Favorite moment of the Beijing Games

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This Olympic Games have been probably the most exciting I have seen in my young life so far and I will always remember a lot of the great performances that I have seen that will go down in history.

Olympics: Basketball back to being America's games

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The American Basketball team did what had expected and wanted them to do when entering the Olympics and now they can just finally relax.

New ideas for 2012 Olympics

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The time has come for another good idea!  (Of course, I've said this before to people and they looked at me like I just grew a horn, but ...)  I've been knocking this idea around ever since the Olympic Games were approaching their centennial and then again as we ushered in a new century.  But maybe I just haven't been yelling loudly enough or to the right people.  Here's the good idea --

Olympics: Tommie Smith and John Carlos, my Olympic heroes for all time

My all time favorite moment in the Olympic Games was in Mexico 1968. Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised gloved fists and stood barefoot to receive their first and third place medals in the 200m respectively.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos, after all the work, after all the dreams they had of standing on those medal stands, had an even bigger dream. At a young age, with a single action, they showed me winning the race is second to being true to who you are.

What's your favorite Summer Olympic moment?

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With all the incredible achievements taking place in Beijing, we started thinking about all the other great moments of past summer Olympics. 

Check out all the great videos after the jump and then go vote for your favorite moment.  We know the list is by no means complete, it's just a starting point.  So if you don't see your favorite moment please include it in the comments section. 

Don't worry, we're not going to forget the Beijing Olympics, we've got a separate poll for that after the Olympics are over. 

Olympics: USA water polo going for gold!

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That's right, ya'll. The 9th ranked American team is headed for the gold medal match. After upsetting favored Serbia today, they'll face two-time defending gold medalists Hungary.

The real story for the US is the amazing play of both scorer Tony Azevedo (above) and super-goalie Merrill Moses.

The kickassedness just keeps on going.

Source: NBC Sports

An Olympic first: 10K open water swimming

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The Water Cube in Beijing may have swapped it's swimming lane lines for water polo goals but that doesn't mean that there are no swimming events going on.  Over the last two days swimmers got out of the pool and headed to Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park for open water swimming.  The Beijing Olympics happens to be the first Olympics to award medals in the mens' and women's 10K open water swim race. 

Women's Beach Volleyball-May-Treanor and Walsh are gold for U.S.

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"I don't know why, but it seemed like it made it better," Kerri Walsh said of the downpour at Chaoyang Park. "We felt like warriors out there."

Warriors indeed. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh hit their 108th consecutive win since August 2007, defeating China's Tian Jia and Wang Jie, 2-0 (21-18, 21-18), to earn the second gold medal of their Olympic careers. Taking their first gold at the 2004 Games, they feel this win held more weight.

"It feels more poignant," Walsh said of this title.  "Athens was just pure excitement and adrenaline. The pressure and the excitement of this situation was real, and it was heavy and intense."

Source: USA Today

Olympics: stupid race walking, again

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I tried to tell you. Race walking is a God damn joke. Now the 'finals' are on, and I want to poke my eyes out with a spork. I'm watching some stupid girl that's 'making a move' and she's ahead of the pack and Woohoo! somebody kill me. Why am I watching? Because I want to present a full account of the sport and not be biased.

You know what? Screw that.

Olympics: Liu Xiang, victim of our game?

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At the 2004 Athens Games, Liu Xiang, became a national hero in China. He won the first gold medal ever for his country in track and field. The Nike ad that has made him a pin-up icon for national pride has a new line attached at the end. It was added after Xiang severely injured his hamstring going to the blocks for his 110M event, taking him out of the Beijing Games:

Love competition. Love risking your pride. Love winning it back. Love giving it everything you've got. Love the glory. Love the pain. Love sport even when it breaks your heart.

As Liu Xiang walked bravely from the Bird's Nest Stadium, fans were crying, Sun Haipang, his coach, was crying, and Nike stepped up, as well as his other endorsers, to make clear they would continue to support him. But, has Liu Xiang been pushed too hard by a communist government that has been accused on the world stage of caring only about public image, of winning, of national pride? And of course, the capitalist global market wants the same things, on a bigger scale, doesn't it?