Olympics News

BEIJING - Losing for the first time since 2000, the U.S. softball team was denied a chance for a fourth straight gold medal Thursday, beaten 3-1 by Japan in the sport's last appearance in the Olympics for at least eight years — and maybe for good.

BEIJING - They came to the Beijing Olympics as a team trying to find its way, still adjusting to a new coach and each other, still smarting from a loss that brought humiliation on and off the field.

BEIJING - Tyson Gay stuck his left hand behind him, waiting to feel the red baton's cool metal make contact.

BEIJING - The U.S. women's basketball team passed its first test of the Olympics, beating Russia in its closest contest in Beijing. Now it's on to a fourth straight gold medal game.

BEIJING - Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor were prepared for the downpour, just as they were for a young Chinese team that was the latest to challenge their four-year reign over women's beach volleyball.

BEIJING - LaShawn Merritt has upset defending champion Jeremy Wariner to lead a U.S. sweep of the medals in the 400 meters at the Olympics.

BEIJING - IOC president Jacques Rogge criticized Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt on Thursday for showing a lack of respect to other competitors after his record-breaking gold medal performances in the 100 and 200 meters.

BEIJING - Police descended on a group of foreign pro-Tibet activists and some disgruntled business owners from Hong Kong on Thursday, taking both groups away minutes after they displayed protest signs in central Beijing.

BEIJING - The U.S. women's volleyball team has advanced to the gold medal game, defeating Cuba in three sets to guarantee the Americans their best Olympic finish since 1984.

BEIJING - Athens men's beach volleyball champions Ricardo and Emanuel of Brazil have added a bronze medal, beating Georgia in the third-place game.

BEIJING (AFP) - Jamaica's world record-setting double Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt will look to complete a golden treble Friday in the men's 4x100-meter relay at the Beijing Games.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Jamaica's Usain Bolt could run away with a third gold on Friday to complete the Caribbean island's dominance of the Olympic athletics track.

NEW DELHI - Sania Mirza has pulled out of the U.S. Open due to an ongoing wrist injury that flared at the Olympic Games.

-Ratings Breakdown: Once again, it is all about NBC, with the 2008 Summer Olympics from Beijing at a significant 18.0 rating/29 share in the overnights for the prime-time (8-11 p.m.) portion. Comparably, that beat the four competing networks combined by 75 percent. Here is the half-hour breakdown:

BEIJING (AFP) - Nelson Evora added the Olympic title to his world crown when he won the men's triple jump here on Thursday, handing Portugal its first Olympic gold medal in 12 years.

BEIJING - Crystl Bustos rocked slowly from side to side, kicked away some dirt, then started rocking again. As she and her U.S. softball teammates waited to receive their silver medals — yes, silver — the slugger clearly wanted to get this over with.

BEIJING (AFP) - Teenager Chen Ruolin defied last-dive nerves to win the Olympic women's 10m platform diving gold here on Thursday, giving China its seventh gold from seven diving events so far at the Beijing Games.

NEW YORK - Trying to keep the Michael Phelps glow, NBC has agreed to televise next year's World Swimming Championships from Rome, along with the 2009, 2010 and 2011 national championships.

HONG KONG (AFP) - Canada's Eric Lamaze, riding Hickstead, won the individual jumping gold medal Thursday in a dramatic jump-off in searing heat and humidity as Hong Kong waited for Typhoon Nuri to make a direct hit.

BEIJING (AFP) - Defending champions United States produced an extra-time winner to claim Olympic gold after a 1-0 win over Brazil in the women's football tournament here on Thursday.

BEIJING (AFP) - The US women played their toughest game yet at the Beijing Games, beating Russia 67-52 behind 21 points from Diana Taurasi in a hard-fought and physical semi-final basketball match up Thursday.

BEIJING - Christian groups who flouted a Chinese ban on foreign missionaries are calling their underground evangelizing during the Olympic Games a success.

PARIS (AFP) - Chinese troops fired on Tibetan protesters this week, as Beijing hosted the Olympics, and 400 people have been killed since unrest erupted in March, the Dalai Lama was quoted as saying in an interview published Thursday.

BEIJING (AFP) - The United States called on China Thursday to allow peaceful protests, after Beijing police detained six foreigners amid a wave of demonstrations by pro-Tibet activists during the Olympics.

LONDON (AFP) - The plane bringing Britain's Olympic team home next week is to get a golden nose job in honour of the record gold medal haul for Team GB in Beijing, British Airways said Thursday.

BEIJING (AFP) - Australia used its defensive strength and accurate shooting to humble a spirited China 90-56 on Thursday, advancing to the Olympic Games gold medal match up against a powerful United States.

BEIJING (AFP) - America's Beijing Olympics campaign blundered into fresh humiliation on Thursday when their much-vaunted sprint squads suffered a relay horror show and Japan broke their traditional domination in softball.

HONG KONG - Eric Lamaze of Canada has ridden Hickstead to the gold medal in Olympic equestrian individual jumping.

BEIJING - Even with one of its best players watching from the bench, Australia had more than enough to get back to another women's basketball Olympic final.