Olympics

Since she won four medals at the 2008 Olympics, including a gold in the balance beam, Shawn Johnson has retired from her sport, written a book, won the mirror ball trophy on "Dancing With the Stars," torn up her knee while skiing and had reconstructive surgery. Oh, yeah, and she's doing gymnastics again. Johnson, 20, who came to the Beijing Games as defending world all-around champion and Olympic favorite, accepted her silver all-around medal, one rung below American teammate Nastia Liukin, with both a smile and tears.

U.S. hurdler Lolo Jones says she's been tempted. She says she's had plenty of opportunities. She's even had guys tell her that having sex with them will make her a faster runner. A win-win situation, right? But every time, Jones has said no. The 29-year-old Olympic athlete recently revealed on Twitter that she has never had sex. She discussed maintaining her virginity with Mary Carillo on the May 22 episode of HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel."

Phil Dalhausser has a tale of the tape that ends with him winning an Olympic gold medal. The beach volleyball player strained an abdominal muscle in the crucial run-up to the Beijing Games when he couldn't afford a bad match, let alone to sit one out. He might have missed three weeks, but with the help of sports chiropractor Ernie Ferrel and Kinesio tex tape -- a product few outside the world of physical therapy knew about -- he helped the United States...

After the coffee. Before getting out of wet Boston. The Skinny: After almost two weeks on the road, I'm finally heading back home Wednesday night. Just don't tell me it's raining in Los Angeles. Wednesday's headlines include NBC's plans to hype the online component to its Olympics coverage, Disney hitting pause on a pricey movie, andCNN's ratings troubles. Daily Dose: While the National Cable & Telecommunications Assn.'

So here's Peter Ueberroth, L.A.'s Olympic champion, chairman of the Newport Beach investor company the Contrarian Group, sharing his office with someone else -- his border collie, Koot, for Kootenai, the Idaho county where Ueberroth found him abandoned. Koot can be regarded as a small-scale version of the rescues that Ueberroth has been called on to make in his career. Besides formidably managing the 1984 Games, he has ridden to the help of South Los Angeles after the 1992 riots, run Major League Baseball and arranged the buyback of the Pebble Beach golf course from the Japanese.

OLYMPIC URBAN LEGEND : Athletes during the Ancient Greek Olympic Games were amateurs. Until the 1970s, competition in the Olympic Games was reserved for amateur athletes, which in this sense is defined strictly as "athletes who do not get paid to perform their sport. " Slowly but surely various Olympic sports relaxed their rules to allow for professionals to compete in the Olympics and today, there are few Olympic events that only allow amateurs to compete in them (boxing is a notable exception)

Italy defeated Canada, 66-44, in the final game of the women's Olympic basketball qualifying tournament. The victory means the Italians will go to Barcelona if Yugoslavia is barred from the Olympic, as is being considered.

Team USA got a fairly good player to commit to the cause in 2012. Guy by the name of Kobe Bryant . The Lakers' shooting guard green-lighted another run at the Olympics, committing to it Tuesday on Mike Krzyzewski's Sirius XM radio show. Krzyzewski coaches Team USA and Duke. "You guys want me there, I am there and I'm ready to defend," Bryant said. "And then when you guys need me to put some points on the board I'll do that too. " Bryant was a key player on the gold-medal effort by Team USA at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, averaging 15 points a game.

In the end, what matters is that the U.S. women's soccer team is going to the Olympics. What the players won't soon forget is how hard they had to work get there. The Americans booked their way to London on Friday night with a 3-0 victory over Costa Rica in the semifinals of the CONCACAF qualifying tournament at Vancouver, Canada, a game more suspenseful than most anyone expected. Tobin Heath scored in the 16th minute to give U.S. all the scoring it needed, and goals by Carli Lloyd (72nd)

Ah, the glamour of being an Olympic medalist. It is an overcast Wednesday morning in Newhall. The parking lot at the Oak Tree Gun Club is already filling up and the greatest competitive female gunslinger in the history of the good ol' USA is being put through the paces by a photographer. Our modern-day Annie Oakley stands on a square of dirt, next to a field of gravel and facing a scraggly hill. A sign warns of rattlesnakes in the area, and Kim Rhode laughs and says, "Almost sat on one here.

DALLAS — If you're looking for quiet and unassuming, Jordan Burroughs might not be your man. Not that you would expect reticence from someone who spends his days grabbing people and throwing them to the ground. This is a guy who does not hesitate to proclaim himself the new "face of USA wrestling. " A guy who will be tweeting from the 2012 London Olympics under the name "alliseeisgold. " "Obviously, it rubs some people the wrong way," he said. "A lot of people mistake my confidence for cockiness.

BOSTON -- Looking to make consumers who subscribe to cable or satellite television aware that the bulk of the Summer Olympics can be watched online at no additional charge, NBC is going to embark on a large marketing campaign in advance of the London Games. "There will be a barrage of information sent out to the American public about how one can access this content," said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics.

BOSTON - Recognizing that many viewers want to watch key events live, in prime time, rather than tape-delayed, NBCUniversal plans to bolster its coverage of the Summer Olympics in London in August by putting 3,000 hours of programming online. The company, which is paying a record $1.18 billion for the rights to broadcast the London Olympics, is challenged to keep the up with the times. The long time zone difference between Britain and the U.S. means that key events will be broadcast when most Americans are not in front of their TVs. And increasingly, consumers are watching programming online, prompting NBC to make changes to its playbook.

DALLAS -- Anna Tunnicliffe was born and raised in England. And she has the British accent to prove it. "With certain words it comes out," she acknowledged. But that does not, she insists, make this summer's Olympic Games a homecoming. "I'm American," said Tunnicliffe, who became a U.S. citizen in 2003 and an Olympic gold medalist five years later. "I've spent more than half my life in America. I'm going to England to compete. "I love the country. But no, I'm not going home.

DALLAS -- Biggest brother Jean Lopez, the coach, the instigator, the only sibling not to compete for the Olympics in taekwondo, gets choked up for a minute. He is thrilled to speak about his 33-year-old brother, Steve, who will be aiming for a fourth Olympic medal in his fourth Olympics this summer in London. Jean can't help but giggle when he speaks about his 28-year-old sister, Diana, who will compete in her second Olympics and try to better the bronze medal she earned in 2008.

DALLAS -- Everything about Holley Mangold is oversized. Her personality. Her laugh. Her ambition. But the first thing most people notice is her body, which, at 5 feet 9 and 350 pounds, is hard to miss. "I'm huge," Mangold says with pride, not political correctness. "I love my body. I think it's perfect. "I don't know what my personality would be like if I wasn't so huge. " She has a pretty good idea what her athletic career would be like, though. And it wouldn't include a trip to the Olympic Games this summer.

While past Olympics have been magnets for protests over issues such as aboriginal rights in Australia and oppression in Tibet, the Vancouver Winter Games are preparing to host one of the biggest displays ever of organized opposition to the Olympics themselves. Building on years of disgruntlement over the increasingly corporate nature of the Games -- and widespread alarm over a projected $5.6-billion price tag -- a resistance network has vowed to post thousands of protesters outside venues, some of whom aim to disrupt the events.

SAN ANTONIO -- Lakers center Andrew Bynum is not interested in playing in the Olympics this summer, according to a person familiar with the situation. Bynum, 24, wants to rest during the off-season and prevent further wear and tear on his knees, which have each undergone surgical procedures in recent years. The U.S. is short on centers because Dwight Howard will undergo back surgery and miss the Olympics, which begin July 29 for basketball. Bynum has not been contacted by USA Basketball, but is expected to stand by comments he made to The Times earlier this season.

U.S. National Water Polo Coach Adam Krikorian named his 13-woman roster for this summer's London Games on Thursday, and not surprisingly he selected a group heavy on Olympic experience. Attackers Brenda Villa and Heather Petri will be taking part in their fourth Olympics in London while five others will be playing in the Summer Games for the second time. The U.S. is the only country to have medaled in all three previous women's Olympic tournaments, winning two silvers and a bronze.

The United States is the only country to have medaled in each of the first three Olympic water polo tournaments for women. And Coach Adam Krikorian relied heavily on that experience Thursday when he selected the 13-woman team for this summer's London Games. Eight of the players Krikorian named have at least one Olympic medal, and attackers Brenda Villa and Heather Petri have three. "We have focused on becoming a team in and out of the water, which will help us in London," said Villa, the U.S. captain and one of 11 Californians on the team.