was out doing important research in a nightlife district called Hou Hai last night, when he met this fellow. Our WaPo...

By Dan Steinberg | August 4, 2008; 4:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Olympics, Wizards
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These Games Are All About the Caps

Nylander: has connection with piano, ping-pong, veal, Beijing. (By Toni L. Sandys - TWP) By now you've surely heard that Alex Ovechkin's visage is being used to cheer on Russia's Olympians, and that he plans on coming to Beijing, reportedly to attend men's basketball group stage contests against Iran...

By Dan Steinberg | August 4, 2008; 3:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Caps, Olympics
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Introducing the Beijing Cheese Society

The Beijing Cheese Society, auctioning off gourmet treats to raise money for earthquake victims. "There are 10,000 journalists here," Beijing resident Sharon Ruwart told me the first time we chatted. "You're at the bottom of the barrel, my friend, if you want to write about cheese." My intention, I...

By Dan Steinberg | August 4, 2008; 2:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Beer and Cheese, Olympics
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Video: Olympic Athletes and Their Weird Dreams

The "Theme Slogan" of these Games, as you might have heard, is "One World One Dream." And at least 17 million Olympic stories this month will talk about various Olympic dreams from various Olympic dreams. My goal was somewhat different: to get Olympic athletes to discuss their literal, asleep-and-sweating and...

By Dan Steinberg | August 4, 2008; 1:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Olympics
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Olympic Linkage

Ni hao, Internet. Lindsay "Bonita Appleblog" Applebaum here with your daily dose of Olympic-related hijinks: * Michael Phelps's moustache is ridiculous...ly awesome. (Clubhouse Cancer) * Name That Olympic Event (East Coast Bias) * Dogs in Beijing wish it were the Olympics every day. (NYTimes.com) * Official Olympic songs from 1978-present....

By Lindsay Applebaum | August 4, 2008; 12:40 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Olympics
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A Gift For Frisky Sports Writers

The Washington Post's home in Beijing. Wish us luck. Welcome to the Tibet Hotel, Mr. Steinberg. Yes, that's right, in these most political of Games, your bosses have seen fit to stash you in a building that literally has a potentially censored word in its name. This means that,...

By Dan Steinberg | August 4, 2008; 11:29 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Olympics
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Now Here Are Some Olympic Fans

There are certain international signs meant to indicate "you are now near the presence of a bloggable sporting event." For example, drunk Northern Europeans screaming out English phrases and hugging everyone in sight. Alternatively, look for synchronized celebratory dances, shirtless adults or any manner of mohawk. And finally, seek...

By Dan Steinberg | August 4, 2008; 10:29 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Olympics
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Signs of the Games: Foot Massage Club

Good morning, and welcome to the first real day of Olympic smogging. As always, I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing, why I'm even here, or what is required to keep me from being fired as I rack up a multi-thousand dollar expense account while providing...

By Dan Steinberg | August 4, 2008; 7:10 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Olympics
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How Long Does it Take to Lose a Blackberry in Beijing?

The height of early-August Beijing style. The answer to the question above? In my case, considerably less than 24 hours. This was a happy development, because when I went to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, it took a good two weeks before I managed to leave my cell...

By Dan Steinberg | August 3, 2008; 12:50 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Olympics
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Cover Your Mouth! Smog!

The sky in Beijing, today, prominently featuring the color blue. Oh, that Olympic smog. Despoiler of athletic lungs. Ruiner of journalistic palates. Pillager of touristic souls. Smogger of clean, fresh, blue-skied air. Our early arrivers in Beijing told us to bring throat lozenges. Maybe some air masks, too. Heck,...

By Dan Steinberg | August 3, 2008; 8:17 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Olympics
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Network News

D.C. Sports Bog: August 3, 2008 - August 9, 2008