Free Republic

Germany were made to work for their gold medal as they recorded a narrow 2-1 win over Sweden in the Olympic Women's final. Dzsenifer Marozsan netted a beauty for the Germans just after the break and Linda Sembrant scored in the wrong net to double the opposition's lead before Stina Blackstenius pulled one back for Sweden. The Swedes had booked their place in the final with a 4-3 penalty shootout win over Brazil in the semi-finals to come up against a German outfit that had cruised past Canada in their previous fixture. With 12 goals en route to the final...

It is a fast and furious sport played under the sun and famed for its revealing attire - with a practical uniform of bikinis for women and board shorts for men . But these pictures show the contrasting cultures among some of the nations taking part in the Rio Olympics after the Egyptian women's beach volleyball team took to the sandy arena wearing long sleeves and leggings. The outfit, used by Nada Meawad and Doaa Elghobashy, who also covered her head with a hijab, was in stark contrast to their German rivals Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst who stuck to...

Olympic organisers invoked the spirit of cult 1980s television show MacGyver to describe their attempts to make Rio’s bargain-bucket opening ceremony live up to the memory of its predecessors. “Athens was classic, Beijing was grandiose, London was smart - ours is going to be cool,” said Andrucha Waddington, the Brazilian film director who is part of the team behind Friday’s ceremony in Rio’s Maracana stadium. The ceremony is a joint creative effort, headed by Italian executive producer Marco Balich, a veteran of 17 such bookends of major sporting events, and creative director Fernando Meirelles, the Brazilian whose films include City...

Dornelles’ office said in a statement that the decision was made because a dip in revenues from taxes and oil royalties was “stopping the state of Rio de Janeiro from honoring its commitment to the organization of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.” “The financial crisis has brought several difficulties in essential public services and it could cause the total collapse of public security, health care, education, urban mobility and environmental management,” the statement said. Rio’s state government is in such dire straits that two of its hospitals were taken over by the Rio de Janeiro city government to allow doctors...

A young woman and her companion were held captive and beaten after boarding a minivan bus in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro on Saturday night. At least three men took turns raping the woman in an assault that lasted six hours. The attack drew comparisons to the gang rape of a young woman on a bus in Delhi in December. That attack, which was so brutal that the victim later died of her injuries, sparked outrage in India and overseas. She too was traveling with a male companion, who was beaten but survived. Here is how the crimes...

Obama's Olympic Failure summed up in one humorous video

Obama pushes for Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP White House Correspondent Wed Sep 9, 10:57 pm ET WASHINGTON – Aiming to boost his hometown of Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, President Barack Obama is bringing Olympic athletes to the White House next week and sending a senior adviser to Denmark to lobby Olympic officials, White House officials said Wednesday.