Olympics: Parkhurst's smog blog

USA defender Michael Parkhurst, one of three senior members on the U.S. Olympic team, will be writing a blog for The Boston Globe during the Olympics. In his second post, he comments on the much talked about issue of air quality in Beijing and the surrounding areas.

There is no such thing as a bright blue day around here, although I did see a small patch for a bit yesterday. But for the most part it is just a gray haze. The visibility out into the distance from our hotel does not span more than a couple miles. So the smog is a reality. However, it's not something that will greatly affect us during the Games. It is one of the reasons we came China a week early and I think most of us, by now, have adapted to the heat, humidity and ... smog.

The U.S. Olympic team will take on Japan tomorrow morning at 5amET in their first match of the tournament in Tianjin. The match will be broadcast live on MSNBC, the NBC Olympic Soccer Channel and Universal HD.