The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Financially, Olympics anything but golden
Faster, higher, poorer? “The last Olympics that didn’t lose money for the host city?” asked Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle. “Los Angeles, 1984. “The last Olympics at which the IOC didn’t make a ton of profit, even though it doesn’t really do anything except collect money?
“Athens, 750 B.C.”
Going for the gold
Surefire hot seller at the next Olympics: “We Wuz Robbed!” T-shirts, featuring Ryan Lochte and the 1972 U.S. basketball team.
Red Planet day
NASA declared a recent Thursday as “Mars Day” to commemorate the space agency’s goal of someday getting there. And there wasn’t a dry eye in the house when Otis Sistrunk was named an honorary astronaut.
Talko time
■ Jim Barach of WCHS-TV in Charleston, W.Va., on a study claiming that bronzemedal winners have happier reactions than those winning silver: “To which Michael Phelps says, ‘The Olympics have a bronze medal?’”
■ RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com, after one of boxer Joe Frazier’s jockstraps sold at auction for $10,000: “And Johnny Depp thinks he just paid a lot for support?”
■ Headline at TheKicker. com: “Conor McGregor throws water bottle 40 feet, gets drafted by the Browns.”
■ Janice Hough of LeftCoastSportsBabe.com, on Jerry Garcia tribute night at AT&T Park: “Giants fans were grateful the team didn’t play like they were dead.”
Attack of the clones
They scheduled an Olympic basketball tournament — and a North Korean election broke out.
The U.S. women have stormed into the gold-medal game with seven straight blowout wins. Average score: 102-64.
“For other teams, competing with the U.S. is a little like jumping into a swimming pool and facing five clones of Katie Ledecky,” wrote Mimi Kimes of ESPN.com, “or battling an army of Simone Biles-bots on the gymnastics mat.”
This just in
“In Olympic news,” wrote Brad Dickson of the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald, “there’s a new type of individual medley where Ryan Lochte changes his story every 100 meters.”
For glove or money
And in fight-memorabilia news, the boxing gloves worn by Muhammad Ali against Joe Frazier in the 1971 “Fight of the Century” sold at auction for $606,375. Which makes one wonder what Elin Nordegren’s infamous 9-iron might’ve fetched.