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.

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.

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COMING UP

MEN’S MARATHON: Runners were dreading this one before the Games because of the heat, humidity and pollution in Beijing. But they have been pleasantly surprised. A couple of rainy days have made the conditions surprisingly mild. They hope it holds up for another 26.2 miles.

TRACK AND FIELD: The United States couldn’t get the baton all the way around the track in the sprint relays. But the U.S. men and women qualified safely for the 1,600-meter relays. It’s always one of the exciting final races.

BASKETBALL: The U.S. women, seeking their fourth consecutive gold medal, meet Australia for the gold medal. If you stay up until 11:30 PDT tonight, you can see the American men play for their first consecutive gold medal. In fairness, they did win three in a row before receiving a bronze medal at the Athens Games in 2004.