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: Sanya Richards, who would like a gold medal to match the Super Bowl ring won by her fiance, New York Giants cornerback Aaron Ross, is favored in the women’s 400 meters. The United States’ Lolo Jones is considered a contender in the 100-meter hurdles. Reports circulated before the Olympics that she was going to race a horse. Not so, she says. It would have had to be a steeplechase to be fair.

SWIMMING: South Africa’s Natalie Du Toit, whose left leg was amputated in 2001, is competing in the 10K. She was her country’s flag-bearer in the opening ceremony.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL: If all goes as expected, favorites Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers will be representing the United States in the beach volleyball semifinals. They lost their first match but have been unstoppable since.

-- Randy Harvey