Former Coug all-American Bernard Lagat will try to realize his dream tomorrow: Winning Olympic gold as an American
He'll compete in the 5,000-meter final tomorrow in one of the final events of these Beijing Olympics. He's the reigning world champion.
It probably will be the 33 year old's final chance at Olympic gold – and a major chance at redemption – after he became, as Steve Kelley called him, "one of the symbols for American failures at the Olympics' track and field competition" when he failed to make the finals in the 1,500 meters, an event he also was the reigning world champion in. This after missing out on gold in the 1,500 meter in 2000 (bronze) and 2004 (silver) while representing his native Kenya.
Now, I'd love to be able to tell you how to watch Lagat try and make history, but I really can't, thanks to NBC. He runs at 8:10 p.m. in Beijing, which is 5:10 a.m. PDT. As near as I can tell from NBC's convoluted and completely worthless online TV schedule, they're not going to carry the event at all, even on delay. If they were going to carry it, there's a chance it might be on Telemundo – yes, that Telemundo – live or on delay, and there's also a chance it might be on NBC's prime time coverage Saturday night between 6:00 and 11:30. So, if you want to sit and watch for five hours to try and catch it, good luck to you.
Your best bet it seems is to go to the gold medal winner in Olympic coverage – CBC. If you get any of their affiliates (CBUT in most of western Washington) you can try to catch it live, since they carry everything live. It also appears they're going to carry it on cbcsports.ca Channel 2, which I believe is an online broadcast. I couldn't figure out how to get it to work, but maybe you'll have better luck.
At any rate, if you're not familiar with Lagat's story, you should be. He became a naturalized American citizen in 2004, and sat out international competition for three years, per IAAF rules, before competing for the U.S. He's a walking, running version of the American dream.
And if you figure out a way to watch it, please, post it in the comments.