Raymond has done a great job translating this interview that Yao gave discussing his Olympic journey.

China was thrashed in their elimination game with Lithuania 94-68 on Wednesday. The Chinese finished 8th in the Olympics, similar to how they finished in the 1996 and 2004 Games.

Yao Ming was double-teamed and hacked most of the game, but he still managed to score 19 points and grab 7 rebounds in the most action he’s had (33 1/2 minutes) during the entire Olympics.

No one really thought the Chinese would contend for a medal, but it’s still a bummer to see them go out like this. Now in question is Yao’s participation with the Chinese team leading up to the 2012 Olympics in London.

“That is four years away,” Yao said later. “In 2004, I thought that 2008 was far away. Now I look at 2012 and maybe it doesn’t look so far. But since 2004, I have had three major surgeries.”

Click here for more photos from the game.

Click here for the story on the game.

Monday’s game between China and Greece wasn’t even close, with the Chinese falling behind early and losing 91-77. With nothing at stake in the game since China is already advancing to the semifinals and the game out-of-hand so early, Yao Ming hardly played, scoring 16 points in 18 minutes of play.

Vasillis Spanoulis, Yao’s former teammate for the Rockets pictured above, scored 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting.

The Chinese next play Lithuania in a single elimination, do-or-die game. If they lose, their Olympics are over.

Click here for more photos from the game.

Click here for the game story. Click here for the boxscore.

Unbelievably, the much anticipated attempt by Chinese 110 meter hurdler Liu Xiang to repeat as a gold medal winner ended unexpectedly a short while ago because of a strained Achilles heel. Obviously, the Bird’s Nest is in shock. See the stories and photos here.

Raymond has translated an interview done with Yao after their great win over Germany yesterday. Here it is. Thanks, Raymond!

The Chinese won their biggest game in basketball history Saturday, beating Germany 59-55 to advance to the semifinal round of the Olympics. As the host country, that was their goal heading into the Games, and they accomplished it despite doubts they could get out of the “Group of Death” that includes the USA, Spain, Greece and Germany.

(Click here for more photos from the game)

The pressure was immense leading up to the game because if China had lost, they most likely wouldn’t have advanced, and the Olympics for them would have been considered a failure.

“It was difficult psychologically for us,” said China coach Jonas Kazlauskas. “We were playing at home and we just cannot lose this game.”

The Beijing crowd did a fantastic job yelling and screaming for its team on every rebound, free throw, and anything positive its team did.

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I know some of you have been asking, so here it is:

If you aren’t in the U.S. and want to see the Olympics live on the Web, check out this article here.

Yao Ming had his best game since coming back from his injury, scoring 30 points on 10-of-11 shooting — both from the field and the free throw line — in an 85-68 victory over Angola.

Yao also was a force on the defensive end with 4 blocks, took care of the ball (only 1 turnover), dished 3 assists and had 7 rebounds.

(Click here for more photos from the game)

After the game, Donnie Nelson, an advisor for the Chinese team, said that Yao’s performance was due in part because Yao is finally rounding into shape.

He’s baaaaack!

China built an early 14-point lead in the second quarter, but then Angola made the adjustment to pressure the Chinese guards and play a zone defense. It worked as Angola cut the deficit to 2 points by halftime.

But China turned it back on in the second half and cruised to the victory. China’s 3-point shooting continues to work well for them, having hit 7-of-22 from behind the 3-point line.

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If you hadn’t heard, there is a big controversy going on about a photograph of each member of the Spanish basketball team pulling their eyes back to make them “slanted.” When I first heard about it, I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire and really wanted to think about if I should post it on this site.

But this morning when it became the top story presented on Yahoo’s home page, I felt I had to bring it up.

I won’t post the photo here, but you can check it out here along with an article.

Another article about it is here.

So what do you think?

Although it’s a couple of days old, what do you guys think about this article? Adam Wajnarowski of Yahoo! Sports says after these Olympics are over, Yao should be allowed to NOT have to play for China until the 2012 Olympics to avoid wear-and-tear on his body, and to help him reach his full potential.

No matter which side you’re on, you have to admit it’s a pretty good article.