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RIO DE JANEIRO >> Inteational Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach chose a curious way over the weekend to try to spin the Rio Olympic Games as a success. “I think this is a really iconic games,” Bach said. “It is also games in the middle of reality. They were not organized in a bubble. They were organized in a city where there are social problems, social divides, where real life continued, and I think it was very good for everybody.” If Bach had only actually ventured into that reality. The first Olympic Games held in South America ended Sunday the same way they began 17u2009days earlier: with Bach in a state of denial. Bach, the IOC and Riou20092016 organizers promised these woul...

It was another golden summer for Long Beach and neighboring communities, as the Press-Telegram area’s athletes tued out an impressive haul of Olympic medals and memories. In all, the unofficial Team Long Beach delegation are coming back home with three gold medals and a bronze. Two of the gold medalists belong to a squad that could unofficially be called Long Beach’s own, the USA women’s water polo team. Much of the roster lives in the city, and many are well-known around town. That would include Rachel Fattal, a Seal Beach native who played for Los Alamitos High, and Courtney Mathewson, who coached at Long Beach City College for two years. Both eaed gold medals with a dominant 12-5 win over...

BEIJING >> For the Olympics, it’s so-long Rio, hello Asia. The next three Olympics are headed for relatively calmer ports of call in South Korea, Japan and China following the organizational drama surrounding the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia and the just completed Summer Games in Brazil, although challenges remain, especially when it comes to finances and generating enthusiasm among home audiences. A look ahead to the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. All three countries have hosted the Olympics before and enjoy a shared reputation for prosperity and a deft hand at organizing major events. PYEONGCHANG 201...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Matthew Centrowitz, gold medal around his neck, was still trying to find his bearings at the dizzying height of the top step on the Olympic Stadium medal podium Saturday night when he was approached by Lord Sebastian Coe. Coe, the president of the track and field’s global goveing body and two-time Olympic 1,500-meter champion, was presenting gifts to the medalists as part of the medal ceremony. As the pair shook hands, Coe smiled and leaned close to Centrowitz. “Welcome to the club,” Coe said. Centrowitz, Maryland-bo, Oregon-bred, became the first American to join global distance ruing’s most exclusive club in more than a century, wiing the Olympic 1,500 final with a...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> In the shadow of mighty Usain Bolt, Allyson Felix achieved something unprecedented in women’s track and field Friday by wiing her fifth Olympic gold medal. And together with the rest of the 4x100-meter relay team, she brought the United States closer to its biggest medal haul in decades. The tally could have been higher, too, had the U.S. men’s 4x100 team not been disqualified after finishing third in the subsequent final. The women’s team was smooth, despite the rocky path to the final. Ruing the second leg in the relay, Felix kept the U.S. up there with the mighty Jamaicans, before English Gardner and Tori Bowie brought the baton, tightly clenched in their hands, ho...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Max Holt did a little bit of everything. At the net, digging balls from just off the floor, finishing points with big, leaping swings. He and David Lee stuffed the Italians with stellar blocking. Setter Micah Christenson contributed his own blocks and even a kill to end the third set. Matt Anderson, Aaron Russell and Taylor Sander provided power hitting from every coer. Mighty Italy just had a little more in a match that will surely become an Olympic volleyball classic. For nearly 2 1/2 hours Friday, the young, overachieving Americans stayed with an Italian group that U.S. coach John Speraw considers the world’s most talented and destined for gold in Brazil. The Amer...

Rio de Janeiro >> In a sort of victory lap before the victory, Usain Bolt held up his left arm, his index finger extended into a wet night, as he walked slowly clockwise from a tuel entrance, around the Olympic Stadium curve to his blocks in Lane 6 and the start of the Olympic Games 200-meter final. Such audacity would have been laughable from any other sprinter. Then again there never has been any other sprinter like Bolt. Besides, the result Thursday night was never in doubt, even the most remote of chances for an upset vanquished before the race even hit the homestretch. Bolt once again reduced the rest the field at a major championships to spectators, racing to a 19.78 victory in ...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> A Japanese joualist asked American hurdlers Briaa Rollins, Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin how they were going to celebrate their historic sweep of the Olympic Games 100-meter hurdles medals, the one and only 1-2-3 of the Rio Games so far. Was there going to be a girls’ night out? the reporter asked the trio as a late Wednesday night became an early Thursday moing in Rio. “Well every night we’re together is girls’ night out,” Castlin said. Such was the case at the Olympic Stadium Wednesday, the U.S. hurdlers putting on yet another exhibition of a dominance unmatched in any single event by another nation in women’s track and field. Rollins, the 2013 world champion, was in c...

NBC 10 a.m. – Noon Track & Field (LIVE) Men’s 400m Hurdles – Gold Medal Final Canoe/Kayak – Sprint Gold Medal Finals Noon – 2 p.m. Women’s Volleyball – Semifinal (LIVE) 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Women’s Diving – Platform Semifinal Men’s Cycling – BMX Quarterfinals 3:30 p.m. – 5 p.m. Men’s Water Polo – Semifinal (LIVE) Synchronized Swimming – Team Qualifying 8 p.m. – Midnight Track & Field – Gold Medal Finals (LIVE) Men’s Shot Put Women’s Javelin Men’s 1500m Decathlon Women’s 400m Hurdles Men’s 200m Women’s Diving – Platform Gold Medal Final Men’s Beach Volleyball – Gold Medal Final (LIVE) 12:35 a.m. – 1:35 a.m. Men’s Beach Volleyball – Medal Round 1:35 a.m. – 4:30 a.m. Primetime Encore NBC...

KNBC/4 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Track and field (Men’s 3,000 steeplechase; decathlon); Equestrian (team jumping - gold medal) 1-3 p.m. Men’s volleyball: U.S. vs. Poland (quarterfinal) 3-5 p.m. Canoe/kayak (sprint qualifying); Women’s water polo (semifinal); Gymastics (exhibition gala) 8 p.m.-midnight Track and field (Women’s long jump; women’s 200; women’s 100 hurdles; men’s 200 semis; decathlon); Women’s diving (platform qualifying); Women’s beach volleyball (gold medal) 12:35-1:35 a.m. Women’s beach volleyball (medal round) 1:35-4:30 a.m. Primetime encore NBCSN 5-9 a.m. Canoe/kayak (sprint qualifying); Track and field (men’s 3,000 steeplechase; decathlon) 9-11 a.m. Men’s soccer: Brazil vs. Honduras...

RIO DE JANEIRO — The United States women’s field hockey team placed fifth at the Olympics, the program’s best finish in 20 years. The Americans lost their quarterfinal match to Germany on Monday. Their final ranking is based on their second-place finish in pool play. The Americans also placed fifth at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. Their only better finish was third at the 1984 Games. This year’s squad set program records for most wins in pool play with four, and most goals in an Olympic match, with six against Japan. The Americans defeated No. 2 Argentina and No. 3 Australia in their first two matches, then knocked off Japan and India to take the lead in Pool B. The United States led its final...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Minute after agonizing minute following the Olympic Games 400-meter final Sunday night, Allyson Felix of the U.S. and Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas continued to lie on the wet Olympic Stadium track seemingly not to notice the rain soaked surface, neither sure which one of them was the Olympic champion. With Felix, the four-time Olympic gold medalist, making a late charge down the final straight, Miller flung herself head first across the finish line, as if grabbing at a gold medal that she thought might elude her grasp, landing cut and bruised and uncertain. So they remained flat on their backs, Miller resting atop her country’s flag, Felix alteating between holding ...

RIO DE JANEIRO — She has been so golden in victory here. That much everyone knows, “Simone” and “Biles” being two of the most searched words on the Inteet the past week. But now it can be reported that America’s reigning sweetheart gymnast also has been gracious in defeat. That is, if third place on the world’s largest athletic stage — with everyone watching and expecting perfection or something better — actually can be considered defeat. “I see it as a triumph,” Biles’ coach, Aimee Boorman, said. “She won a bronze medal at the Olympics. That’s huge. She should be proud of that.” Biles’ quest for five gold medals in Rio ended Monday when she slipped midway through her balance beam routine. ...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> A hush fell over Olympic Stadium as the eight finalists in the Olympic Games 100-meter final took their marks Sunday night, the only noise coming from helicopters hovering above. The tension, however, was deafening. It was as if the whole stadium, the whole Rio Games, was collectively holding its breath in anticipation of a moment the world had been waiting months for, maybe longer. The starter’s pistol was finally fired unleashing a roar that echoed past the stadium’s aging walls through Rio and beyond, and tens of thousands of flashes, all of it chasing Jamaica’s Usain Bolt down the blue track deeper into history. Bolt, ruing his last 100 final at a major champions...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> They’ve cruised through unfazed so far, undefeated in three games and outscoring their opponents by a touament-best 20 goals. But that doesn’t mean the emotion will be lacking Monday when the U.S. women’s water polo team plays its quarterfinal game. For one thing, the Americans are paired against Brazil, a team that figures to be overmatched but still the host nation and a country famous for showing its support by making a lot of noise. For another, some of these U.S. players understand — win or lose, now that group play is over — nothing is guaranteed but the fast-approaching end of their Olympic careers. “There’s going to be a part of me that’s very sad,” Courtney ...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> This time, the devil wore red, white and blue, the bad guy being our guy. In a battle so theatrical that the only thing missing was a pair of dueling light sabres, everything right about track and field Sunday collided with everything wrong about these Olympics. Naturally, good triumphed, just like in those movies about super heroes, this one again as golden as the shoes that carried him to victory. Usain Bolt, accepted to be as clean as he is fast, beat Justin Gatlin, who twice has been busted for PED use and now is ruing faster than ever despite also being older than ever. “Somebody said I can be immortal,” Bolt explained after successfully defending his 100-meter ...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> It was the end of a touament, end of an Olympics and, quite possibly, the end of an era. When the U.S. men’s water polo team concluded its Rio 2016 schedule on Sunday, the reality that captain and five-time Olympian Tony Azevedo could be done was, in fact, very real. “It’s insane,” said teammate Bret Bonai, who, at 22, is 12 years younger than Azevedo. “I don’t know. I’ve got pictures with that guy when I was like 6. It was awesome to have been able to play with him.” The Americans finished with a 10-7 victory over Italy, but their 2-3 overall record didn’t advance them in the touament. For this part, Azevedo, a product of Long Beach Wilson High, said he wasn’t ready...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> They’ve cruised through unfazed so far, undefeated in three games and outscoring their opponents by a touament-best 20 goals. But that doesn’t mean the emotion will be lacking Monday when the U.S. women’s water polo team plays its quarterfinal game. For one thing, the Americans are paired against Brazil, a team that figures to be overmatched but still the host nation and a country famous for showing its support by making a lot of noise. For another, some of these U.S. players understand — win or lose, now that group play is over — nothing is guaranteed but the fast-approaching end of their Olympic careers. “There’s going to be a part of me that’s very sad,” Courtney ...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Ryan Lochte and three other American swimmers were robbed at gunpoint early Sunday by thieves posing as police officers who stopped their taxi and took their money and belongings, the U.S. Olympic Committee said. In the latest security incident to hit the Rio de Janeiro Games, Lochte told NBC that one of the robbers put a gun to his forehead before taking his wallet. No one was injured. Lochte and his teammates were retuing to the athletes village by taxi after a night out at the French Olympic team’s hospitality house in the Rodrigo de Freitas area in the upscale south zone of the city. The outing was several hours after Olympic swimming ended Saturday night at the R...

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Simone Biles won her third gold medal of these Olympic Games with a blowout victory in the vault at Rio Olympic Arena Sunday afteoon. Biles average score of 15.966 was more than seven-tenths of a point greater than the score of ruer-up Maria Paseka of Russia (15.253). Biles, who already won team and individual all-around titles still has three individual events left and is expected to leave Rio with at least five gold medals, the most by a woman gymnast in an Olympic Games. Orange County’s Sam Mikulak had another rough day at the Olympic gymnastics venue, finishing eighth in the floor exercise at 14.333. Max Whitlock of Great Britain won the event with a score of 15....