U.S. teens stomping the road to Sochi

The Summer Olympics just ended. The major-league baseball season is slogging through the dog days. It's two-a-day time on football fields all across these United States. But Down Under, in the mountains of New Zealand, it's winter, and on Wednesday, far away from baseball and football and anywhere but the back pages and small print of most everyone's hometown newspaper sports sections, one of the best stories of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games began to take shape.

Two American teen-agers, Torin Yater-Wallace and Devin Logan, opened the Sochi 2014 qualifying period with a U.S. sweep of the FIS World Cup halfpipe ski competition in Cardrona, New Zealand.

Going back to March of 2011, American halfpipe skiers have won each of the last six World Cup events.

Five U.S. men placed Wednesday in the top 15; three American women made the top 10.

At issue -- already -- are rankings and quotas for Olympic selection in Sochi.

And, of course, the thoroughly awesome culture of freeskiing.

"It was a fun competition and I am so stoked to be here," Torin said upon winning.

Torin, who is the reigning Association of Freeskiing Professionals halfpipe champion, is from Aspen, Colo. He is 16 years old.

Devin, 19, from West Dover, Vt., is the current AFP overall and halfpipe champ. She won Wednesday by a ridiculous three points.

In this context, three is a lot.

Devin fell during the first of her two runs, meaning she had to come back and, as she put it, "stomp" a big second run, telling a FIS website afterward, "All the girls were killing it. I'm stoked to see the progression. I'm happy. A little lucky, but happy."

Here in the States, the big names from the Summer Games are -- understandably, appropriately -- making the rounds of TV talk shows and making other star turns. Those London Games ended just 10 days ago.

The glow is great, of course. The U.S. team won 46 gold medals, 104 overall, tops in both categories.

But, as the song says, time waits for no one. Sochi is a mere 17 months away.

In Vancouver, the U.S. team won the overall medal count, with 37.

As 2014 approaches, it must be unequivocally understood that the Sochi project is a matter not only of national significance but a personal priority for Vladimir Putin. After being sworn in again as president of Russia this past May 7, Putin could have held his very first meeting that day with anyone in the world he deemed of consequence.

He chose International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge.

To thus note that it will be important for the Russians to win Olympic medals in Sochi is thus a grave understatement.

In Vancouver, there were a total of 24 medal opportunities in snowboard and freeskiing.

In Sochi, because of new events added last year by the IOC, that total will jump to 48.

To be clear: that's for men and women -- 24 and 24, a total of 48.

The New Zealand World Cup on Wednesday marked the start of the Sochi qualifying period. To be abundantly obvious, it runs over the next 17 months.

The U.S. goal -- with an extraordinarily deep roster already -- is to try to qualify four men and four women in each Olympic event. Given that the freestyle/freeskiing team size by rule will be capped at 26, and there's a further max of 14 athletes per gender between all disciplines, there's obviously going to have to be some give.

When you have athletes like Devin Logan and Torin Yater-Wallace, these are nice problems to have.

This was Devin's winning run: left 540 tail grab to flair, mute grab air, alley oop mute grab, 720 mute grab to switch alley oop 360.

Here is Torin's: right double cork 1260 mute grab to alley oop rodeo Japan grab, 900 tail grab, 1080 tail grab, finishing things off with a switch 900 mute grab.

If that looks like something badly transcribed from one of Putin's cabinet meetings, good news -- there are still 17 months to learn all about it.

Be assured that in Putin's cabinet: they're studying up.

And at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Assn. -- they're on it, too.

The best U.S. Summer Olympic team ever

After the Jamaican 4x100 relay team, anchored by Usain Bolt, had lowered the world record to 36.84 seconds in the final event on the track at the London 2012 Olympics, there was one last news conference under the stadium, at which Bolt and the others on the winning team held court. During the meet, of course, Bolt had repeatedly shown off his "To Di World" pose. Yohan Blake, his training partner and the world's second-best sprinter, had similarly offered up for the television cameras interpretations of his nickname "The Beast," posing with his "claws."

Now, at this last news conference, Blake shared these thoughts about the Jamaican sprint team: "We're not normal. To run 36 [seconds] is not normal. We're flying. People call us robots. I said, 'No, we're from space. We drop from the sky like Mr. Bean. Because when he started he dropped out of the sky.' It's just the fun stuff, you know, that we always do. I'm from Mars because I'm not normal. I'm 'The Beast.' "

To which Bolt said, "Yohan is crazy. If he keeps talking like that, someone is going to put him in a straight jacket one day."

There are two lessons here.

One: Usain and Yohan can do and say what they like, and for most it's all in good fun. Track and field needs a lot more fun, frankly.

Two: If Usain and Yohan were Americans, and they did this kind of stuff, there likely would be hell to pay. Double standards are unfair, but that's life.

It's always going to be different for Americans. It just is.

Just in case there is any doubt that we in the United States are viewed differently than everyone else:

During the women's indoor volleyball gold-medal match in London between the U.S. and Brazil, there were unceasing boos from many in the Brazilian section in the crowd virtually every time the Americans served.

During a Games that was memorable for so many fine reasons, arguably a best-ever Summer Olympics for a multitude of logistical and legacy reasons, this was a jarring note that served -- again -- as a reminder of the United States of America's unique station in our world.

And perhaps -- only perhaps -- of what awaits the U.S. team at the next Summer Games, four years from now in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

There were no slip-ups from the 2012 U.S. team -- at least none that came to light publicly.

That sentence is not in there as if there's something hidden. That's not the case. To reiterate: no slip-ups that we know of. For now, credit to all involved.

The caveat, and this is only cautionary journalism rooted in years of experience: let's simply see if, as time unfolds, we learn of unfortunate incidents like smuggled guests into the athletes' village in 2008 in Beijing, courtesy of soccer star Hope Solo's disclosure a few weeks back to ESPN The Magazine.

In our world, there simply can't be any slip-ups.

Even if it's serious, like guests in the village in 2008, or silly nonsense, like talk about being from Mars, American athletes have to conduct themselves differently on the Olympic stage.

That's reality when you are the world's lone super-power; when you have an army on the ground in Afghanistan; when sports and politics shouldn't mix but inevitably do, and everyone needs to remember that always, at all times and in all circumstances.

Twelve years ago in Sydney, the American 4x100 men's relay team preened and clowned its way through their victory lap on the track and even afterward. My former boss, Bill Dwyre, then the sports editor of the Los Angeles Times, put it so succinctly and appropriately, calling it the "bad-taste-in-the-mouth gold medal."

A huge difference with Bolt and Blake, by the way: they were magnificently respectful during the playing of not only their national anthem but others as well. Bolt stopped dead during an interview session in what is called the "mixed zone" -- where reporters mix with athletes -- and came to abrupt attention while the American anthem was played. When the music stopped, he resumed the interview.

The USOC has over the past few Olympic cycles put into place what it calls an "Ambassador" program that aims to relay the distinct challenges of being an American athlete at the Games. Most if not all U.S. Olympic athletes go through the program before a Games.

At the same time, make no mistake, the USOC's mission is to win medals.

The U.S. team left London atop the medals count, gold and overall, with 46 and 104. It won the overall medals count in Vancouver in 2010, with 37. It is very, very likely to challenge for -- if not win outright -- the medals count in Sochi in 2014, now just a mere year and a half away, because of an avalanche of new action sports -- slope style and halfpipe events, in particular -- that figure to play to U.S. strengths.

At the U.S. Olympic Committee's wrap-up news conference in London, board chair Larry Probst said, "We like to come in first. There's nothing wrong with that," adding a moment later, "I like to hear 'The Star-Spangled Banner. A lot.' "

Probst has every right to make such comments. They're the farthest thing from a declaration of American superiority or, worse, obnoxiousness. In Beijing in 2008, the Chinese won more gold medals than the Americans; the Americans won more medals overall.

In London, again, the Americans topped both tables. To put this in its proper perspective: the USOC's annual budget runs to about $135 million, about what Ohio State spends annually on its athletic department. All USOC revenue has to be raised from corporate and other private donations. Compare: every other national Olympic committee in the world is an arm of its federal government. For the USOC -- and the national governing bodies that feed into the USOC -- to come out on top is, in a word, amazing.

More amazing, and yet not, is that, as USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun put it in at that same wrap-up news conference in London, U.S. athletes "comported themselves in a way that made America proud." He said, "We wanted to be good guests while we were in Britain," and they were.

Probst said, too, "When we leave London, do people perceive our athletes as good ambassadors for the United States? I think the answer is a resounding yes. We are really proud of them."

This week, most of America's Summer Games athletes will be settling back into their lives, back in their towns, home with their families and friends. The numbers say most did not win a medal. That's a fact of Olympic life, too. No matter. It's like Probst and Blackmun said -- this, if you count medals and then the measure that matters in the way people everywhere else perceive us as Americans, was the most successful U.S. Summer Olympic team ever, and from New York to California the people of the United States have every right to be "really proud of them."

"Happy and glorious Games" come to a close

LONDON -- The 2012 Summer Games, arguably the best-ever, came to a close Sunday night amid a big party at Olympic Stadium, a rock 'n roll show that reminded everyone everywhere that for all the solemnity and the gravitas, the Olympics are Games and games are fun. Such a simple concept. Such a remarkable premise. This, among so many extraordinary notions, is likely to be one of London's far-reaching legacies.

They promised a party.

They delivered.

"These were happy and glorious Games," International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said in his remarks Sunday night to the thousands who jammed Olympic Stadium.

Added London 2012 organizing committee chair Seb Coe, "We lit the flame and we lit up the world." Moments afterward, the cauldron was extinguished.

Read the rest at NBCOlympics.com: http://bit.ly/NZJVBm

Allyson Felix -- a performance every bit as impressive as Bolt's

LONDON -- David Rudisha provided the signature moment of the track and field meet at these Olympic Games. Usain Bolt rocked the house.

But Allyson Felix turned in a performance every bit as impressive as Bolt's, and if that sounds grandiose -- facts are facts. He will be leaving London with three gold medals and a world record. So will she.

Read the rest at NBCOlympics.com: http://bit.ly/QpVxOT

Usain Bolt: "These are the glory days"

LONDON -- This was one for the ages, a record-breaking performance so dominating it electrified everyone who saw it in person at Olympic Stadium, who watched on television around the world and who will watch it in the days and years to come. Usain Bolt is a once-in-history athlete. On Saturday night, in the final event of the track meet, in what may have been his final Olympic race -- or may not, depending on his health and any number of variables -- he unleashed raw, primal speed. It was at once fearsome and exhilarating.

Bolt and American Ryan Bailey, each man running the anchor leg in the men's 4x100 relay, got his baton at roughly the same time, in the lane next to the other. The race was on. But only for an instant. Bolt separated himself, with every step widening the gap, the crowd roaring with the roar of an airplane on takeoff as he hammered toward the finish line.

When Bolt crossed, the clock stopped but the noise did not: 36.84 seconds, a new world record.

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Stick-to-itiveness pays off for U.S. relay

LONDON -- When she is on the track, Carmelita Jeter  is all business. So when, as she crossed the finish line Friday night, her outstretched left hand -- baton in hand -- pointing out toward the red-and-black digital clock just in front of her, you knew it was something special. An instant later, the clock flashed: "New WR."

Jeter's anchor leg put the exclamation point on a spectacular race, the U.S. 4x100 women's relay team winning its first gold medal in 16 years. The clock stopped at 40.82 seconds.

It was the first time any women's relay team would run under 41, and it put an immediate and emphatic end to years of drama over dropped batons and other mishaps involving U.S. women's sprint relay teams. The U.S. men's 4x100 team gets its chance at redemption Saturday night.

"It feels surreal," Tianna Madison who ran the first leg Friday night, said, adding a moment later, "We really came together and made it happen."

Read the rest at NBCOlympics.com: http://bit.ly/P6fv4e

Bolt wins 200, declares he's a "legend"

LONDON -- Here is the measure of Usain Bolt's brilliance. He eased up because he felt tightness in his back as he rounded the corner in the men's 200 meters Thursday at Olympic Stadium and, in his words, "cruised" to the finish line, a winner nonetheless in 19.32 seconds. That time, 19.32, is the Michael Johnson gold-shoes race from Atlanta in 1996. When we all thought that was untouchable.

That was before Bolt came along. He has re-defined everything.

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Allyson Felix's killer speed wins the 200

LONDON -- There are moments in track and field, and Olympic, history that take your breath away. In the years to come, when they show Allyson Felix's powerful charge down the straightaway to win the women's 200 meters, it will be no less breathtaking than it was in person here Wednesday night.

What you saw here was speed. Killer speed. Awesome speed, and the force of will, and eight years of waiting to claim the gold medal in the 200, the race she has always called her baby.

Read the rest at NBCOlympics.com: http://bit.ly/MzBZMY

World's best hurdlers: Jones-ing for respect

LONDON -- Four years ago, Lolo Jones seemed headed for victory in the 100-meter hurdles in Beijing. She clipped the ninth hurdle. Dawn Harper is the 2008 Olympic champion, now and forever. Lolo Jones is, however, way better known than Dawn Harper, the subject of a marketing campaign that has made her arguably the best-known member of the U.S. track team even though, as many have noted, Lolo Jones has won the 2008 and 2010 60-meter world indoor hurdle championships and, on the international stage, not much else.

There comes a time when you have to walk the walk and, Tuesday night in a light rain, before 80,000 people at Olympic Stadium, Lolo Jones was given every opportunity.

She finished fourth.

Read the rest at NBCOlympics.com: http://bit.ly/PDYBWZ

The pull of history over the 400-meter hurdles

LONDON -- Virtually everyone, even those who have only a passing knowledge of track and field, knows Edwin Moses. In the 1970s and 1980s, Moses was unbeatable. Literally. He won 122 straight races in the 400-meter hurdles. He won Olympic gold in the event in Montreal in 1976 and again in Los Angeles in 1984; surely the U.S.-led boycott of the Games in Moscow in 1980 was the only thing that prevented him from gold there, too. In 1988, in Seoul, Moses won bronze.

On Monday night, Angelo Taylor -- out in Lane 4 -- felt the weight, the pull, of history. The Olympic champion in the 400-meter hurdles in 2000 in Sydney and again in Beijing in 2008, he had the opportunity to tie or even surpass the great Edwin Moses.

There is a reason the late filmmaker Bud Greenspan used to say that the most interesting stories at the Olympics arrive in fourth or fifth place.

Read the rest at NBCOlympics.com: http://bit.ly/RSzxO2