London has turned out to be a fine city to host a modern Olympics. Lots of diversions, plenty of local expertise to make it all happen, good facilities, nice people, easy to reach … London is not new at this, though, having hosted twice before, including in 1948. But that was long ago, before the […]

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You hear this, now and then. And I did the other day on BBC. Or maybe it was Al Jazeera, here in the Gulf. That Usain Bolt, sprinter from Jamaica, “saved” track and field. Perhaps kept it from going extinct? Is that what “saved” means? Which is silly, of course. Track and field now is […]

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Watch track and field … athletics, most of the world calls it … and you will see some strange things. (And, no, that does not include U.S. teams throwing the baton and throwing the baton during the 4×100 or 4×400 relays; that happens at every Olympics.) Not many recent episodes, however, have been stranger that […]

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We continue to think of travel as difficult, but it really is not, in the abstract, compared to 10 years ago, never mind 50 or 100. Multiple flights, multiple varieties of ground transport … So, in Coventry, England. Going back to Abu Dhabi, UAE. How to?

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We never assumed life in the Athletes Village, at the Olympics, was a matter of mass celibacy. Thousands of young, fit athletes, far from home, all leading monastic lives … But I did wonder, over the years, about the logistics. If you have the women’s dorm over here, and the men’s dorm over there … […]

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This was the final day in the London 2012 Games for the UAE football team, and my 25th consecutive day writing about them, for The National, from Austria, Manchester, London and Coventry. They didn’t quite cover themselves with glory, but they managed a 1-1 draw against Senegal, and they leave the Summer Games with one […]

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Three-plus decades in this business, and I still can be surprised by what can happen when you call someone. I was working on a piece about the future of Mahdi Ali, the capable and popular UAE Olympic soccer coach who led his team to the London Olympics, and I decided to check in with the […]

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This is a bizarre story, now that I review it again. Because I could not get credentialed for the Summer Olympics in the way I have for 14 Olympiads before this one — with an actual “E” (press) credential — I became worried about getting into events at London 2012. Specifically, into UAE soccer events […]

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From 1982 until 1992, I visited London quite often. At least four extended stays in the city and the surrounding countryside. Twice, to cover Wimbledon, from start to finish, in 1985 and 1986. However, before today, the last time I was in London was 1993, and that was soccer-related, too. I was on my way […]

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One of those random Olympic TV moments. You’re sitting there, and the round-the-clock coverage by the BBC suddenly coughs up the team final of the men’s London 2012 archery team competition. The United States versus Italy. And the hero of the match? A fat, bald guy. And you know what this means?

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