Philip Hersh

LONDON — We want him to be Superman. We knew him that way four years ago, when Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt emerged on the global sports stage and took world records and gold medals away from the Beijing Olympics with an ease that suggested he did...

If the ideals of the Olympics as expressed in its charter still ring true in any way, the most resonant moment of the last Summer Games was the sight of Lopez Lomong, a refugee from civil war in the Sudan, carrying the U.S. flag into the opening...

On June 14, 2003, Sam Vazquez ran the Adidas National Scholastic High School Meet in Raleigh, N.C., against one of the fastest prep mile fields ever assembled. Vazquez won in 4 minutes, 3.87 seconds, beating — among others — eventual two-...

LONDON — It was a cool evening. The setting sun found a tiny hole in the clouds. The occasional sprinkle fell on Regent's Park, and tall grasses that looked as if they belonged on a Midwest prairie began to sway. Then you looked at the grass,...

LONDON – Professional journalists try to keep the proper distance from subjects we write about. That ethical guideline does not prevent us from feeling human emotions about some of the subjects. So I wanted to cheer early Saturday afternoon when I...

LONDON -- When they are not complaining about traffic dislocations and commuting slowdowns created by designated Olympic lanes and the expected crush of Olympic visitors on public transport, Londoners' most frequent complaint about the upcoming Summer...

LONDON - This is my 16th Olympic Games. It is also the first in which I will see the Olympic Games rather than be focused on one sport, track and field at the Summer Games, figure skating at the Winter Games. I love those two sports, and they have given...

LONDON — How do you measure greatness? By two events that lasted fewer than 30 seconds combined? By one 10-part event that ground on for 25 hours over two days? About 45 minutes after Usain Bolt of Jamaica won the Olympic track title he thought was...

LONDON – Maybe it was all part of the act.  Maybe Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt was putting us all on by calling himself a legend countless times after making history Thursday night, the way Ali did by calling himself the greatest.  Maybe Bolt pre-...

LONDON — Doug Logan's legacy from a brief and controversial two-year tenure as chief executive of USA Track and Field is a number. Thirty. It is the number attached to a project designed with the goal of winning 30 track and field medals at the...

OMAHA, Neb. — You get on the blocks for the start of the 200-meter individual medley at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, and you hear the meet announcer exclaim that the guys in the next two lanes have won a combined 77 world and Olympic medals....

OMAHA, Neb. — Eight years ago, when Michael Phelps was 19 years old and heading for his second Olympics in Athens, he already had developed a mantra about his legacy. It had nothing to do with matching fellow U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz's Olympic...