BEIJING 2008

VIEWERS GUIDE

TIMING: Beijing is 15 hours ahead of Los Angeles. That means as you grab your morning paper at 8 a.m. today, it’s already 11 p.m. in Beijing. Much of the action takes place from about 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. Pacific time. The Times’ daily special section Beijing 2008 has all the information from events that conclude by about 10 p.m. Los Angeles time.

CATCHING UP: For up-to-the-moment news with your morning cup of French roast, go to latimes.com/olympics and pull up the “While you were sleeping” entry on The Times’ Olympic blog, Ticket to Beijing. Times Sports Editor Randy Harvey will fill you in on the big events that took place after you finally turned off coverage of women’s handball and hit the sack.

LIVE TV? Because of the time difference, virtually no competition we see on NBC on the West Coast is live. When you see “Live” in the upper right of your TV screen, that means it’s live on the East Coast, so it’s three hours delayed here.

COMING UP

TRACK AND FIELD: Again, as with the men’s 100, the women’s premier sprint is scheduled for early risers in the United States. Lauryn Williams of Miami, Torri Edwards of Irvine and Muna Lee of College Station, Texas, are expected to chase Jamaica’s Kerron Stewart to the finish line.

GYMNASTICS: Another marquee event scheduled for the early morning hours is apparatus finals. All-around champion Nastia Liukin and U.S. teammate and silver medalist Shawn Johnson are entered in the floor exercise. Alicia Sacramone tries to rebound from her disappointing performance in the team event on the vault. Alexander Artemev, a member of the U.S. men’s bronze-medal team, is on the pommel horse.

DIVING: China attempts to go five for five in gold medals, this in the women’s springboard.