One of these days, I'll see Messi play when it's less than 90 degrees out.

Sheila Taormina's medal hopes were over by noon Friday. Her fourth Olympics in three different sports were not. Left in a deep hole after a frustrating morning in fencing, the second of five events in the modern pentathlon, Taormina stormed back to...

Eight was a lucky number for the Opening Ceremony (8-08-08) and Michael Phelps (eight gold medals). Would it be a lucky number for venues visited in one day? USA TODAY's Beau Dure decided to find out.

Three-time world champion Emma Snowsill of Australia won the women's triathlon Monday at the picturesque Ming Tombs Reservoir, running away from a lead pack of 20 after the swim and bike phases.

"A few years from now, if a prospective employer asks Columbia business school grad Keeth Smart if he has ever coped with high-pressure situations, forgive him if he laughs. Four times, Smart has been in an Olympic team sabre bout that came down to the final touch"

Matt Emmons said he thinks he'll once again find a silver lining that will reveal itself over time. And in the crush of a media zone at a shooting venue not built for crowds, he already saw some possible good.

And with Luis Yanez and Shawn Estrada losing Saturday at Workers' Gymnasium, the U.S. boxing team has qualified just two boxers for the quarterfinals welterweight Demetrius Andrade and heavyweight Deontay Wilder.

Olympic boxing has its share of controversy, but Shawn Estrada is one fighter departing the competition with no complaints.

The U.S. women's sabre team, flustered after losing a couple of close decisions in the split-second sport, fell 45-39 in the semifinals to Ukraine. The fencers returned a few hours later to leave on a high note with a resilient 45-38 win against...

Already playing without key midfielders Freddy Adu and Michael Bradley in the group-stage finale against Nigeria due to an accumulation of yellow cards, the USA lost left back Michael Orozco to a red card in the third minute and played 10-on-11 the...

After losing his first-round bout against Hungary's Peter Bacsi by a 1-5, 2-2, 0-3 score, TC Dantzler said he was slow reacting because he had to speed up cutting weight due to a faulty scale.

While Howard Bach and Bob Malaythong were easily handling the South Africans, the Beijing University of Technology gym was rocking. Two courts away, China's Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng were knocking out Denmark's Jens Dyrloev Eriksen and Martin Lundgaard...

Still, the 22-year-old Californian outlasted any previous U.S. women's single entry none had managed to win a single game. The match had the undivided attention of the nearly full 6,900-capacity Beijing University of Technology gymnasium.

Freddy Adu and Michael Bradley, both at the heart of the U.S. men's team's midfield, picked up two yellow cards in two games and will miss the group-stage finale against Nigeria.

One minute away from one of the biggest wins any U.S. soccer team has recorded, the American men gave up a tying goal and settled for a 2-2 draw Sunday against the Netherlands.

Soon after Sarah Konrad got her Ph.D. in geology, she gave up her cycling career and decided to put her cross-country ski talents to use in biathlon. This year, at age 37, she has qualified for not one, but two World Championships cross-country and...

Water polo player Ryan Bailey spends much of his time two meters away from the opponent's goal, but that's given him a unique view of the world. The former UC Irvine star spoke with USATODAY.com's Beau Dure after the first of his team's two daily...

Laura Wilkinson has plenty of gold. In 1998, she won at the Goodwill Games. In 2000, she won in Sydney. In 2002, she married Eriek Hulseman. The 26-year-old Texan is gearing up to win again in Athens 2004, and she has already had success at the...

Sailing isn't all about yachts for people in silly hats. The Mistral class of Olympic sailing is essentially windsurfing, and it's a true test of athletic ability as well as sailing skill. Peter Wells, who won the U.S. Olympic trials in the men's...

Curt Clausen, who won a bronze medal in walking at the 1999 world championships, has qualified for his third trip to the Olympics. He took time out of training for his difficult sport to talk with USATODAY.com's Beau Dure.

Synchronized swimming is a demanding sport that requires athletes to do maneuvers that many would find difficult on land, let alone in a pool in which they can't touch the bottom. Yet many in the United States know the sport through an old Saturday...

Hunter Kemper was winning youth triathlons long before the sport was added to the Olympic program. The Longwood, Fla., native, who will go to his second Olympic triathlon in August, spoke with USATODAY.com's Beau Dure.

Getting lost in the Italian Alps can be scary. Getting lost in the Italian Alps around 1 a.m. is that much scarier. That’s what happened to me at the erratically organized 2006 Olympics. I ha…

We weren’t expecting to get a dog that day. Sure, we were looking for a dog to bring home. But we had just gone through a demoralizing process with another dog agency. A Duke friend of mine, …

In grad school, I worried that the same “postmodernist” tools that ivory-tower professors used to question reality were also being used by propaganda merchants to question climate chang…

My mom was a prolific writer. Most of her writing exists today in longhand, in her distinctive but usually legible cursive, sometimes written with felt-tip pens in unusual colors. (Yay, purple.) So…

I was in over my head. I knew it, and so did the man sitting across the desk from me. He was a legitimate jazz man who ran in the same circles as Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins. I was a 17-year-…

Three weeks into my symbolic logic class, I realized I didn’t belong. It certainly seemed like a good idea to take it. I was a philosophy major, and I had aced logic. Loved it. Breezed throug…

With the 40th anniversary celebration of Saturday Night Live coming up, we’re seeing a lot of listicles. Rolling Stone went to extremes, ranking nearly everyone who was ever in the cast. The …

Zach Vruwink, elected mayor of Wisconsin Rapids in 2012 at age 24, thinks millennial elected officials can change the face of government in an era of mistrust.