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Olympics Blog

Great American pastime

By Helene Elliott
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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

EUGENE, Ore.--What’s America’s pastime? Not baseball. Not football.

Making a buck!

The streets surrounding Hayward Field, site of the U.S. Olympic track and field trials, are filled with entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on the situation. Homeowners and fraternity houses are offering parking spots and water to fans arriving for the event, and don’t tell the lawyers for the International Olympic Committee, but some signs advertising the merchandise are using hand-drawn versions of the Olympic rings.

Copyright infringement, doncha know...

--Helene Elliott

Olympics Blog
Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

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