2012 Olympics | featured news

The last group in England with this many records was The Beatles. The U.S. men's Olympic basketball team beat Nigeria 156-73 Thursday night, an epic blowout that answered the Americans' detractors and sent a clear message to let them be.

Michael Phelps, looking like the dominating uber-Phelps of four years ago, won the 200-meter individual medley Thursday at the London Olympics.

It's time for Round 2 of Michael Phelps vs. Ryan Lochte. Their first showdown of the London Olympics went to Lochte in a runaway on the opening night of the swimming competition. This one figures to be a lot closer. The American stars compete against each other for the last time in the 200-meter individual medley on Thursday night. Lochte qualified fastest in 1 minute, 56.13 seconds. Phelps was 98-hundredths of a second back in third.

Allison Schmitt rallies the Americans to victory with a strong anchor leg... The U.S. took the gold with in an Olympic record time of 7 minutes 42.92 seconds. Australia, which had led after three legs,
was second in 7:44.41 and France was well back in 7:47.49 to take the bronze.

Nathan Adrian of the United States won the gold medal in the Olympic 100-meter freestyle on Wednesday night, completing the furious, water-thrashing, lung-busting test one-hundredth of a second faster than James Magnussen of Australia.

"Evening of shame." Not words you often -- if ever -- associate with the sport of badminton. But those were the words being used by British TV after eight female badminton players were kicked out of the Olympic Games doubles competition on Wednesday afternoon over twin charges of "not using one's best efforts to win a match" and "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport."

NBC is set to "break even" on its Olympics coverage, rather than lose money as previously expected, the head of NBCUniversal said Wednesday. The company had expected at one point to take a $200 million loss on the London Olympics. NBC paid $1.2 billion for the rights to show the games on TV and online in the U.S. It has said that it sold more than $1 billion in ads, breaking the record of $850 million set during the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

I am covering the Olympics for Slate this year, and, as such, it's my job to know what happens at the Games as soon as it happens. No waiting for the tape-delay broadcast for me; I wake at 4 a.m. to watch archery and stay in front of the screen until the sun sets on the British Isles. What this means is that I have personally spoiled at least seven people's enjoyment of the Olympics by blabbing prematurely about who won what event. "Did you see that Michael Phelps came in fourth?" I ask. "No, you jerk, and thanks for ruining it for me.

History unfolded in 6 minutes and 59.70 seconds. With a little help from three of his friends, Michael Phelps became the greatest Olympian of them all, winning his 19th career medal, breaking the standard set by legendary Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina.

To the charges of putting the interests of a corporate partner above those of a human user, Twitter pleads guilty. The social messaging service has apologized for suspending the account of Guy Adams, a correspondent for The Independent and vocal critic of the way NBC has covered the Olympic Games.