Art Thiel on Seattle sports | Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Art enters his third decade of writing a column about Seattle sports, the people who play them and the fans who pay to watch them. Of the three, there's no question that he's an advocate for the fans.

No issue is tough enough, no cow sacred enough to escape Art's perceptive and piercing commentaries. More than telling it "like it is" or "how it was in the good ol' days," Art reminds us how Sports should be. That's what makes him easily the best sports columnist in the Northwest.

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MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2008
Olympic 'dream' doesn't transform China
Art Thiel: Just shows you what $40 billion, 1.3 billion people, seven years of work and centuries of insecurity will get you -- a Great Haul of medals and "A Whole Lotta Love."

SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 2008
Vancouver organizers see room to improve in 2010
Art Thiel: Head of Vancouver Olympics says British Columbia will be able to improve the experience in 2010.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 2008
A spectacular Solo with a golden finish
Art Thiel: BEIJING -- Amid the team bedlam of an Olympic gold medal celebration Thursday night, the star of the game, goalkeeper Hope Solo, peeled away to an empty part of the Workers Stadium pitch. No one was within 50 yards of her.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 2008
With loss, heavy burden lifted from Liu and Yao
Art Thiel: Yao Ming was eliminated Wednesday after a 94-68 loss at Wukesong Arena to Lithuania, meaning that the Chinese national team went no further in this tournament than it did the past two Olympics with Yao.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2008
Mythical Beijing lunch spot beyond reach of confused cabbie
Art Thiel: BEIJING -- Taking a cab in China is much like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates -- you never know what you're gonna get. Or where you're gonna end up.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2008
Brown Trafton's discus gold doesn't come on silver platter
Art Thiel: Not since 1972, when Tacoma's Mac Wilkins broke the national schneid with a win in the discus, has the U.S. has to wait four days at an Olympic track meet to hear its national anthem.

MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 2008
Ex-UW pair take U.S. boat to gold in Beijing
Art Thiel: U.S. wins gold in women's eight-oared shell with help from two former Huskies.

U.S. men rally to win bronze in rowing
Art Thiel: Rallying from last place in the first 500 meters, the Americans, led by chef-in-the-making Bryan Volpenhein of Seattle, rallied to get a bronze medal in the final event of the rowing regatta at Shunyi Rowing Park.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2008
Eight-times-golden Phelps turns cynics inside-out
Art Thiel: BEIJING -- Michael Phelps won them close. He won them big. With teammates, without teammates. He won them in Beijing as he did in Athens, as well as world championships. He broke all the records, including one in the meet's final event Sunday.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 2008
Too-careful Chinese manage to produce joyless games
Art Thiel: The Olympics in Beijing are well-run, no question. But something is missing, Art Thiel writes.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 2008
Seattle rower can stand heat of kitchen and competition
Art Thiel: BEIJING - Much is rightly made of the sports pressure under which Olympians operate: Over a few days, or a few hours, or one moment, execute perfectly a deed for which one has given over most of the previous four years.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 2008
Adrian savors his brief splash in Beijing
Art Thiel: BEIJING - Such is the strength of American swimming and the perverse power of the Olympics that Nathan Adrian, 19 years old out of Bremerton, could find himself screaming his vital organs out for the destruction of a world record he helped set 24 hours earlier.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2008
Nate in line for hoop eminence
Art Thiel: Nate McMillan's coaching star is rising on the world stage in Beijing.

Jendrick reflects with pride; Hoelzer savors medal effort
Art Thiel: BEIJING � It was a little surprising to hear, Megan Quann Jendrick at 24 speaking of farewells in the tone of a grande dame of American women's swimming.

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