Beijing

Editor's Note: In the spirit of the From Baltimore to Beijing blog, Rick and Kevin dialogued about their Olympic experiences: Rick Maese: Until a few years ago, tradition called for the Olympics to close with a grandiose and dramatic pronouncement. The top boss would proclaim for all of the gathered nations and athletes that these particular Games were undoubtedly the best ever. As these Beijing Games draw to a close today, there's no need to jump into the deep end of the hyperbole pool.

Michael Phelps Rodgers Forge Age: 23 Event: Swimming Results: He simply became the greatest Olympian of all time by winning eight gold medals in a single Games, breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven, and he has won 14 career gold medals, surpassing the all-time mark of nine by four different athletes, including himself. Katie Hoff Towson Age: 19 Event: Swimming Results: Won her first career medals, taking a silver in the 400 freestyle, where she was out-touched at the wall, and two bronze, in the 400 individual medley and 800 free relay.

The Sun's Olympic correspondents, Rick Maese and Kevin Van Valkenburg, are blogging back and forth to each other at baltimoresun.com/olympicsblog. An excerpt: To: Kevin, et al. You might want to check out this link. Match.com, as you might or might not know, is a popular dating site. Not that I know anything about it. (For the record, I am NOT the same rmaese3641b who enjoys Scrubs, Wes Anderson movies, seaweed salad, the Sunday Times crossword puzzle and California Pinot Noir.) Anyhow, where was I?

BEIJING - A storied era in U.S. women's soccer ended when Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy and other pioneers retired as Olympic champions after the Athens Games, but another promising era might have dawned yesterday on a soggy field at Workers' Stadium. The U.S. women won their third gold medal awarded for women's soccer in four Olympic tournaments by edging Brazil, 1-0, on midfielder Carli Lloyd's extra-time goal. The U.S. team had defeated Brazil in Athens, also in overtime, but this team has a different roster and is less famous than its predecessor.

BEIJING - The U.S. men's basketball team is about to face 2004 gold medalist Argentina in this morning's semifinals, and you know what that means. Not only is it an honor to play the Argentines, they're a great team. Actually, they're not merely a great team, they're like an NBA team! Actually, they're not merely like a generic NBA team but the Boston Celtics in Bill Russell's prime! Actually, what it probably means is bad news for Argentina, which, by its record (5-1) and the way it has looked, might be only marginally better than Spain (which the U.S. squad beat by 37)

BEIJING - Afterward, as his players sat grim-faced and stricken, their silver medal a shiny symbol of rare failure, U.S. softball coach Mike Candrea would tell them he was proud of them. And he would tell them something else. "As athletes, it's awfully tough to handle disappointment, but that's athletics," he said. "As I told the girls tonight, 'There are going to be other things in life that are more tragic than tonight.' " Candrea knows tragedy. He lost his wife, Sue, to a brain aneurysm just weeks before the Athens Olympics four years ago. But he was not issuing ominous warnings as much as trying to put the U.S. team's 3-1 loss to Japan in last night's gold-medal game into some sort of perspective.

The Sun's Olympic correspondents, Rick Maese and Kevin Van Valkenburg, are blogging to each other at baltimoresun.com/olympicsblog . An excerpt: Kevin, friends, et al., If we can momentarily feed an unfair stereotype: We scribes of the sports pages are particularly good in a couple of areas - watching sports and eating food. Charged with covering Michael Phelps and his eight gold medals, we've had little time for culinary adventure. Much of our dining has come in between assignments and interviews in the first-floor cafeteria of the Main Press Center.

BEIJING - The Olympic women's basketball semifinal between the United States and Russia needed another subplot like three-time gold medalist Lisa Leslie needed "Star-Spangled Banner" lyrics. Yet there it is, South Dakotan Becky Hammon wearing the red and white - but no blue - of Russia, a move that Leslie initially described as "un-American." This story line follows Russia upsetting the Americans in a 2006 world championship semifinal, as well as the minor detail of today's winner advancing to Saturday's gold-medal game.

BEIJING - The race was simply unbelievable. Usain Bolt wiped his hand over his head several times, ran his index fingers over his eyebrows and pushed out his top so everyone could see "Jamaica" from shoulder to shoulder. Then he crouched into the blocks, waited for the gun and left seven competitors and the previous world record in the dust. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have called you a liar. The previous world record in the 200 meters, set by Michael Johnson in the 1996 Games, was 19.32 seconds.