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 On the evening of Sunday, August 14, 2016, famed Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt won gold in a characteristically dynamic and seemingly effortless 100-meter performance at his third consecutive Olympics, this time in Rio de Janeiro, making him the first athlete to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals in the 100-meter dash.Bolt’s rocketry on this celebrated night follows equally impressive performances in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012. There is little doubt as to why Bolt is easily regarded as the world’s fastest man.However, perhaps not as readily in the spotlight is notice of Bolt’s deep Catholic faith. In...

A week after a female Saudi Arabaian judo competitor allegedly forfeited her first-round match to avoid meeting an Israeli in the second round, Egyptian judoka Islam El Shehaby has been banished from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics for refusing to shake hands after losing to Israel’s Or Sasson. Sasson twice bowed in El Shehaby’s direction and approached him with his hand extended after the victory, but the Egyptian backpedaled before walking away from the Israeli’s appreciative gesture. The International Olympic Committee reprimanded El Shehaby after the act of poor sportsmanship, and the Egyptian Olympic delegation sent the judoka home on...

With only six days remaining in the Rio Olympic Games, India's chances of winning a medal look bleak.For the last 10 days, India has waited for its first medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics but its athletes have failed to finish on the podium. Many have come agonisingly close to winning one and many have had shock exits from early stages. With each passing day, the news is become more depressing. India now has only six day left to win that elusive medal from these Games, otherwise, for the first time since 1992, it will return medal-less. The high of...

High schooler Sydney McLaughlin makes her Olympic debut Sydney McLaughlin, who just celebrated her 17th birthday eight days ago, made her Olympic debut, finishing fifth in her heat of the 400m hurdles. McLaughlin made it through to the semifinals on time.

Modesty and Beach Volleyball Msgr. Charles Pope • August 14, 2016 • One of the less edifying aspects of the Summer Olympics in Rio is the attire of the women’s beach volleyball players from Western countries. Most of the women wear a tiny bikini with the bottom being especially tiny. (I do not show a picture here because I deem it immodest to do so. Instead, I show a picture of some of the men, whose attire I mention below.) Embed from Getty Images  Frankly, playing volleyball in a tiny bikini seems quite unnecessary. I would argue that it...

I know we haven't much discussed the Olympic races. But I wanted to say that someone diving over the finish line in a track race doesn't seem like it should be a winning play. Shouldn't it be the required that you end the race, standing??

Michael Phelps may be untouchable in the water, but even he can’t out-swim the Tax Man. America’s Olympic medalists must pay state and federal taxes on the prize money they get for winning. The U.S. Olympic Committee awards $25,000 for gold medals, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze. That’s not all. Olympians also have to pay tax on the value of the medals themselves. Gold and silver medals are made mostly of silver, while bronze medals are composed of mostly copper. Rio’s medals are among the largest and heaviest ever and contain about 500 grams of either silver or...

I’d like to interrupt the lack of news reports on the Obamas-on-vacation-on-Martha’s-Vineyard for an important update on the green slime problem at the Rio Olympic diving pool. Whoops! That’s not the look we were going for.Apparently it’s just algae. Some guy dumped 40 gallons of hydrogen peroxide into the pool by mistake and that neutralized the chlorine which allowed the algae to grow like, well, algae. We have been assured that while the pool “smells like farts” it’s quite harmless.And as you may recall, we LOVE algae! After wind, solar and corn, it’s our favorite alternative fuel du jour. I...

The Rio Olympics wrapped its first full week of competition on Friday night with more Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky and a primetime kickoff for track and field. Fast-affiliate ratings give NBC's primetime showing for the games, between 8 and 11 p.m., 23.9 million viewers and a 6.3 rating among adults 18-49. That's down from the night before and the lowest showing for a competitive night to date, but that's to be expected, given the lineup and Friday's status as a typically slower night for TV viewers. (The same Friday four years ago in London averaged 26.9 million viewers and an...

Gymnastics isn't What It Used to Be...and That's a Good Thing.

Superstar swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, nearly committed suicide two years ago. His athletic prowess and success had brought him so much attention over the last decade that sports media nearly worshiped him as a kind of god, but Phelps was struggling to find peace in his heart. He felt empty inside and sought to fill his pain with drugs and alcohol, which sent him into a downward spiral. In 2009 he was suspended from swimming for three months after a photograph of him using a bong went viral, but that didn’t stop him...

U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte was robbed at gunpoint while in Rio de Janeiro overnight Saturday, NBC News has confirmed. Following conflicting reports — including the IOC denying any incident took place — Lochte himself confirmed with NBC’s Billy Bush that he and “three other swimmers” were robbed at gunpoint. Lochte’s mom had earlier told other news organizations that the robbery happened at a party. …

The American gold medallist swimmer Ryan Lochte has been held up at gunpoint during a party in Brazil. We'll be bringing you the very latest updates, pictures and video on this breaking news story.

PyeongChang 2018 offered people around the world a chance to participate in the next Olympic Winter Games today with the launch of an online volunteer recruitment campaign. Using a new website for applications, the initiative seeks to recruit 22,400 volunteers to assist with a range of tasks in areas that include sport, medical services, media operations, technology and language services. Volunteers will undergo free training and will be offered uniforms, accommodation, meals, insurance and other benefits. Several Korean universities, volunteer organisations and other groups expressed their willingness to support the Games at a news conference a day before the website...

North Korea Confiscates Olympic Athletes' Free Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Olympic Games Edition 13 August 2016, 11:21 am EDT By Horia Ungureanu Tech Times North Korea has confiscated the complimentary Samsung Galaxy S7 edge Olympic Games Edition smartphones meant for its Olympians, making sure none of its athletes got their gift. Samsung, one of the main sponsors of the 2016 Rio Summer Olympic Games, wanted no athlete participating in the competition to go home empty-handed. That is why the OEM crafted a limited edition of Olympic Galaxy S7 edge handsets, with 12,500 units in total reserved for Olympians. The smartphones...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Olympics officials on Saturday gave what they said was a definitive explanation why the water in two competition pools turned green this week. Someone, the officials said, mistakenly added 160 liters of hydrogen peroxide on Aug. 5, neutralizing the chlorine and allowing the growth of “organic compounds” that might have included algae. On Saturday, the water in the diving pool was still a murky bottle-green color, while the water in the second pool, used for water polo and synchronized swimming, had begun to look a bit lighter and a bit bluer. Athletes have been complaining that...

Michelle Carter won the shot put gold medal Friday night at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games 32 years after her father, Michael, took the silver in the same event at the Los Angeles 1984 Games. "Of course, I can't wait until I get the medal and I can walk around the house and say 'Daddy, I got you,'" said Carter, who will receive her gold medal in a victory ceremony Saturday.

North Korea has its first gold medal of the Rio Olympics after Rim Jong Sim won the women's 75-kilogram weightlifting class. Rim was utterly dominant, lifting 117 kilograms in the snatch and 153 in the clean and jerk for a total of 274, way ahead of the 258 managed by Belarusian silver medalist Darya Naumava, or 257 for Spain's Lidia Valentin Perez.

EXCERPT: "Part of the issue here is that there are not a ton of alternatives. The village has a cafeteria in a big tent — plus a “casual dining” restaurant with Brazilian food — but the reviews have been well short of glowing. The crush of people in the cafeteria, trying to figure out in a babel of languages what is being served, can make for a frenzied meal...."

U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo's social media commentary earned her the wrath of Brazilians before she arrived in Rio. She dug a much deeper hole for herself Friday by insulting the Swedish team that had just bounced the heavily favored Americans from the tournament in a penalty shootout. "I'm very proud of this team. But I also think we played a bunch of cowards. The best team did not win today. I think you saw American heart. You saw us give everything we had today," she told reporters. "Sweden dropped off. They didn't want to open play. They didn't want to...