Category — Summer Olympics 2012

Tip of the cap to the D.C. Sports Bog.
The Nats forced their rookies to dress as the U.S. gymnastics team.

Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps partied at Hyde Bellagio at the Bellagio resort in Las Vegas during the venue’s weekly “Lost Angels” party Tuesday night.
Phelps and girlfriend Megan Rossee and a small entourage celebrated friend Jeff Gross’ birthday, arriving at the packed party just after midnight. They made their way through the sleek new nightclub and set up camp in a plush VIP table near Hyde’s dramatic DJ booth. Phelps sipped on Ketel One.
Over the weekend, Olympic bronze medalist and bride-to-be Janay DeLoach celebrated her bachelorette party with 10 girlfriends at Rain nightclub at the Palms Casino Resort in Vegas. The long-jump superstar showed off her Olympic medal and enjoyed a table on the dance floor, where she and friends drank Ketel One and danced to Taboo of Black Eyed Peas’ performance and DJ Zen Freeman’s set.
Image of Phelps courtesy of Hyde Bellagio; DeLoach via Joe Fury

The great Michael Phelps was among the party people enjoying a set by DJ David Guetta early Sunday at XS Nightclub at the Encore resort in Las Vegas.
Image courtesy of Danny Mahoney/XS Nightclub

Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte and silver medalist Cullen Jones were among the partygoers at XS nightclub at the Encore resort in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Lochte was celebrating his 28th birthday.
Also in the house: Prince Harry, who was visiting after attending a charity event in San Diego.
Image courtesy of Danny Mahoney/XS

France’s Nicolas Batum, a member of the Portland Trailblazers, delivered a vicious shot to Spain’s Juan Carlos Navarro near the end of Spain’s 66-59 victory today in the Summer Olympics.
Batum: “I wanted to give him a good reason to flop.”
Oh.

A New York Times writer busted Lolo Jones’ chops in a hit piece (she wasn’t the only 1 to pose nude in ESPN The Magazine). But we’re not. Hell, we’d wager half of cousin Hobey’s money she’ll give the ratings a rise tonight when the Summer Olympics resume in London. Fellas and women, too. And while we’re saluting some of our favorite females, a shout out to gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross, who captured the women’s 400 meters.
Also, a little love for Carmelita Jeter, who earned a silver medal in the women’s 100 meters Saturday night.

We’re big fans because Usain Bolt rarely disappoints. All of that talk of him possibly loosing a step was just talk and he proved again tonight he’s the standard by which others are compared. This was a lineup of big-time sprinters, Bolt’s training partner Yohan Blake, Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay among them. Justin Gatlin nailed the bronze, finishing behind Blake. Gatlin carries a heart of a champion, but this was Bolt’s night.

Now if we could only get some of these same writers to scream for a little diversity in their sports departments. Or even better, how about making some noise about how gang violence impacts those communities Serena grew up in? Oh the silence is deafening.
After beating Maria Sharapova like a drum for a gold medal in women’s tennis, Serena Williams became the talk of the universe for performing the “Crip Walk” after her victory. Twitter is all a flutter, with journalists, fans and others clashing about whether it was appropriate or not.
An all-white cast of reporters greeted (and we use that term loosely) Williams after the dance, asking her what the hell she was doing. A bunch of readers, many of them African Americans, are greeting (again, we use that term loosely) and asking some of those same white journalists what the hell are they writing and what’s up with all the fuss.
For some reason, I don’t think we’ve heard the end of this.

With a tip of the cap to Larry Brown Sports…
This gem comes courtesy of Reuters. Plus, we needed a little pick me up. All pun intended.

Tip of the cap to writer/blogger/ Evan Barnes for pointing this out.
Nothing but praise should be showered on Gabby Douglas’ mother, who sacrificed so much to allow her daughter to become a 2-time gold medalist at the Summer Olympics. You can’t say enough about Natalie Hawkins, who we watched with emotions (I’m a parent, too) last night as she twice mouthed “Oh my God” from the bleachers after Gabby captured her 2nd gold medal.
But if you watched the developments on NBC, you had no clue her father existed. Air Force Staff Sergeant Timothy Douglas is alive and well. Even better, he’s a huge part of his daughter’s life and 1 of her biggest supporters.
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