A group called USA Yoga thinks that rabbit pose and standing bow-pulling pose should be part of an Olympic event, and we're seriously curious if the Olympic committee is even half listening. A gaggle of over-achieving, ultra-competitive yogis are going to be participating this week in the National Yoga Asana Championship, March 2 to March 4, organized by USA Yoga in New York, with an international competition scheduled in Los Angeles in June. more ›

Tommie Smith, the Ex-San Jose State sprinter who famously raised his fist during the 1968 Olympics, is selling his gold medal for $250K. AP reports: "The former San Jose State runner has put his gold medal for the 200 meters and spikes up for auction at New York-based M.I.T. Memorabilia. The bid starts at $250,000, and the sale is scheduled to close Nov. 4." [Stamford Advocate, via SFGate] more ›

Let's hear it for curling, huh? Every four years the world once again remembers, and simultaneously mocks and watches in awe as teams of men slide enormous rocks down the ice and frantically sweep a path in a kooky, stone-age-ish version of shuffleboard that only someone from a truly chilly nation could love. more ›

by Amy Crocker more ›

If you're a fan of figure skating (and you should be), you know that Quin Pang and Jian Tong Shen and Zhao clinched the first pairs gold for China last night, breaking a 12 gold medal streak by the Russians. And, while watching Yuko Kavaguti's face break, who renounced her Japanese citizenship to live and work in Russian on her skating for 14 years, your heart broke. more ›

According to our dear commie-pinko pals over IndyBay, "around a dozen nudists competed in athletic events" at Sunday's Nude Olympics I, which went down at Baker Beach on Sunday. Did anybody happen to see/compete? The was there, so we're looking forward to a full report. Also, IndyBay points out that "[t]wo of the nude athletes were womyn." And...it looks like they're totally serious. (IndyBay) more ›

You pronounce it "Oh-GAH-na Nuh-nuh-MAH-nee". And then you ask her for her phone number! Known as to her teammates, Outside Hitter Ogonna Nnamani and the ladies roared to a silver medal finish in the Women's Volleyball competition late last night. Ultimately bested by the gold-winning Brazilian ladies, the U.S. women enjoyed their best olympic showing in 24 years. They had not been favored to win any sort of medal at all. more ›

He's on the U.S. Men's Volleyball team that's playing for a gold medal on Sunday... and he shoots up using needles at least four times a day! The shooting up part is a result of Stanford alum Kevin Hansen's being diagnosed with Type I diabetes at age 10. The playing for a gold medal part is the result of this morning's upset victory over Russia in the medal qualifying match. Kevin and his merry crew of handsome v-ballers have yet to lose a game in the Beijing olympics, and they'll try to complete the sweep Sunday against the also formidably handsome Brazilian team. more ›

If there were a gold medal for worst fashion display during an Olympics highlights show, Diane Dwyer would be the Michael Phelps of the sport. Clearly the hostess of Olympic Zone desperately needs the Bela Karolyi of stylists. more ›

The Sunset district's own Shannon Rowbury is officially kinda, sorta "the fastest woman alive"! The freckly, superadorable 23-year-old Sacred Heart alum recorded the fastest qualifying time of all runners in this year's 1,500-meter olympic qualifying trials. Take that, Kenya! She ran her first her first preliminary heats yesterday morning, and will run for the gold on Saturday. more ›

Yes, believe it -- a hot identical twin Men's Doubles tennis team! Dare to have the crazy identical twin fantasy with Bob and Mike Bryan, two 30-year-old Stanford grads who are ranked as the #2 Men's Doubles team in the world. more ›

He's fine -- but would we be able to deal with that thing on his head? Betcha some of us would. He certainly wears it better than many of his opponents. And considering how well he pulls it off, we wouldn't be surprised to see four or five of those on people's heads at Folsom this year. more ›

Early tomorrow morning, when San Jose's Aly Wagner goes in to the U.S. Women's big match against Canada, she will be [playing in her 120th international game. For comparison purposes, she's got quite a body of work! more ›

Jesus! Will you look at that smile? How unbelievably disarming is she with that incredible cuteness? Union City native Vicky Galindo is the Roberto Clemente of adorable, petite girls with radiant perky smiles. She plays second base and bats leadoff with power well beyond what that tiny, inviting frame would suggest. And while you were asleep or else losing last night to meth, Vicky was busy allowing zero opposing batters to reach base in an 11-0 thrashing of Venezuela. more ›

With the 15-hour time difference between Beijing and our fair Bay Area, there will be occasions on which today's Hot Bay Area Olympian has already competed by the time you read this. But the contest has not yet been broadcast, and this is some action that is rather likely to be televised. It's that unapologetically soft-porn invention called Beach Volleyball... known for it's skimpy outfits and provocatively-placed hand signals. And it's such the rage that even our numskull President GWB is getting in on the action! more ›

She went to Cal-Berkeley, she holds eight world records, and she is notorious as one of the most babealiciousest swimmers alive. Concord native Natalie Coughlin has a ridiculous-busy schedule of swim competition in this year's Olympics, but her big race today is the Womens 100-meter... backstroke. She holds the current world record, and she'll be putting it on the line in a pool full of fit, gorgeous ladies. Here's hoping Natalie will backstroke the daylights out of the competition!
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Will you watch the Beijing Olympic opening ceremonies tonight? more ›

(By Joe Kukura) more ›

Oops. A lady who staged a faux hanging from the roof of the Chinese consulate in San Francisco today "to protest human rights abuses in Tibet" was taken to a hospital after she buckled and plummeted. Nyendak Wangden, 22, of SF suffered non-life-threatening injuries.She was whisked away to a local hospital for treatment. Protesters at the consulate, however, claim her rope was cut. Today's protest comes two days before the Beijing Olympic opening ceremonies. more ›

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While we can say for sure where the torch route will go tomorrow--KTVU confusedly announced the "official map route" during today's noon broadcast and KPIX interviewed a fake Bono, so we can't be sure of anything anymore--we can take a stab at it, yes? Yes. more ›

Can't make it to today's Tibet rally? Well then, check out the live feed above, or head over to justin.tv to catch to watch/chat about it. Be sure to visit OlympicTorchSF for additional coverage, as well as their Twitter updates, which we highly recommend for culling up-to-the-second torch route specifics. more ›

The divisive Olympic flame arrived in SF today all the way from Paris (how chic!) under a shroud of security normally "reserved for head-of-state visits." It touched down at SFO with no protesters in sight (it arrived at 3:40 a.m.) more ›

In light of today's Golden Gate Bridge scaling/protest incident, Mayor Gavin Newsom--according to Brittney Gilbert at CBS 5's Eye On Blogs--"announced the route of the Olympic torch has been changed from the published course to a new route whose details will not be made public." more ›

Currently three protesters are climbing the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge, attempting to hang up a sign on the bridge in protest over the Olympic torch run through San Francisco, which is scheduled to make its only U.S. run in San Francisco on Wednesday. Check out KPIX's live cam for what's going down right now. more ›

Jim Herd, currently at the Golden Gate Bridge, sent us the above shot, taken just before the (pretty damn brave) protesters unfurled their messages. more ›

At 74 years young, today former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown was named a torchbearer for the controversial Olympic flame's San Francisco tour. The tireless--yes, tireless!-- advocate for human rights and environmental concerns will drag his crazy-old-coot ass out for next week's "sustainable journey" torch run. more ›

In an attempt to make protesting -- and cheering, we suppose -- easy, the mayor's office has unveiled the route of the Olympic torch as it makes its way through *ahem* the city. Included in the article is a link-happy sidebar discussing the problems residents have with the Olympic torch running through our fair city. more ›

Mayor Gavin Newsom released a few details yesterday regarding the Beijing Olympic Torch jog throughout the city . The route will include areas around the Ferry Building and AT&T Park, but not Chinatown. Why? Well, according to the Gate, "the density of Chinatown and the small streets running through the historic neighborhood make it logistically difficult to include the neighborhood on the route." (But it would look soooo pretty going to Chinatown!) Newsom announced the flame's path after yesterday's attack at the Chinese Consulate, where someone tried but failed to immolate the building, and before the Board of Supervisors had to sit and listen to "4 1/2 hours of public testimony mostly critical of China's human-rights record." more ›