Free Republic

WASHINGTON, D.C. — While 529 hardworking athletes proudly represent the United States in the 2012 Olympics, any medals and money they earn wearing red, white and blue will be taxed by the IRS. According to research done by the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation, U.S. Olympic athletes are liable to pay income tax on medals earned and prizes received at the London games. American medalists face a top income tax rate of 35 percent. Under U.S. tax law, they must add the value of their Olympic medals and prizes to their taxable income. It is therefore easy to calculate...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I was gonna talk about the Olympics, but I don't want MSNBC getting any Twitter account canceled. Did you hear about this? Guy Adams works as a writer for the Independent. It's a UK newspaper. He lives in LA. And throughout the Olympics he's gone to Twitter and he has been ripping NBC repeatedly for its coverage. And everybody, it seems, is ripping NBC. NBC's laughing all the way to the bank because their ratings are through the roof. You can't miss, with communications what it is today, you cannot miss running into the results that NBC...

One of the world’s most senior swimming coaches has raised serious doubts about the validity of the “unbelievable” performance of Ye Shiwen, the 16-year-old Chinese swimmer. John Leonard, the executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, yesterday compared Ye’s winning performance in the women’s 400m individual medley to Irish swimmer Michelle Smith, who won gold in the same event at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics but was banned from swimming for four years in 1998 for tampering with a urine sample. Smith, now De Bruin, always denied using performance enhancing drugs. Ye sent shock waves through her sport on Saturday...

When Michelle Obama jetted off to Britain to instruct the US Olympic Team on what they need to do to come home with the gold, it became apparent that America's first lady had found a way to party hearty, regardless of the pledge to forgo her annual Martha's Vineyard vacation. Call me cynical, but just because Michelle Obama has well-cut biceps from doing 15-lb curls in the White House gym, trounced Ellen DeGeneres in a push-up contest, and kicked Jimmy Fallon's butt in a potato-sack race, that doesn't exactly qualify her to dole out pointers to seasoned Olympic athletes. But,...

LONDON (Reuters) - A female Saudi fighter will take part in the Olympic judo competition after being allowed to wear an Islamic headscarf, or hijab, of a specific design, officials said on Monday. Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shaherkani is one of only two Saudi women to travel to London after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) lobbied the conservative Islamic kingdom to end its refusal to send women to the Games. But she had said she would only compete if she was allowed to wear the hijab, and judo officials refused, saying it would be dangerous. A Saudi National Olympic Committee...

Broadcasting out of his native England, this evening Piers Morgan welcomes Mitt and Ann Romney for a candid and revealing conversation that comes alongside the 2012 Summer Olympic Games from London. A decade since the Romneys helped host the 2002 Olympics in their home state of Utah, the "Piers Morgan Tonight" host walks the couple down memory lane: "There was a very poignant moment, when you were asked to allow someone who was your hero, to hold the torch. And you chose your wife," reviewed Morgan. "Tell me about that."

What better way to celebrate a dominant opening to group play at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London than with a hug from the first lady of the United States? After the final buzzer of their 98-71 win over France on Sunday, members of the U.S. men's national basketball team shook hands with their vanquished opposition, gathered at center court for a brief cheer, then walked off the court to a rousing ovation from the fans at the Basketball Arena in London. Before they headed back to the locker room, though, they took a quick left and headed straight for...

The Italian Olympic team at the London Olympic Games made a noble gesture Sunday and stood in silence outside the quarters of the Israeli team, in memory of the 11 athletes slain in the Munich Olympics 40 years ago, Voice of Israel radio reported Sunday. About 30 Italians were present at the ceremony, including Italy's Minister of Sport, the heads of the Italian Olympic Committee and athletes. Israeli Olympic Committee head Tzvi Varshaviak and Olympic delegation leader Efraim Zinger also took part. According to an unverified report on the internet, the pilot and crew of a British airliner headed for...

Olympics: Call For New Rules On Empty Seats The sight of rows of empty seats at some Olympic venues on the first full day of the Games prompts a fierce debate. The head of the British Olympic Association has called for new measures to avoid swathes of empty seats at some of the most popular events during the London Games. Lord Moynihan wants to bring in a 30-minute rule on ticketing so that people who fail to turn up on time lose their seats. "We need every seat filled," he said. "We owe it to the team, we owe it...

Looks like a 1970s Soviet poster, good grief    Alas, nothing new coming from this bunch...

<p>LONDON (AP) — Kim Rhode won the gold medal in women's skeet shooting Sunday, making her the first American to take an individual-sport medal in five consecutive Olympics.</p>

The letters ‘NHS’ dazzled in bright red, like some triumphant advert. All around pranced self-indulgent nurses who had volunteered to take a few days off to be part of the ceremony. And how long did this shameful propaganda last for? A whole 15 minutes at the top of proceedings before viewers dozed off to the procession of banana republics and far-flung destinations nobody has ever heard of or even cares for. That such a politically divisive subject was included at all is utterly shocking. Not least because it glossed over the cracks in a system that is creaking at its...

London Olympics Has All Except Respect For Jewish BloodBy Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel --- July 28, 2012 ... The London Olympics Opening Ceremonies had it all. The Queen, James Bond, spectacular fireworks, inspirational music, creative dancers, David Beckham, Mitt Romney, Michelle Obama, Sir Paul McCartney, sky divers, Mary Poppins, and one very funny Mr. Bean. The IOC and the London Olympics had everything - except simple respect for those Olympians who were murdered at the Munich Games in 1972. We are not speaking Israelis. We are not even talking about Jews, but rather members of the Olympic family...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I want to go to this Romney business. Romney went to the UK. He's over there for the obligatory foreign trip for presidential candidates. And here is supposedly Romney's big gaffe. This was Wednesday night on the NBC Nightly News with the anchor Brian Williams who said, "In the short time you've been here in London, do they look ready for the Olympics to your experienced eye?" ROMNEY: You know, it's hard to know just how well it will turn out. There are a few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the private security firm not...

The choreographer of a somber segment in the London Olympics opening ceremony said Saturday he's disappointed that NBC decided not to show it to an American audience. Spectators were asked to display photos of loved ones who could not be there during the segment. The music, a hymn called "Abide With Me," was described in the ceremony's program as an "honest expression of the fear of approaching death." NBC producers did not air it, instead showing American viewers Ryan Seacrest's interview with swimmer Michael Phelps. "I am disappointed," said Londoner Akram Khan, who choreographed and danced in the segment. "I...

AN ONLINE gay dating service CRASHED seconds after the first Olympic athletes touched down last week due to massive increase in demand. The mobile phone app - Grindr - lets gay men zero in on potential partners nearby using GPRS in their phones. Experts on the site believe the arrival of the Olympic teams on Monday sparked a flood of new customers - and crashed the service in East London. One frustrated Londoner said: "It happened almost as soon as the teams got here. Either loads of athletes were logging on to meet fellow Olympians or were looking to...

NBC wants viewers to know: The kickoff of the London Olympics was just too complicated to watch live. The network is fighting back against intense criticism of its decision to black out the opening ceremony on Friday, instead offering a taped version hours later in prime time. Viewers reacted with disgust when they tried to watch live coverage of the event on TV or online but could only find a few bootlegging sites carrying the feed in the U.S. "We are live streaming every sporting event, all 32 sports and 302 medals," an NBC spokesman wrote in an email to...

The Summer Olympics may be in England, but a gesture by at least one onlooker at Friday's opening extravaganza evoked images of Hitler's Germany. An elderly man from the German delegation appeared to perform a wrong-handed Nazi salute as athletes from his nation paraded by a dignitaries box at Olympic Stadium.

Olympics: Mitt Romney has gotten blasted on all sides for questioning London's Olympic preparation. The overlooked fact is that Romney actually knows how to run an Olympics. You would have thought Great Britain and the U.S. were in a crisis and recalling each others' ambassadors, given the overblown, overwrought windbaggery directed at Romney, who is making his first trip abroad as a Republican presidential candidate, with London as his first stop. Someone asked him what he thought of London's Olympic preparations and he replied there could be reason for concern, citing reports of labor and security problems. See, the London...

The major transitional element of today's London Olympics opening ceremony was a downtempo performance of adoptive sporting anthem "Abide With Me" by Scottish singer Emeli Sandé. The song and accompanying dance were a tribute to the victims of the 7/7 terror attacks in London that claimed 52 victims days after the 2012 Summer Olympic hosts were named. (It's also been suggested the performance was a memorial to the war dead.)