Olympic Games 2008

The protest-plagued Olympic torch relay proceeded smoothly Friday on its only stop in Latin America amid extremely tight security and relatively few demonstrators. Several layers of police and other guards flanked torch-bearing runners as they carried the flame symbolizing the summer Beijing Games for more than two hours on an eight-mile course through the heart of the Argentine capital.

BEIJING -- A week of embarrassing global protests along the international Olympic torch relay has fanned Chinese nationalism at home and turned a 27-year-old disabled woman into a national hero. Jin Jing is a one-legged Chinese torchbearer who was attacked by protesters on the streets of Paris. Images of her in her wheelchair protecting the flame with her tiny body catapulted her to overnight fame in China as a symbol of the nation's effort to defend its place in the world.

On the outskirts of this western city, in a field of bright yellow flowers, Wang Xi stood on a wrestling mat and eyed her opponent, a brawny man with short-cropped hair fresh from the army. After a quick bow, she lunged at his legs, flipped him over and, within seconds, pinned him to the ground. Yang Shengli, a career military man turned entrepreneur, watched from behind his sunglasses with satisfaction.

It would be a "cop-out" for countries to skip the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics as a way of protesting China's crackdown in Tibet, President Bush's national security advisor said Sunday. The "quiet diplomacy" that the U.S. is practicing is a better way to send a message to China's leaders rather than "frontal confrontation," Stephen J. Hadley said. President Bush has given no indication that he will skip the Aug. 8 event.

CHICAGO -- When the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2008 Summer Games to Beijing, it placed its wallet above its conscience, ignoring China's history of human-rights violations in the face of a vast untapped market for its sponsors' soft drinks, cars and sneakers. "Possibly today this opens a new era for China," then-IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch said in July 2001. It did not.

BOSTON -- Magdalena Lewy Boulet was the only one of the three new Olympic marathon team members dressed in something that reflected what they had done Sunday, earning the right to wear a jacket with a patch that said, "USA Beijing." It was a fashion statement in more than one sense. It said Lewy Boulet had finished second in the 2008 U.S.

The Beijing Olympics will begin in 100 days, on 8-8-08 -- a date picked because the number 8 is associated with prosperity in Chinese culture. It may not be so auspicious if political leaders boycott the opening ceremony to protest China's human-rights record, as has been discussed by members of the European Union. Some athletes plan to voice their objections to Chinese policy in Tibet and Darfur. As a reminder that speech isn't free everywhere, U.S.

At a time when China is touting its Olympic mascots, stadiums and hospitality, a San Francisco-based human rights group has suggested that it add one more feature for the Games: the first "Olympic pardon" of political prisoners. The Dui Hua Foundation made its appeal public Thursday, offering an approach it believes could help Beijing improve a reputation battered in recent months by its Tibet crackdown, Darfur policies and the protests dogging the global relay of the Olympic torch.

An unexpected decision Friday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport cleared the way for South African double amputee Oscar Pistorius to compete for a berth on his nation's Olympic track team, although he may need to run faster than ever before if he is to succeed in that quest. The court, an international panel that has final say over legal matters in sport, ruled that the 21-year-old sprinter's state-of-the-art carbon fiber prosthetic blades give him no advantage over able-bodied runners.

HOUSTON -- Jonathan Horton, an Olympic medal contender himself, says he is eagerly awaiting one matchup more than any other at the 2008 Beijing Games. "If they're both at their best it will be really cool to see Yang Wei and Paul Hamm go against each other," Horton said at the Visa National Championships men's gymnastics competition, which continues today. But there will be no Paul Hamm here today.