Officials from the International Gymnastics Federation have ruled that China's gold medal gymnasts were old enough to compete in the Beijing Olympics but two members from the Chinese squad that competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics — Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun — remain under scrutiny.......

The Paralympics may now be behind us, but the story of three-time Paralympian swimmer He Junquan (何军权) continues to inspire the nation. A freak accident in He's childhood days left him without his arms but sheer determination and perseverance led him to become a star in the pool, winning multiple medals for China since the 2000 Sydney Paralympics. Even though He had won four gold medals at the Athens games, this was the first time......

We missed Saturday's opening of the Paralympic Games on TV, but a quick scan of the headlines shows international media are just as impressed as they were with the Olympic opening ceremony. Among the highlights of the show, also choreographed by director Zhang Yimou, were a sign language dance performed by 300 hearing impaired girls, and a wheelchair dance by twelve-year-old ballet student Li Yue who had her left leg amputated during the Sichuan earthquake.......

The new Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 game for Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, and PSP, which was released last week, has put Shanghai golf on the (digital) map. Finally, you can afford to play Sheshan Golf Club (seriously, we think an Xbox might be cheaper than a round there). From the game's official blog: Now we head to the Far East, China, home of Sheshan International Golf Club. Sheshan International is most noted for......

From France24: With the paralympics getting under way in Beijing in a few days time, China's athletes continue to train hard...The Games not only a chance for the country's sportsmen to shine, but also for China to gain a better understanding of its disabled population.......

If Guo Jingjing (郭晶晶) isn't in the pool, she must be in the tabloids. Post-Olympic rumors have the diver taking her gold medals and moving to Hong Kong, where the buzz is that she may marry her boyfriend Kenneth Fok and compete for Hong Kong in the 2012 Olympics. According to this AFP story she has denied the rumors, saying at a press conference in Hong Kong: "I have no plan to move to Hong......

For sports apparel brands, the Olympics are arguably the most important stage for marketing. So how did the sports marketers fare with the Chinese market in these Olympics? Here's a look at how things played out for Adidas, Li-Ning, Nike, Puma and Speedo. Adidas Adidas reportedly shelled out 70 million euros to be an official Olympic sponsor. Adidas gear was also all over Olympians, great for television exposure. But aside from shoes and uniforms, Adidas......

The Olympics may be over but the Paralympic torch relay has only just begun. Olympic organisers have scrapped the international torch relay and pared it down to a domestic one that will go to only 11 cities, and involve 850 torchbearers.The fourth attack in Xinjiang province in less than two months came in a village in Jiashi County, killing another two policemen and wounding several others. Few details are known about the latest attack but......

Jocelyn Ford reports from Beijing:A Tibetan street hawker lives in a community of migrant workers in the outskirts of Beijing. Hostilities toward her escalated after the March riots in Lhasa. She and her son are delighted to find they are welcome at the Olympic stadium.......

The NBA keeps doing its best to dominate the post-Olympic China sports news cycle. The latest: the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors will play a pair of pre-season games in China in October. The first will be played in Guangzhou Gymnasium October 15; the second will take place at Beijing's Wukesong Arena October 18. The Milwaukee Bucks are featured in this game, despite trading Chinese forward Yi Jianlian to the New Jersey Nets on......

THE HEROES: Natalie Du Toit: This 24 year old South African swimmer became the first female amputee swimmer ever to qualify for the Olympics, and placed a very commendable 16th in a field of 24 in the 10,000m swim. Du Toit first started competing internationally at the age of 14, but in 2001, her left leg was amputated at the knee after a car accident. The traumatic experience not only did not stop her from......

On the final day of competition, China took two gold medals and a silver in women's rhythmic gymnastics to end up with a total of 51 gold medals and 100 medals overall—its best Olympic medal haul to date. Number two United States and number three Russian Federation trailed China with 36 and 23 golds, respectively. In terms of total medals, the US took the most medals, with 110, followed by China with 100. The Russian......

Going into the final dives of the men's 10-meter platform competition, it looked like China was about to sweep all eight diving gold medals, with Zhou Luxin and Huo Liang in first and second place. But Australia's Matthew Mitcham, trailing the leader Zhou by more than 30 points, went for broke with a 3.8 degree of difficulty dive, a back two and a half somersault with two and a half twists. He got four......

The Bahamas. Again. One medal for every 153,725 Bahamians. They were followed by Jamaica, Iceland, Slovenia, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Cuba, Armenia and Belarus. Of the 87 nations that won medals, China ranked No. 68. The United States was No. 46. India brought up the rear. This is all good info to have the next time you tire of your friends arguing over who really "won" the Olympics. [Source]......

Summed up in 3 minutes and 37 seconds.......

Photo of the Bird's Nest by stelzer The report card Deutsche Welle: Controversial Beijing Games Close in Spectacular, Surreal Style AP: Mixed legacy likely as China's Olympics conclude Reuters: No medals for China, IOC from rights groups Reuters: China basks in the glow of success of Games Al-Jazeera: Olympic chief praises Beijing games Seattle Times: China put on great show in Beijing, but with iron fist The Scotsman: Olympics: The gold medal for public......

Tonight's star-studded Olympic closing ceremony will feature David Beckham, Leona Lewis and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame While we aren't able to provide you with any spoilers like we did for the opening ceremony, executive vice president of NBC Olympics David Neal made his way to a college campus 90 minutes west of Beijing where secret rehearsals were being conducted and exclaimed, "It's just unlike any other closing ceremony I've ever seen." While......

After losses for its women's basketball and volleyball teams last night, China has just one shot remaining at a gold medal in a team sport. The women's field hockey team takes on the Netherlands in the final tonight at 8:30, Beijing time. China upset European champions and 2004 gold medalists Germany to reach tonight's final. Both the women's basketball and volleyball teams lost in semifinal games Thursday night. The basketball squad was handled easily by......

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Chinese Soundbites, a podcast series brought to you by ChinesePod and Shanghaiist. Every week we'll be bringing you topics and words pulled straight from the headlines, in Mandarin Chinese. In this first episode Jenny and Amber talk about Liu Xiang (刘翔, Liú Xiáng), the Chinese hurdler who carried the hopes and dreams of the Chinese nation on his back but was brought down by an Achilles' tendon injury before......

According to the NY Times the IOC team has asked the international gymnastic group F.I.G. to investigate the ages of the controversial Chinese women's team. "According to online sports registration lists in China, half the team — He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan — would be under age." As many as six medals won by the 'women's' team hang in the balance. Also read NY Daily News and The Telegraph.......

There's a pretty sweet interactive feature on the NY Times website right now that let's the reader have a virtual experience atop the 10M diving platform at the National Aquatic Center (aka "Water Cube"). It includes a minute long audio description from American Olympic diver Thomas Finchum, but the real highlight is playing around with the panorama. We wish we could be there ourselves except we're afraid of heights. And water. And mobs of......

For those of you still dwelling on the age of a certain Chinese gymnast, we've got good news for you: Someone is more obsessed about the controversy than you! A blogger has done some internet sleuthing (see here and here) that has some people convinced that He Kexin (何可欣) is all of 14 years old (Olympic rules state that gymnasts must be 16). All the cyber-digging might be in vain, however — we doubt the......

A win against Russia Tuesday night put China into the semifinals of the women's indoor volleyball competition. Defending Olympic champion China won the quarterfinal in three sets, 25-22, 27-25, 25-19. China's semifinal pits it against Brazil, undefeated in these Olympics. Brazil's men's team knocked China out in the quarterfinals. The women's match takes place at 8:00 tonight in Beijing. Cuba and the USA play in the other semifinal and the gold medal match takes place......

With its 77-62 win over Belarus Tuesday night, the Chinese women's basketball team has met coach Tom Maher's goal of reaching the Olympic semifinals. It is a vast improvement on the team's ninth-place finish in the 2004 and 1996 Olympics, and its failure to qualify in 2000. China won despite being outrebounded 41-22; the 27 turnovers by Belarus (to China's 11) made the difference, and then some. Though Sui Feifei (隋菲菲) is the team's most......

Well, if you don't have time to watch all of the Olympic games, here's the ultra-short mime version, performed on Japanese television. We especially like the swimming.......

Injured hurdler Liu Xiang has written a letter to the people of China and his supporters worldwide, which was posted on Chinese national track and field coach Feng Shuyong's (冯树勇) blog yesterday. Below is a translation of Feng's post: I have already been in touch with Liu Xiang several times since he pulled out of the race as an absolute last resort. Right now as far as Liu Xiang is concerned, he needs to get......

In honor of the Beijing Olympics, Shanghai’s #1 fag hag scoured the city for info on gay sports. Everyone knows a large gay contingent can be found daily at our most popular gyms. However, did you realize Shanghai also hosts gay swimming (we’re sure Michael Phelps or Zhang Lin are welcome), badminton, table tennis, volleyball and even kungfu! Rainbow League is the fantastic association that organizes many of the gay sports clubs in Shanghai (more......

Victories in men's gymnastics yesterday helped China add to its gold tally. The host country, as of noon on Wednesday, has 43 gold medals. Here are two gymnasts who had huge performances yesterday: Li Xiaopeng enters Chinese gymnastics pantheon Li Xiaopeng (李小鹏) beat out Yoo Won-chul of South Korea and Anton Fokin of Uzbekistan to claim his fourth gold in men's gymnastics—this time in the parallel bars. This Olympics Li has surpassed Chinese gymnastics legend—and......

Al-Jazeera: Chinese retirees live it up with dancing Al-Jazeera: Chinese rocker Cui Jian, whose song Nothing to My Name became the unofficial anthem of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, says he supports the Olympics but that rock-and-roll stars are born to be trouble-makers. Al-Jazeera: Five-time gold medallist US swimmer Aaron Peirsol talks about about the physiological impact of competing at the highest level.......

After winning one gold medal and six total medals on Saturday and then seven golds and 14 total medals on Sunday, China is making a serious run at coming out of the Beijing games with the most gold and most medals overall. As of 11:00 pm Beijing time on Monday, China leads the Olympic gold quest with 39 gold medals, 17 more than Team USA's 22. In terms of overall medals, China trails the USA......