How to follow the Games: Confused? Who isn't? Trying to figure out what happened yesterday, what's happening today and what's happening tomorrow in Beijing has become an Olympic exercise in confusion. Here's a little help.

How to follow the Games: Confused? Who isn’t? Trying to figure out what happened yesterday, what’s happening today and what’s happening tomorrow in Beijing has become an Olympic exercise in confusion. Here’s a little help.

By Randy Harvey

Aug. 21, 2008 12 AM PT

When it’s 8 a.m. in Los Angeles . . .

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

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

TEAM SPORTS: Some sports, such as softball, women’s water polo and women’s soccer, are about to crown champions. The United States’ teams are in all three finals -- against Japan in softball, the Netherlands in water polo and Brazil in soccer.

TRACK AND FIELD: Jeremy Wariner tries to defend his 400-meter gold medal against LaShawn Merritt. Merritt upset Wariner in the U.S. trials but hasn’t beaten him since. They were the two fastest qualifiers in the semifinals.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: The United States, which hasn’t lost a game in the Olympics since 1992, faces Russia in the semifinals. Becky Hammon of the San Antonio WNBA team made a controversial decision to join Russia, where she plays professionally in the winter, after she wasn’t asked to join the U.S. team. She has averaged 13 points for the 5-1 Russians.

-- Randy Harvey