Inside Scoop

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Gateway to the Summer Games - Inside Scoop

Get the "Inside Scoop" about what it was like to be at the Olympic Games in Sydney.

During the Games, interested Olympic fans emailed veteran USA TODAY Olympic reporter, Karen Allen, with their questions about the Games, her job, the athletes, and more. Click here to browse all the questions and answers. To learn more about Karen, keep reading!

About Karen Allen
Olympic correspondent Karen Allen was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, and studied journalism at nearby University of Toledo. She started her professional career reporting high school athletics for a local Ohio paper and has been writing about sports ever since. After writing for a number of newspapers across the country she joined the USA TODAY staff at the daily's start-up in 1982. As a writer for USA TODAY she has had the opportunity to cover sports on several competitive levels including college athletics, professional basketball and major league baseball. Since the Sarajevo Games of 1984, Karen has been a mainstay on the news desk for both Winter and Summer Games. The Sydney Games marks her seventh stint as an Olympic reporter.

Q:	I was watching the volleyball game the other night and wondered why one player on each team wears a different colored jersey from the rest. Can you tell me why this is? Thank you for your time and expertise.
A:	The player with a different color jersey is called a libero. Basically, all that means is that the team can substitute that player in and out freely, while other substitutions are limited. That is a relatively new change. It came about at around the same time that they changed the side-out rule.
Q:	My granddaughter said she would like a picture of the front and back of the Olympic medals to see if she can find the mistake made during the making of the medals. I have searched the Internet for the story regarding this "mistake" and can't seem to locate the article or an up-close picture of the medals. Could you please direct me to the proper site or send me the article and picture? Thank you for your help!
A:	I haven't heard anything about a mistake, either, and I didn't find a story in a brief search. I believe the International Olympic Committee asked Sydney to change its original design because it didn't feel that the early design was traditional enough. But that's the only controversy I heard about the medals. The official Sydney Olympics site is http://www.olympics.com.... you might find something more there, and they should have the description, if not a picture, of the medal design.
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Inside Scoop Archive