Ramble On: From Russia and to Russia with Love ...

Everyone was up in arms about Becky Hammon competing for Russia. ESPN's Outside the Lines called the story to national attention and it sparked some pretty unpatriotic responses from fans and local media alike.

Is it interesting food for thought? Yes.

I just wonder if people look at the other side of the story such as this column from the Washington Post last Sunday:

From Russia With Love
Born in Moscow to World-Class Gymnast Parents, Olympian Liukin Relishes Representing the U.S.

By Barry Svrluga
Washington Post
Sunday, July 27, 2008

When Nastia Liukin arrives for competition at the National Indoor Stadium in Beijing, she will remove her warmup suit, emblazoned emphatically with the letters "USA," and compete in a red, white and blue leotard. "This is a very typical American kid," said her mother, Anna.

Now 18, Liukin scoots around the Dallas suburbs in a charcoal BMW, shopping at the mall and texting her friends. Superficially, the most atypical aspect of Liukin's life is her status in the arena of gymnastics, in which she is a world champion, perhaps the world's most graceful performer on the uneven bars, and next month a contender for multiple Olympic medals, including the all-around gold.

But as Liukin leaps to grab the bars in Beijing, bedecked in those patriotic hues that will have NBC's cameras dutifully following her every move as a marquee American athlete, she will do so with a sense of history and pride that differs vastly from that of teammate Shawn Johnson, the Iowan daughter of Iowan parents who is the all-around favorite. Anastasia Valeryevna Liukin was born in Moscow in the fall of 1989, just as the Soviet Union faced collapse. Her mother wasn't just another pretty Russian face, but a world champion rhythmic gymnast, a product of the Soviet athletic empire. Her father, Valeri, wasn't simply the man who had married Anna Kotchneva, but a true athletic hero, a Kazakh who is the owner of four medals -- two gold, two silver -- from the artistic gymnastics competition at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Typical American kid? Nastia Liukin speaks fluent Russian and relishes her trips to visit her grandparents and great-grandparents in Moscow, where she said the shopping, if a bit expensive, is unparalleled. She learned to write in English before her parents, occasionally teaching them their ABC's through her homework. And more than any of the six young women on the American team, she has a background in her sport -- albeit one from another country in another era -- upon which she can draw.

"I would never trade being Russian, deep down, for anything," Liukin said. "But I do feel, I guess, American, because I compete for the U.S., and I would never trade that. It's kind of like, I'm happy and I'm proud of who I am. I'm proud of being Russian, but I'm proud to compete for the U.S."

Here, then, is that typical American kid. She speaks without a trace of the accent that thickly marks her parents' speech. In a way, too, their experience must seem foreign. Yes, she says she gets some of her lines from her mother, spindly arms and interminable legs that defy her 5-foot-3 frame and provide the beauty in her bars routine, the most difficult in the world. And sure, she is aware of her father's accomplishments at the Seoul Games, where he helped the Soviet team to the gold and won an individual gold on the high bar.

But when the Liukins moved to the United States in early 1992, Nastia -- her lifelong nickname, even as kids in elementary school occasionally called her "Nasty" -- was just 2 1/2 . Anna and Valeri, who finally was considering retirement, wanted to center their lives on gymnastics, even as their competitive careers were ending. Traveling worldwide, they had heard about gymnastics schools, clubs run by people who made money by teaching what they loved. So they packed up and headed to, of all places, New Orleans -- new country, new jobs, new life, to say nothing of new adjustments.

Anna remembers one of her friends, a coach at the gym at which they worked, greeting her one day with, "What's up?" It sent Anna scurrying home to her Russian-English dictionary, which only led to greater befuddlement. "I mean, it's slang," she said. Within their first two weeks in the United States with their young daughter, a friend brought the Liukins to the French Quarter. There, they took in Mardi Gras.

"I look at Valeri going, 'We going to raise kid here? I don't know how to do it,' " said Anna, just 22 at the time. "I was young enough to start with. That was an eye-opener. I thought the whole country was like this."

The Liukins found out the whole country wasn't like that, and they settled into a routine. After 18 months in New Orleans, they moved to the Dallas area. Valeri saved some money, then founded the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) in Plano, Tex. The Liukins' intentions were to train other children, to possibly build Olympians. They toted Nastia to the gym as an afterthought because they could not afford child care.

"We know what gymnastics is about, what it takes," Valeri said. "We know all the travel, all the time in the gym. We were very busy when we were gymnasts, and we just jumped into gymnastics again. We kept moving ahead, no time to think. But we didn't think that's what we wanted for our daughter."

Though Nastia mimicked the routines her parents were teaching older children, Anna and Valeri said they not only hesitated to push Nastia into gymnastics, they pushed her away. First came piano lessons.

"I didn't like it," Nastia said.

Said Anna, "It stopped fairly fast."

Nastia kept tumbling. Her father, with all his experience, couldn't help but notice that she both liked it and, even at 5 or 6, had potential.

"She was flexible," he said. "She was able to do routines without coaching that the girls I was coaching couldn't do."

So the Liukins gave in.

"When we saw that she really liked it, it was a sacrifice on our part," Anna said. "But you can't take away something that you can give to her. It wouldn't be fair on our part. I think it would be way too selfish."

Thus, under her parents' tutelage, Nastia began training. WOGA, too, established itself. Valeri Liukin's partner, former Russian gymnast and Latvian national coach Yevgeny Marchenko, helped found the gym and recruit from the 32 schools in Plano. Four years ago, a Marchenko pupil, Carly Patterson, took all-around gold at the Athens Olympics. Now, as she tries to forge a career as a singer, Patterson can share thoughts with Liukin. Earlier this summer, she gave Liukin a bracelet on which were imprinted four words: think, believe, dream, dare.

"It's nice to have somebody there who's been through it all," Liukin said.

Her parents, of course, have been through it all, too. Yet they are not yet used to it. As Nastia's coach, Valeri came up with the unmatched uneven-bars routine. Of the 10 skills that count toward the starting value -- half the mark in gymnastics' new two-tiered scoring system, which rewards execution and degree of difficulty -- Liukin counts only "D" and "E" level skills, the two most difficult categories. Both coach and athlete say Valeri pushes his daughter in the gym just as he would any of his pupils.

But there is, too, the parental part. During competitions, Anna often becomes so nervous she departs the gym when Nastia performs. At June's national championships, she wandered around Boston, "just a little sightseeing," though she says if Nastia expresses a desire that she stay and watch, she does. At least she has the option.

"She can leave," Valeri said, "and I can't. . . . I am nervous, of course. How could you not [be]?"

Should Liukin perform her bar routine flawlessly, there will be no need for jitters. At the national championships, she twice scored 17s, unprecedented for an American. Though her performances at trials were far less fluid -- marked by significant errors the second night -- she will be expected to medal in Beijing. In addition to the bars and the all-around, she also is a contender for a medal on balance beam; vault is her weakest event.

"Nastia is a special gymnast, excellent technically," U.S. national team coordinator Martha Karolyi said at trials. "We have great hopes for her. She can do great things."

At trials, when she finished behind Johnson in the all-around competition, Liukin heard the screams from the crowd as she warmed up. "Nastia! Nastia!" came the shrieks from tweens, and she would occasionally look up, smile and wave, acknowledging her fans.

Forget that they might not know her full name or from where she came. The daughter of Soviet legends will compete for them, for the United States. She wouldn't dream of it another way.

"I'm proud of my name," she said. "I'm proud of who I am. I would never change or wish for anything different than who I am."

***

Remember "The National?" The publication is out of business some 17 years ago this past June, but it seems to be reincarnated with the introduction of The Sporting News Today.

Check it out at the link above and comment on whether you think the average sports fan is ready for a digital delivery, print on demand source for daily sportswriting.

-30-

Olympic Moments: LA Times on Coach K & Las Vegas Review on D-Wade ...

Good stuff coming from the USA Mini-camp... including this piece in Sunday's LA Times on Coach K and the USA Basketball Team.. And a Las Vegas Review item by Steve Carp below.. Read on:

U.S. OLYMPIC BASKETBALL
Mike Krzyzewski sets pace for Team USA
But it helps to have a roster of players who are setting their egos aside and are committed to the approach.

By Jonathan Abrams
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

June 29, 2008

LAS VEGAS -- It's a command played out in countless junior high gymnasiums and one usually met by grumblings and groans.

"Defensive slides," the coach tells his players, his voice even but stern.

Only this isn't any coach. This is Coach Mike Krzyzewski, synonymous with Duke and winning. Coach K, to nearly everyone now.

And this isn't any team, let alone one of seventh- and eighth-graders. This is the USA men's Olympic team, a squad full of big stars, who earn bigger paychecks and strut even bigger egos.

Except there is no grumbling, no groaning. Only a smile from Kobe Bryant as the team splits into two, going to separate baselines and Krzyzewski, notebook in hand, straddling the midcourt line while keeping one keen eye trained on each side.

The team convened for a one-day mini-mini-camp Saturday as it begins tuning up for Beijing, still trying to brush away the aftertaste of coming home from Athens four years ago with a bronze medal.

Enter Krzyzewski.

Still, the task is monumental: mold a team of superstars, fresh off the rigors of a full NBA season, and get them to buy into your philosophy wholeheartedly with precious little time or margin for error.

"It'd be difficult if people don't cooperate," Krzyzewski said. "They need to be superstars on their individual teams. They're the center of the wheel. Everything emanates from them. On this team, they're not. Not one of them.

"We talked about it, but they get it. There's no 'I want to be the center of the wheel' or 'I'm jealous.' There's nothing like that."

Krzyzewski is undeniably smart about basketball, and life, and so ordinarily he does not scream nose to nose at players or referees. He is a man more of calm than calamity, but it's an intense calm.

What exactly is he?

"He's a winner," said forward Carlos Boozer, the only member of the 12-man team to play under Krzyzewski at Duke. "Any time you're playing for a winner, the respect is given before he even comes into the gym. His winning precedes him."

Krzyzewski knows superstars are often perceived as arrogant and petulant, and maybe his history of winning made a difference, but this U.S. team, he says, just isn't like that.

"It goes against what normal people would do, maybe," he said. "Or maybe people who aren't superstars who think that a superstar should act that way. I guess, it goes against stereotypes. Instead of stereotyping them in a negative sense. The reality of it is, they are in a positive sense, so they've been easy to work with."

Yet the perception that superstars will always act like superstars became reality with the Athens Games, when the U.S. was taught that it could no longer slap together a team of All-Stars and dominate in international play.

Larry Brown, the coach of that 2004 team, was rebuked in the media for criticizing his players, the officiating and nearly everything else. Allen Iverson, LeBron James and Amare Stoudemire, for example, were benched for an exhibition game after showing up late to a pregame meeting.

"We didn't approach the Games the right way," said James, one of four current players from that team. "We didn't take the Games serious and we paid for it."

That is why USA Managing Director Jerry Colangelo decided things needed to change.

Colangelo, the former longtime owner of the Phoenix Suns, requested full autonomy in putting together the team, from the coach to the players.

"When I met with guys one on one, eyeball to eyeball, I was looking for a response," Colangelo said Saturday.

"And I basically said, 'Look, here's what I'm demanding and don't ever embarrass me and I'll never embarrass you, but this is all about pride, representing your country. If you want to be part of this, you've got to buy in 100%. This is not halfway. If you can handle what I just said, then I'll consider you. But if you can't, then you're out.' "

"We got total buy-in," he said. "Total."

In Krzyzewski, Colangelo has seen what others see: his soft rhythm, a smooth manner of delivering messages and making sure it is understood, whether the recipient requested it or not.

"He has the ability to use the right words to get his message across and whatever it might be, it's uplifting," Colangelo said. "He can use the right phrases . . . to make his point and guys follow."

Said Bryant, one of those who follows: "Above all else, he just wants to see his players play well and he wants to win. He communicates that beautifully to his players."

Colangelo also did something new -- he asked Krzyzewski to help choose the roster, something previous Olympic basketball coaches had not been allowed to do.

"That team that I had, you just got the team," said Rudy Tomjanovich, who coached the U.S. to its last gold medal, in 2000. "This team got to work out and work with different possibilities to create a team."

Krzyzewski, he said, "has done a tremendous job. . . . There's an intensity there and the players have picked it up."

Outside, the afternoon sun is beating down on Cox Pavilion on the Nevada Las Vegas campus. Nearly two hours into the practice, the slides give way to shooting drills. Players, from Bryant to Dwyane Wade, shout encouragement, be it makes or misses. It's all in perfect symmetry, one the team hopes to carry to Beijing.

So how much does Krzyzewski account for this unity of one team with one goal -- gold?

"Minimal," he said. "I think it's minimal."

Another case of a coach leading by example.

And...

Wade rebounds from injury

Guard returns after knee, shoulder troubles

By STEVE CARP
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Dwyane Wade had the requisite ice pack on his left knee. But for the Miami Heat superstar guard, life was good Saturday.

Wade was back in uniform for Team USA, and he got through a two-hour workout at Cox Pavilion without mishap as the Olympic squad concluded its two-day Las Vegas minicamp.

True, there were no contact drills, and he didn't have to play at full speed. But this was another small test for Wade in his attempt to be at full strength when the Americans begin their quest for gold Aug. 10 in Beijing with a game against host China.

"It felt great to be back," said Wade, who missed last summer's Olympic qualifying in Las Vegas following shoulder and knee surgery. "It was tough sitting out last summer having to watch.

"Anytime you go through surgery, you're going to have some doubts. But I dedicated myself to getting back. I definitely want to be part of this."

Wade had a second procedure on his knee in March, and his return to Team USA was in doubt. Mentally, Wade was committed to coming back. Physically, it was a question of whether the knee would cooperate.

Two weeks ago, Team USA managing director Jerry Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski went to Chicago, where Wade was rehabilitating. After watching him play and talking with him, they decided to put him on the final roster.

"The day Coach K and Mr. Colangelo gave me the No. 9 jersey again, it felt great," Wade said. "I was smiling for hours."

Colangelo said he wanted to make sure if Wade was going to return to Team USA, it would be the Wade everyone is accustomed to seeing.

"I told him we needed the old Dwyane Wade, and he understood," Colangelo said. "I also wanted to see if the old explosiveness was there, and it was."

Wade seemed to be moving well in Saturday's practice. He appeared to be back in sync with his Olympic teammates.

"I just have to get my timing back," Wade said. "I haven't played in a real game since March. But I felt good out there with the guys."

Krzyzewski liked what he saw.

"He looked good," Krzyzew-ski said. "But I think we'll get a better idea where we are with him in a few weeks. We're bringing the Select team back when we have our training camp, and we'll scrimmage them every day. Dwyane will benefit from that."

Colangelo said the goal is to have Wade ready for Aug. 10. Saturday was merely another step in the process of achieving that goal.

"Most of these guys are in pretty good shape," Colangelo said. "Guys like Dwyane, we're not going to rush. We have time to get him ready."

The same is true for center Dwight Howard, who did not practice Saturday because of a small crack in his sternum. Howard said it is not a major issue, and he'll be ready to go when Team USA returns to Las Vegas on July 20 and begins practicing at Valley High School on July 21.

Wade also promises to be ready.

"For me, it's now or never," said Wade, one of four players on the U.S. roster -- LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Carlos Boozer are the others -- to take bronze at the 2004 Olympics. "If we don't win the gold, I'll feel like my career is unfulfilled."

• NOTES -- Lakers star Kobe Bryant wasn't saying much about being the target of Shaquille O'Neal's less-than-complimentary impromptu rap last week. When asked if he took what Shaq said personally, Bryant said, "I didn't take it any kind of way whatsoever." ... A film crew from Nike was everywhere during Saturday's practice, shooting footage for a five-part documentary on Team USA that will air on ESPN2 (Cable 31) beginning Wednesday. Nike also shot footage for a commercial that will run during the Olympics. ...

The team leaves today for New York, where the new uniforms it will wear in the Olympics will be unveiled Monday. On Saturday, the uniforms were used for the first time as team and individual pictures were taken. ... Ticket sales for the July 25 exhibition game with Canada at the Thomas & Mack Center are ahead of last year's pace when the team had an intrasquad scrimmage and more than 16,000 turned out. With a low ticket price of $12 and a high of $75, Las Vegas Events officials are hopeful the game will sell out.

Olympic Moments (of truth) ... visas and 63% occupancy

The New York Times ran a very interesting piece on access and visas to Beijing, China in the months leading up to the Olympic Games. If you didn't see it on Monday evening, be sure to read on:

China’s Visa Policy Threatens Olympics Tourism
By DAVID BARBOZA

BEIJING — The plush lobby of Beijing’s Kerry Center Hotel is usually crowded with foreign guests, many of them listening to jazz and sipping martinis in Centro, the hotel’s fashionable bar, or lining up for taxis after dinner at the Horizon restaurant.

But Thursday evening, Centro had only a sprinkling of guests in a hotel whose occupancy rate is typically close to 100 percent this time of year. That night, the duty manager, said it was 63 percent.

“Something strange has been going on,” said Sun Yin, the duty manager. “I really don’t know what happened.”

With the Beijing Olympics less than two months away, hotel operators, travel agencies, and foreign businessmen say new Chinese visa restrictions are proving bad for business, casting a pall over Beijing during what was supposed to be a busy and jubilant tourist season leading up to the Olympic Games.

Chinese authorities acknowledged putting new visa restrictions in place in May — after foreign embassies reported fewer visas being granted and tighter, sometimes seemingly arbitrary, restrictions. The government did not release guidelines detailing the changes in policy; it often does not. But a foreign ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, said in May that they would be temporary.

On Monday, Hu Bin, a visa official at the foreign ministry, said the ministry had no statistics on the number of visa denials, but that the new policies were put in place for “security considerations.”

Travel business analysts had forecast that the Games would bring 500,000 foreign visitors and an extra $4.5 billion in revenue to Beijing this summer. But now, even though some five-star hotels are fully booked for the Olympics, many economists are beginning to doubt the city will get the kind of economic windfall it was hoping for.

Many hotels in Beijing are struggling to find guests; some large travel agencies have temporarily closed branches; and people scheduled to travel here for seminars and conferences are canceling. The number of foreign tourists visiting Beijing fell sharply in May, dropping by 14 percent, according to the city’s statistics bureau.

Beijing residents, meanwhile, are complaining that heightened security measures could spoil what was supposed to be Beijing’s long anticipated coming-out party. Despite years of careful preparation — including teaching taxi drivers English and instructing locals in how to wait in a line (not common here), and spending billions on mammoth building projects for these Games — Beijing is starting to appear less welcoming to foreigners.

“Business is so bleak,” said Di Jian, the sales manager at the Capital Hotel in Beijing. “Since May, very few foreigners have checked in. Our occupancy rate has dropped by 40 percent.”

Many other cities in China are also feeling the pain of fewer tourists, including Shanghai, where some hotels say occupancy rates are down 15 to 20 percent.

The government has publicized its determination to combat possible threats to the Games, including suicide bombings, bus hijackings and chemical attacks. In April, Interpol warned that a terrorist attack during the Beijing Olympics is a “real possibility.” And in a year plagued by riots in Tibet, protests of the Olympic torch relay, a terrorist plot to kidnap journalists covering the Olympics (according to Beijing officials) and the Sichuan earthquake, the government is stressing public safety above all else.

But Beijing appears to be less concerned about hosting a global party and more concerned with making sure no one spoils it. Officials announced Thursday that 100,000 commandos, police and army troops would be placed on high alert during the Games.

The heightened sense of alert over security threats in the capital has done something else too: it has spawned a huge number of rumors about other actions the government may or may not be taking.

Among them: a border region with North Korea has been closed to prevent security risks; foreign students and migrant workers are being asked to leave Beijing during the Olympics; all volunteers need to register with the police; bars will be forced to close early; and all outdoor parties planned for the three-week-long Olympic celebration have been banned, putting the hex on some of the entertaining events that had been planned for the Games.

The Beijing police and security officials denied some of the reports, but also, at times, insisted in telephone interviews last week that they could not disclose some security matters. Poor official communication about regulations and restrictions in Beijing may be contributing to public uncertainty and feeding the rumor mill.

Nothing is more of an obstacle than the new visa policy. Businessmen, particularly from the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan, have complained that new visa restrictions have prevented business meetings from taking place and crimped deal making.

Many Hong Kong-based businessmen, for example, say new visa rules require frequent and complicated applications, often including proof of a hotel booking, round-trip airline tickets, and in some cases, a letter of invitation.

“It’s kind of draconian,” said Richard Vuylsteke, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, which represents American companies doing business in the region. “But politics and security trump economics, especially during the Olympics. We just hope that after the Olympics things will change.”

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in Beijing has also complained to China’s foreign ministry.

Chinese hotel operators are also frustrated. A hotel construction boom in which the number of four- and five-star hotels in Beijing jumped from about 64 in 2001 to 161 as of the end of April, according to government figures, is beginning to look overly optimistic. Many hotels are still under construction in a city that now has over 5,000 hotels.

Hotel operators also say the earthquake and Olympic torch relay protests may be having an impact on tourism. “Usually May and June are the busy season for our hotel,” said Jiang Zhiqiang, a spokesman for the New Otani Changfugong Hotel in Beijing. “This year is quite unusual. I think several natural and man-made disasters happened subsequently, which hurt our business.”

With the opening ceremony of the Olympics just seven weeks away, only 44 percent of the rooms in four star hotels and 77 percent of five-star hotel rooms are booked, according to the Beijing Tourist Bureau.

If visitors cannot get visas to enter the country, many of those hotels may be forced to slash rates, which had jumped as high as $2,000 a night when prospects were brighter.

In some ways, the hotels are also on the front lines of the security crackdown. They typically share lists of their guests with the government, on a daily basis. But now they are being asked to supply photographs of all their employees too, as well as help the government in visa approvals, some hotel managers said.

Many large tourism agencies have already given up. “Now most of my colleagues for inbound tourism don’t come to work,” said Wang Ge, director of the inbound tourism department at the Beijing Tourism Group. “We have no clients this month.”

Indeed, when an American called the China Travel Guide Tourist Agency last week, a sales clerk even discouraged the person from visiting Beijing during the Olympics.

“You really don’t want to go there,” said Lorna Liu, the sales representative at China Travel Guide. “Why don’t you try Xi’an or Shanghai and visit Beijing a little later?”

Olympic Moments (of truth) ... Access

The AP's Steven Wade ran a story on Friday afternoon updating the situation between television executives and the Olympic organizing committee. The story has been reported over the past few months with AP execs, TV execs and other news gatherers citing concerns over access and proper authority to act on breaking news at the Olympic Games.

This is not new or specific to China, however. Over the past few years, the IOC and its TV rights holders have restricted access to non rights holders and other news organizations and reporters. By nature of the size of the Olympic Games, they are in a position where they have to limit the number of credentials issued and ultimately, limit media access to certain very high profile venues and events.

Here is the AP story:

BEIJING (AP)—A top European broadcast official says television coverage roadblocks in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics are a worrying sign for reporting freedom during the games.

Seven weeks before the Olympics open, television broadcasters are involved in a protracted battle with Chinese organizers over coverage away from the sports venues. This involves moving satellite trucks around the city, deploying equipment and clear rules about where TV cameras will be able to film.

The games are supposed to show China’s rising power, a celebration of the country’s new place on the world stage. However, China’s communist government seems to fear that roving TV cameras and 30,000 journalists might show protests by the spiritual sect Falun Gong, or athletes speaking out against China’s policies in Tibet or Darfur.

“What’s going on now might be an indication of what could happen during the games,” Fernando Pardo, head of sports for the European Broadcasting Union, said in a telephone interview Friday with The Associated Press. “If this happens during the games, the reaction of broadcasters could be unpredictable.”

Beijing Olympic organizing officials could not be reached for comment Friday, but repeatedly have promised that reporters will be free to do their jobs and cover the Olympics as they have at previous games.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said Thursday that Beijing organizers were close to resolving the issues.

“It will take a couple of days to finalize everything,” Rogge said in an interview. “Things are moving extremely well to resolve these issues.”

Pardo, who has covered the Olympics since the 1976 Montreal Games, said he has seen only limited progress since emergency meetings on May 29-30 in Beijing with top IOC, TV and Beijing organizing officials.

“I would love to agree with Mr. Rogge, but unfortunately I don’t see many signs to agree,” said Pardo, who said he was expressing the feelings of other TV executives involved in the games. “There are dark clouds on the horizon that keep me from agreeing.”

Pardo said the problems range from getting equipment through customs, being guaranteed access to venues such as Tiananmen Square, and being certain—once granted permission—that broadcasters will be free to report without being stopped by security officials requesting more documents.

“We saw big security problems in Moscow (1980), so this is not new for me,” Pardo said. “We have worked in communist regimes before. But here it is much more difficult than Moscow.

“We have been in very difficult situations on other occasions,” Pardo added. “Not everything has been rosy, but nothing like this occasion. We have only seven weeks before the games, and so many things are not settled.”

Pardo declined to use the word “crisis,” but said next week was critical as broadcasters begin moving operations to Beijing. He also said broadcasters could consider seeking financial compensation from the local organizing committee if promises were not met.

“If by any chance when we are there in the Olympics working and we cannot work freely and get services we need, this is the moment when we can ask for compensation,” Pardo said.

The EBU is one of the major rights-holding broadcasters and will employ a staff of 4,500 during the games. The EBU has 85 member broadcasters in TV and radio and covers Europe, North Africa and some countries formerly part of the Soviet Union.

Pardo said there were no clear answers about access to Tiananmen Square. After saying two months ago that live coverage would be allowed from the iconic venue, the Chinese have hedged their bets.

Pardo said Chinese officials are now offering a standup position for broadcasters in Tiananmen, but it’s unclear who will be able to use it.

“We don’t know who can access it,” he said. “Will guests for interviews have access to this area? Is this purely a broadcast area, or is it open? I want to have the possibility to bring whoever I consider necessary to this area to be interviewed. We don’t know who has the right to access.”

He said an EBU member told him that a film crew recently was given access to the Great Wall, but the crew was then asked to pay “an outrageous fee” to begin the filming. Pardo said it was not clear who asked for the money.

“Once you get the authorization you should be absolutely sure you can film freely and not have any problems. But this has not been the case,” he said.

Non rights-holders face many of the same restrictions over where they’ll be allowed to set up satellite trucks and high-tech equipment.

“I’m seeing promises of progress, but I’m not seeing the progress,” said Sandy MacIntrye, director of news for AP Television News. APTN is the television arm of The Associated Press and a non-rights holder.

“I know the IOC is pushing them (Chinese) to get this stuff done,” MacIntrye added. “They (Chinese) have promised progress and we wait to see if they live up to the promises.”

Murray Needham, the general manager of sports at Television New Zealand, voiced similar concerns. TVNZ is a rights holder.

“I think many of us knew in the back of our minds that a China-hosted Games could throw up some unique difficulties and so it has proved,” Needham wrote in an e-mail. “The broadcasting fraternity holds its breath in nervous anticipation.”

Shaken by protests on international legs of the Olympic torch relay following the outbreak of deadly rioting March 14 in Tibet, China’s authoritarian government seems to be backtracking on promises to let reporters work as they have at previous Olympics.

A law enacted 18 months ago gave reporters freedom to move around the country, although Tibet has been off limits. The law generally has worked, although reporting remains a problem in the provinces.

In recent months, the government has tightened visa rules, particularly targeting foreign students. The government fears many would side with activist groups if protests break out.

China is on the record promising unrestricted coverage.

In a 273-page guide to coverage for the foreign press, the introduction says: “The Chinese government will honor its commitments in the bid process … to provide quality and convenient services to the media in accordance with international practice and the successful experience from previous games, so as to satisfy the demands of the media covering the Olympic Games in China.”

Olympic Moments ...

A Couple Grapple for Love, and Love of Achievement
By GREG BISHOP

LAS VEGAS — Friends say Patricia Miranda and Levi Weikel-Magden argue like an old married couple, but really, they argue more like what they are — married wrestlers with law degrees.

Most couples start out dating. They started with constant debating, with topics ranging from “Star Trek” to immigration policy, with Miranda occasionally throwing a head butt to make a point.

It took eight years before Weikel-Magden made the most persuasive argument yet — he persuaded Miranda, a women’s wrestling pioneer and bronze medalist in 2004, to come out of retirement for one final shot at an Olympic gold medal — with a twist that held potential for disaster and delight. He wanted to become her coach, and he did in September 2005.

“We’re going to look back at this chapter, this amazing chapter, as the point where we really learned to trust one another,” Weikel-Magden said.

They met at Stanford in 1997, two overachievers who were teammates and friends before all the dating and debating. From the first day, their teammate Warren McPherson said they were inseparable.

Weikel-Magden came from an eastern Oregon town so small the closest movie theater was two and a half hours away. He sent a recruiting tape to Stanford coaches filled with all his losses and somehow managed to secure a scholarship.

Miranda arrived from Silicon Valley, the only female on the team, the daughter of Brazilian immigrants, including a father who once threatened to sue the school district if she wrestled.

She had decided not to date teammates, out of respect for team chemistry, but something kept drawing Miranda and Weikel-Magden together. They started dating shortly after a Halloween party at which Weikel-Magden showed up at her dormitory room without a costume and ended up borrowing her clothes to dress in drag.

Miranda, who turned 29 on Tuesday, can pinpoint when she knew they would make a life together. The summer after their freshman year, after her future husband had cracked the varsity lineup “looking like a 12-year-old, still a year away from puberty,” she received a telephone call from his parents.

Levi is in the hospital ... Crohn’s Disease ... massive infection ... complications ... surgery.

Upon hearing the predicament, her father, incapable of anything other than brutal truth, said, “Oh, that one’s gone.”

Earlier that day, Weikel-Magden’s small intestine ruptured. He spent nearly three hours on the couch, pain. Family members rushed him to the hospital.

“I’m screaming bloody murder,” he said. “I wish I was tougher. But screaming at the top of my lungs was all I could do to make it manageable.”

Doctors diagnosed Crohn’s, an autoimmune disease that confuses the immune system and causes inflammation in the digestive track. By the time Miranda arrived the weekend after the operation, Weikel-Magden had lost 30 pounds.

They were lying together on the hospital bed when doctors explained that Weikel-Magden would live with the disease the rest of his life. Weikel-Magden flashed, of all things, a smile. He considered himself fortunate.

“That’s when I knew,” Miranda said. “I’d rather spend 10 years with him than 50 with anyone else I ever met.”

After graduating from Stanford, Weikel-Magden went to law school at Virginia, while Miranda deferred her enrollment at Yale to train for the 2004 Athens Games — the Olympic debut for women’s wrestling. He helped coach her to the bronze medal, the first Olympic medal for an American female wrestler.

Miranda then retired and went to Yale Law, adding to an undergraduate degree in economics and a master’s degree in international policy.

She missed wrestling, but not in the way that she expected. She did not miss the glory, the accolades or the applause, she said. Rather, she missed the serendipity that came with being a world-class athlete — being stranded in a Russian airport while the airline lost her luggage, bumming around Sweden for a week while waiting for teammates to arrive.

Mainly, she missed the moments shared. And Weikel-Magden, in the persuasive argument, wanted to share them with her.

The pitch: “You are so close to just dominating,” he said he told her.

“He’s a good salesman,” Miranda concedes now. But for the first six months of the experiment, she wished she had stayed retired.

Folding the worlds of husband and wife, coach and athlete proved difficult. She promised trust but felt betrayed when her husband scolded her at practice, only to later feel like a failure for not trusting more.

This spilled into their home life. One time, Weikel-Magden took home a new toothbrush and started teaching Miranda how to use it. “You can’t coach me on how to brush my teeth!” she said.

Early on at Stanford, the couple shared a wrestling weakness: too much thinking in a sport where instinct dominates. During matches, they would think about things like the color of the ceiling, what they would tell their parents if they lost, whether the sweat on their coaches’ hands indicated frayed nerves.

“It’s overthinking, and it’s intellectual,” Weikel-Magden said. “And wrestling is anything but intellectual. We can be our own worst enemies that way.”

He taught himself to compete instinctively, and something surprising happened. Weikel-Magden found he loved fighting, enduring pain and hurting people. Even after surgery, he did not miss a practice.

He needed to tap into Miranda’s violent vein, conjure emotions like anger and hatred. This did not come naturally for Miranda, who took a personality test at Yale expecting to score opposite her classmates because of wrestling. Instead, she scored similarly to them.

“It’s actually very counterintuitive, but it’s learning to be poised and angry and relaxed,” Weikel-Magden said. “It’s not being more focused. It’s not doing more work.”

Added Matt Huttner, a friend, “Even in the toughest times in their relationship, what made it work is Levi had a plan.”

To stop her from worrying and overthinking, Weikel-Magden took over the household chores, cooking and cleaning, and imploring Miranda to rest. Eventually, Miranda started to catch on. She breezed through the nationals and now needs to win only twice this weekend to qualify for the Olympics. Along the way, they learned a level of trust neither knew existed.

Weikel-Magden said that this made for a stronger marriage, that it would make them stronger parents. Miranda said her first thought every morning was, “Wow, I’m so lucky to have you.”

Three years after the persuasive argument, Weikel-Magden admits to dreaming about the end — his wife, on the podium, in part because of him.

“They’ve put together quite a trophy case,” their friend McPherson said. “That would be like the crown jewel. All the years they put in, all the sacrifices they’ve made. They put everything on hold for this one goal, this one dream. It’s right there.”

Both the principals agree. For once, there is no argument.

***

This piece was in the NYT on June 12th and a colleague and fellow blogger, Joe Fav, passed it along with a note to consider it for my Olympic previews. A good suggestion for a good piece:

Wilbon on the Olympic Movement and Basketball Season ...

Mike Wilbon recently wrote:

International Diplomacy, Domestic Unrest

By Michael Wilbon
Sunday, June 8, 2008

BOSTON -- The NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics won't be the last basketball battle of the summer. Sixteen years after the U.S. Dream Team initiated an Olympic and global basketball renaissance, and four years after the worst Olympic showing in U.S. history caused unprecedented self-examination, there is widespread domestic disagreement on what Olympic role, if any, NBA players should have.

The Beijing Olympics begin in two months and for the fifth time NBA players will compete. The U.S. team again will have only professional players, to the delight of NBA Commissioner David Stern, but to the detriment of the league, if you believe skeptics such as Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Lakers Coach Phil Jackson.

The difference of opinion was highlighted one recent day in Los Angeles when, before an NBA playoff game, Stern and Jackson expressed their opinions about NBA player participation in the Olympics. Jackson, who has had one hip replaced and walks with the assistance of a cane, said: "The wear and tear of the NBA game on the body of a player . . . you only have to watch me walk out to the court to understand that is probably like putting ten years into one year of a normal human being's body because of the grind of this game. So, the rest and recuperation they can get in the offseason is really important for the players. [But] we've joined world basketball in this cause to chase whatever . . . whatever it means to the NBA to have our game worldwide and to notify the rest of the world how good our teams are in the USA."

Jackson believes the NBA is putting its greatest assets, its players, at risk in its quest to promote its brand worldwide. "We've tried to chase the gold in the Olympics and the World Cup," he said. "I just think we're taking some of our best players and putting them in positions where it's tough for them to continue to play. I thought it hurt [Spurs star Tim] Duncan the year they went to Greece [2004]. I think San Antonio asked [Manu] Ginóbili to not play this year in the trials and he didn't participate with the Argentina team. . . .

"Kobe [Bryant] and I talked . . . we were plotting out the real scenario from here on out for his career about the protection of his career. You know, taking care of his body, resting when he has to rest, and not doing an undue amount of work without cause or purpose."

Bryant, along with the Celtics' Paul Pierce, Cleveland's LeBron James, Orlando's Dwight Howard and Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire, are among the all-stars expected to play in Beijing, against international teams that are also led by NBA players.

Minutes later, told of Jackson's comments, Stern said: "I don't think they abuse their bodies during the Olympics period. It is extra basketball. But that's the reality of it. The Olympics have helped the NBA, the globalization of basketball, our coaches and our players. . . . The reality is it remains an extraordinary stage, and the basketball ticket in Beijing will be the number one ticket in the sport."

Cuban openly disputes even the notion that playing in the Olympics is the best business move. In his blog Cuban writes, "I've said it before and I will say it again: The NBA is making a huge mistake by letting our players participate in the Olympics and its qualifying competitions."

Cuban takes exception even with the way the NBA uses its brand in the Summer Games. "It can be a decent business if done right," he writes about involving the league in international basketball. "Unfortunately for the NBA, this is the only place where we give away our trademark and assets and we shouldn't. If the game of basketball truly has grown to the level of interest we all think and hope it has, then we should just dump playing for the Olympics and hold our own tournament. If we were really, really smart we would work with the NHL, NFL, MLB and USA Track & Field organizations, tennis and other sports with strong professional bases and create our own games. Then, supporting the international development of the games would make sense."

In a recent conversation about the Olympics, Cuban, too, worried about the physical toll on the players. He fretted over the health of his all-star, Dirk Nowitzki, Germany's best player, as Jackson did Bryant.

Asked this week at the NBA Finals about the physical risks of playing for his country, Celtics star Ray Allen, who played for the U.S. in the 2000 Olympics, said: "It definitely takes a toll on your body. And as guys get older it becomes more difficult to play all year. But you've got a lot of issues here. As Americans, we have such egos when it comes to international basketball. Me? I wouldn't have it any other way than NBA players representing the U.S. The other countries are putting their best players on the floor, which now means professionals. So we need to put our best on the floor. The process probably is an issue, with the qualifying. But if you're asking me if we should use amateurs, the answer is no. No. I am in favor of having the teams determined by essentially open tryouts. Put the 12 best on the floor, not the 12 hottest NBA players at the moment."

Allen probably hit on the most critical issue for those concerned about players' health. Charles Barkley, who played on the Dream Team in Barcelona in '92 and again in 1996 in Atlanta, said yesterday: "The issue, if we're talking about health, starts with qualifying. If these guys stop messing around and go ahead and win the gold medal, they won't have to take more than three weeks to a month out of their lives. A month of playing other great players in the Olympics is good preparation for the next season. But if you don't win gold or you're not the host nation, then it can take two years of playing and practicing to qualify. And that takes the big physical toll. It takes more out of you physically to do all the stuff to qualify than it does to play six games or whatever you need to win to win the gold."

So the question was put to Barkley, now an analyst for TNT: Should NBA players compete in the Olympics? "There are some interesting arguments on both sides, but I think the answer depends totally on whether we want to win or not," he said. "It depends on what it means to the NBA and to the United States to win a gold medal. I'm telling you right now that if it's important, you have to have pros. You can't put a bunch of college kids out there and expect them to beat Ginóbili, [Andrés] Nocioni and [Luis] Scola of Argentina. Those guys would kill a team of college kids."

There is no sign whatsoever the NBA is turning back. During those recent comments in Los Angeles, Stern said the NBA is going to take four teams to Europe and two teams to China in October, which means Jackson, Cuban and others can object all they want but it isn't about to alter the current course.

"Just as baseball is played in [Japan] and football opened in England," Stern said, "that's the next sort of step in the expansion of American sports. . . . And hockey is going to open, I believe, in Scandinavia . . . so it's happening and that's just a fact of life. You can say if we went back to a 60-game schedule that would also put less wear and tear on our players. But commercially, that's not going to happen. And internationally, it's not going to be cut back. It's going to continue to grow."

***

TL commentary: I think it is simply amazing how selfish and short-sighted Phil Jackson and Mark Cuban are in regard to this topic. To Jackson, I ask this question. "Do you think the popularity, growth and exposure of world basketball might've helped Kobe become a little bit better player while he was growing up in Italy? Is it possible that world basketball and the NBA's/USA Basketball's role over the years might've helped Spain's Pau Gasol improve his game a bit?" To Cuban, I ask, "Mark, do you think somewhere along the line in beautiful downtown Wurzburg, the ability to watch and learn from the NBA game on German TV might've taken Dirk's game up a level or two? Is it - at all possible - that a small part of Dirk's success might've been the result of Holgar's exposure to the American coaching and style of play? And, before that, don't you think that Steve Nash's emergence as an elite NBA player might've been the direct result of Nash's game and confidence being tested when he led Team Canada to an unimaginable second place finish at the 1999 Tournament of the Americas and a bid to the 2000 Olympic Games?

No. You want it all. You want it to be a one-way street. What is good for you and your team is all that matters. Screw everyone else. The hell with the rest of the kids growing up in far corners of the world. The hell with the sport of basketball playing some small role in the world being a better place to live. To hell with Yao Ming being able to carry his country on his shoulders as the Olympic Games open in Beijing. (And promoting the NBA game afterward!)... To hell with Andrew Gaze carrying Australia's flag into the Opening Ceremony in Sydney. You guys have NBA teams to run and NBA titles to win, and win now. No sense in budgeting time, effort, and human resources into building the future. You guys won't be around for it anyway.

And, psst, wanna know a secret? Your attitude and public stance is exactly why the rest of the citizens of the world look down upon Americans in the year 2008. Some of them hate our guts because of that attitude.

The rest of the world used to look to an American to be the common denominators, the conduits to peace, justice and a better world. Now, the rest of the world views America as SELFISH, SELF-CENTERED, SELF-YOU-ADD-THE PHRASE. It's a crying shame.

Now, I fully recognize the toll an Olympic Games and its preparation take on a player. In '92, when the minutes were distributed evenly and the Jordans and Pippens carried the team and played 20-25 minutes in doing do, it was a lot easier. But, now, in the Year 2004-2008-2012, a march to the Olympic Gold Medal is going to take hard work and dedication, blood and sweat. God forbid an NBA player risk that, eh?

Now, I think it is 100-percent right for the likes of Shaq-Duncan-KG to say, "No thanks, I did my part. It's time for someone else to try." I'm okay with that, unless the player WANTS to play in more than one Olympic Games or they are pursuing their dreams of an Olympic Gold medal. (Let me repeat, God forbid that an NBA player actually wants to face that amazing challenge, eh?)

The bottom line is this: A player should have every right in the world to play for his country, whether it be the USA, Germany, China or any other country to attempt a run at the medal stand. What is wrong is for someone to second-guess the right of a player to play and participate in the Olympics, especially if that someone has never stood anywhere near an Olympic locker room and has never seen the likes of an Earvin Johnson, David Robinson or Alonzo Mourning react like little children when they dressed in their country's colors on the way to walk in the Opening Ceremony of an Olympics.

Olympic Moments ...

From time to time, I will clip an interesting item on a 2008 Olympian. This one, is from one hell of a writer, Amy Shipley of the Washington Post. Here are their stories:

She's a Good Sport
An Olympic Team Member in 3 of Them, Taormina Tackles Modern Pentathlon

By Amy Shipley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 3, 2008; E01

Every Olympics brings a new cast of athletes, dramatic quests and occasionally unusual sports into the consciousness of interested Americans, but rarely -- or, perhaps, never -- has the obscure pastime known as modern pentathlon kept anyone beyond relatives of participants clamoring for updates.

That could change this summer.

The moment the U.S. Olympic Committee announced Sunday night that Sheila Taormina had earned a place on the modern pentathlon team, becoming the first person to qualify for the Olympics in three sports, modern pentathlon suddenly mattered. By summer's end, the average American might be able to recite confidently the five component sports of the endeavor -- fencing, shooting, swimming, show jumping and running.

Taormina, who competed in swimming at the 1996 Summer Games and triathlon in 2000 and 2004, brings a drama-laden story to a sport considered so arcane and irrelevant that the International Olympic Committee executive board proposed six years ago that it be thrown off the Olympic program. Three years later, the San Antonio-based organization that oversaw modern pentathlon's development for more than 50 years in the United States folded.

To Taormina, however, the sport's five rungs represented a perfect next step for a woman who had already transitioned successfully from a gold medal performance in swimming as a member of the 4x200 relay team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, to the triathlon, which involves swimming, running and cycling. Taormina finished sixth in the event in Sydney in 2000 and a disappointing 23rd in Athens four years later.

"I know I have the potential to win," Taormina said recently. "I also know I have the potential to be a complete fool and screw up royally. I'm a really fun wild card. . . . Of course, I really want to win. And I can win."

Never mind that, as of four years ago, she had never held a gun, ridden anything other than a kiddie pony or picked up a fencing epee. She had to learn to fire an air pistol with accuracy, maneuver unfamiliar horses around show jumping courses (modern pentathletes draw random horses for competitions) and become competent enough with an epee to win at least half of her matches if she hoped to remain in medal contention.

"People just said, 'There is no way you can do this; it's not possible,' " said her longtime triathlon coach, Lew Kidder. "No one has ever even tried this . . . [but] she was determined she was going to push that rock up the hill."

The energy she put into the new endeavors left her little time to hone her areas of expertise; she saw her times drop in swimming and running. Besides all that, Taormina ran into unexpected and stomach-churning problems: How would she pay for all this training, and what if she failed to make the team? Where, she wondered as she began to have international success just over two years ago, were all of the sponsors that seemed eager to support mainstream swimmers and increasingly popular triathletes?

The financial rewards to date, she said, have been virtually zilch. She had to sell her house two years ago simply to remain financially afloat. She skipped this past weekend's world championships in Budapest, because she had been asked to give a speech by a group in Indianapolis and she needed the cash.

Modern pentathlon, she said, has produced something in abundance that she rarely encountered during her other Olympic journeys: tears.

"Pentathlon," she said, "has made me cry."

She, however, has had the opposite effect on the sport.

"The media attention for our sport [because of Taormina's presence] not only in North America but also worldwide will, I think, be enormous," Angela Ives, president of the Canadian Modern Pentathlon Association said in an e-mail from Budapest. "Pentathlon generally gets very little media attention on this continent. . . . I haven't known Sheila long but have been very impressed by her -- not only as an athlete but also as a person."

Said USOC chief executive Jim Scherr in a statement: "Qualifying for the Olympic Games in one sport is difficult enough. But to do so in three sports -- and be internationally competitive in all three -- is a remarkable accomplishment."

In what will be an almost comic pairing during the lead-up to the Games, Taormina will be hanging out with teammate Margaux Isaksen, who at 16 will be one of the U.S. squad's youngest members. At 39, Taormina will be one of the oldest. Taormina noted that her brother joked that the pentathlon team is full of hormones, with one woman going through menopause and the other puberty.

"I'm tired and old and cranky, and she's all bright and bubbly," Taormina said. "Her mother's more my age. She is my age, actually."

(Isaksen's mother, Kathleen West, said that wasn't quite accurate but declined to reveal the extent to which Taormina had erred.)

NBC Universal spokesman Mike McCarley said the network planned more coverage of modern pentathlon than previously, with the entire competition streamed live for the first time on nbcolympics.com and at least one hour shown on cable television (the same as in 2004). The network, he noted, would respond to exceptional stories as they evolve during the Games, meaning Taormina could end up as part of the prime-time broadcast depending on how her medal quest unfolded.

That, of course, remains a big question. She said her body moves more slowly than it used to. Her muscles are tighter. She underwent her first surgery a few months ago. She said the idea that she would continue competing after these Games is laughable.

But in just three years she became the top-ranked U.S. woman in her sport.

Ranked ninth overall in the World Cup standings this spring after competitions in Cairo; Mexico City; Millfield, England; Madrid; and Kladno, Czech Republic, Taormina offers intriguing possibilities. With her strong background in swimming and running, she is always a candidate to land on a medal stand. But with her inexperience in shooting, fencing and, in particular show jumping, she is also a candidate to land, literally, on her derriere. At the World Cup in Madrid, a horrific ride on an uncooperative horse left her with zero points in the equestrian segment of competition.

"I will not put that pressure on myself," Taormina said about winning a medal. "There's been too much pressure to make the team. . . . [I hope people say] she had enough guts to go for this and put herself on the line."