Jordon Chiles, seen here at the 2024 U.S. Championships, finds herself in the middle of an Olympics controversy not of her making.

Gymnastics -- the figure skating of the Summer Olympics

August 17, 2024

You just knew that the Paris Olympics would not end without a judging controversy, didn’t you?

This one involves American gymnast Jordan Chiles, who won the bronze medal on the floor exercises until she didn’t. It seemed her routine had a higher degree of difficulty than that of the original bronze medalist, Romania’s Ana Barbosu, and the U.S. filed an immediate appeal, giving Chiles the medal and devastating Barbosu. But then Romania appealed and Chiles was stripped of the medal, because the U.S. appeal was four seconds too late, even though video reportedly shows that it wasn’t.

The U.S. and Romania agreed to share the bronze medal, but the International Federation of Gymnastics said nothing doing, and now it’s off to the Swiss Federal Tribunal for the ultimate decision. In the meantime, it didn’t take the press long to uncover that Hamid G. Gharavi, who headed the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) panel that ruled against the U.S., had represented Romania in some arbitration cases. So not the most unbiased of judges.

On Friday, Aug. 16, Barbosu got the bronze medal — different from the one awarded at the Paris Games — and Chiles, still in possession of the bronze from Paris, vowed to seek justice.

The month that was -- from the Democrats' gambit to the Paris Games

July 30, 2024

It figures that my birthday break would bring big news: There’s just something about the second half of July.

On July 21, President Joe Biden went George Washington on everyone and announced that he would put patriotism and party before personhood and renounce the nomination for a second term, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.

Perhaps the most surprising thing in an announcement that was devoutly desired and yet still shocking was the way people rallied around Harris, who raised $200 million in her first week on the campaign trail.

The Eagles have landed

February 6, 2018

Was that a great Super Bowl game or what? It had everything – an underdog (the victorious Philadelphia Eagles), a villain (the New England Patriots and Mr. “I’m Tom Brady and you’re not”), seesaw drama, frustrated placekickers, sleight-of-hand plays in the end zone and a modest hero (Eagles quarterback Nick Foles, the un-Brady). It was a most satisfying night, one that proved, as my beloved Aunt Mary always said, that if something is meant for you, it will be there for you – even if you’re an improbable second-string QB like Foles ...

Where have you gone, Jackie Robinson?

April 10, 2016

I saw Jackie Robinson in person once. It was at Yankee Stadium on Old Timers’ Day, and Iike a lot of other wiry kids, I craned my neck to take in as many legends on the field as possible. I thought then that Robinson looked old and sickly for his age. (And indeed he would die of a heart attack, complicated by diabetes, at age 53.) The other thing I remember thinking was that he was a big man, larger than life – which he certainly was.

I was reminded of Robinson – the man who had that special combination of physical and spiritual grace to break baseball’s color barrier in 1947 – because Ken Burns’ miniseries about him is set to debut Monday and Tuesday, April 11 and 12, and because Jay Caspian Kang has written a column for The New York Times Magazine’s April 10 edition in which he suggests that racism is killing baseball. ...

Peyton Manning’s last hurrah

March 8, 2016

Peyton Manning’s retirement speech Monday in Denver was everything you’d expect from someone who studied theater in school and turned football into a kind of theater, as Daily News columnist Mike Lupica said. It was eloquent and emotional.

“There were other players who were more talented,” he said, choking up frequently. “But there was no one who could out-prepare me and because of that I have no regrets.”

It was a classic example of how to walk away – without bitterness and with gratitude for the roles others have played in your life. In hitting all the right notes, though, Manning added some unusual grace notes. It was, he said, the little things that loomed large in hindsight:

"I’m going to miss a steak dinner at St. Elmo's in Indianapolis after a win. My battles with players named Lynch, Lewis, Thomas, Bruschi, Fletcher, Dawkins, Seau, Urlacher, Polamalu, Harrison, Woodson and Reed. And with coaches like Fisher, Ryan, Belichick, Kiffin, Phillips, Rivera, LeBeau, Crennel, Capers, Lewis, the late Jim Johnson, and so many more. I always felt like I was playing against that middle linebacker or that safety or that defensive coach. ...

America’s son – Peyton Manning

March 6, 2016

When I was a child, I used to envy star athletes. They would retire young – having already accrued a lifetime of fame, wealth and accomplishment – and life would now be an open road on which they could do whatever they wished, being rich enough to do it and young enough to enjoy it.

But what if the open road were a vast wasteland? Who knows if athletes see delicious anticipation and opportunity or dread in retirement?

We can only imagine what’s going through Peyton Manning’s mind as he prepares to call it a day after 18 years of throwing a football with commanding accuracy. ...

Super Bowl 50 – Defense! Defense!

February 8, 2016

Good pitching, baseball fans always say, stops good hitting. A good defense stops a good offense.

And so the Denver Broncos’ vaunted defense stopped Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers’ electric running game, 24-10 in Super Bowl 50.

It was perhaps the last hurrah for Broncos’ quarterback Peyton Manning, who at 39 became the oldest quarterback to pilot a Super Bowl team and may join his boss John Elway as the only quarterback to retire after winning a Super Bowl. ...