BEIJING 2008

When it’s 8 a.m. in Los Angeles . . .

. . . it is 11 p.m. in Beijing

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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

MEN’S BASKETBALL: Well, technically, the game is today. If you’re reading this in the morning newspaper, though, you missed the gold-medal matchup between the United States and Spain.

CLOSING CEREMONY: Juan Antonio Samaranch no doubt would have called it “the best Games ever.” That’s what he called every Summer Olympics he presided over, except for one: Atlanta. The current International Olympic Committee president, Jacques Rogge, is more understated.

-- Randy Harvey