Sports

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

We're going to hear next of the Penn State scandal as it looks from State College, Pennsylvania. The university says it accepts the penalties imposed yesterday by the NCAA. College sports' governing body responded to what it called a tragic failure to expose child sexual abuse by a former assistant football coach.

But some in State College say the penalties are too much, as NPR's Joel Rose reports.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

There's a lot more to talk through here, and ESPN.com senior writer Don Van Natta, Jr. has been following the story. He's on the line. Good morning.

DON VAN NATTA, JR.: Good morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: And welcome to the program. You've written that Penn State was not actually found to violate a specific NCAA rule. How did they justify the penalty, given that?

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

Three days remain before the Olympic Games. They're billed as the world's greatest sporting event. They're in London. So why aren't the British happy? The British have been grumbling so much about the games that the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has told them all to stop whining and, in his words, put a sock in it. Yet still the protests and complaints continue. Let's take a ride across London with NPR's Philip Reeves.

Olympic reporting veterans like myself (London is Games No. 8) noticed something extraordinary this weekend at the first London 2012 news conference called by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge.

The "something" sat there on the podium, directly in front of Rogge: an aquamarine bottle of Powerade, a Coca-Cola product. And next to Rogge, in front of IOC spokesman Mark Adams, was a carefully positioned bottle of caramel-colored Coke. Dozens of photographers and TV cameras were capturing the event; it seemed impossible to miss the OIympic sponsor's products.

In the Main Press Center, where thousands of journalists are gathered to cover the London 2012 games, the call went out Monday: Let the drinking begin!

It was all part of a welcome party for journalists covering the Summer Olympics. First, cute kids from a nearby elementary school serenaded the group. The next thing you knew, London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe was talking about cheap booze.

They NCAA announced severe penalties against Penn State's football program on Monday in the wake of the sex abuse scandal involving assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. The NCAA banned the team from bowl games for the next four years, stripped it of all victories between 1998 and 2011 and fined the school $60 million.

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Chances may be good for a U.S. medal in mountain biking and in swimming, gymnastics and a lot of other events where the U.S. tends to dominate the podium, but when's the last time we saw a U.S. victory in table tennis? We got to wondering about which sports Americans just can't master and who are the top rival countries in those events. And Olympic historian David Wallechinsky is with us for more.

Hi there, David.

DAVID WALLECHINSKY: Hi. How are you?

The sanctions slapped on Penn State football in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal charter a new territory in punishment by the NCAA, a sports author said today.

"I think it is unprecedented in terms of taking away wins. That's a huge blow," says Ted Kluck, author of several books on sports, including Game Time: Inside College Football.

The U.S. Olympic basketball team narrowly beat Argentina late Sunday, 86-80, as the two teams prepare for the start of the London Games Friday. The tight score came despite a fast start for the U.S. squad, who were dressed in throwback uniforms inspired by the 1992 Dream Team.

The Americans raced to a 31-16 lead early on, but they were only 4 points ahead late in the game, and pulled away thanks to three-pointers by Kevin Durant and Chris Paul — who posted a photo of his uniform on Instagram.