Beijing Olympics - Day Fourteen - Fumbling Relays; More Beach Gold for US

USA team members Todd Rogers, left, and Phil Dalhausser, second right, celebrate after recording match point during the men's beach volleyball gold medal match against Brazil at the Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Grounds. (Jerry Lai/US Presswire)

7:45 p.m. - What a shocker! A sprint between Jamaicans and Americans won by a Jamaican. Defending gold medalist Veronica Campbell-Brown beat American Allyson Felix in the women's 200-meters. 100-meter medalist Kerron Stewart won the bronze. Campbell-Brown missed the Jamaican 100-meter team by one place, but focused her energy brilliantly on the 200-meters running a personal best 21.74 to beat Felix by 0.19 seconds. Felix had dominated the rivalry since Campbell-Brown beat her in the 2004 Olympics, but Jamaican mojo in Beijing sprints along with Campbell-Brown's great start and powerful running style added another gold medal to their haul, mon.

Jamaican mojo had an indirect effect on the men's 400-meter relay as the US team dropped the baton on the final pass in the first semifinal. Darvis Patton couldn't deliver the stick to Tyson Gay. Jamaica runs in the second semi. Jamaica wins easily despite making some very conservative passes. Usain Bolt didn't run in the semi, but will run in the final in pursuit of his third gold medal.

US women in 400-meter relay. In 2004, US was DQ'd for passing out of the zone. Same outcome for US women -- dropped baton on last pass. Unbelievable! US had a nice lead until Tori Edwards and Lauren Williams messed up the exchange. Williams ascribes problem to "voodoo dolls." Belgium won the heat. Jamaica runs in the next semi.

Amazing team for Jamaican women. Three 100-meter medal winners plus Veronica Campbell-Brown. Two non-medal winners are Brooks and Bailey in second and third places for the semi. Won by 0.63 seconds.

Now women's 10-meter platform diving. US hope is Laura Wilkinson, but event is dominated by Chinese women. She gets 72 points. Canadian diver does high difficulty dive on first round. Scores 83 points. Goes into first. Wang of China gets 79.5. 15-year-old Chen is next. Started diving at age 4. Another amazing entry. 85.5 points. Takes over first. All 9s with a couple of tens.

Big splash on next Wilkinson drive. Entered water at 45 degrees. Medal-killer. 43 points. Very nice dive by Canadian Heymans 86 points. Holds second. Chen gets 85, but holds first. Chen and Heymans within one point overall. Chen has harder dives left with more scoring potential.

Another bad entry for Wilkinson. Messes up a dive that he scored 10 on in Olympic trials. Only 46 points.

Heymans next. 3.3 degree of difficulty. Very good dive. 84 points. Back to first, but Chen to follow. Wang now. Great dive. 86 points. 3.2 for Chen. Looked just like Wang--maybe better. 88 points. One mark of 10.0. Chen up by 4.5 points going into fourth dive of six.

95 points for Heymans on next dive. Highest of meet. Wang gets 89. Looking good for a medal. Chen gets 89, but trails Heymans by almost 2 points after four dives. Wang alone in third, 40 points ahead of fourth.

Wilkinson finishes her career strong with 87 points. Heymans nails a 3.2 dive for 88 points. Maybe not enough. Awesome dive by Wang. But not far enough from platform on the jump. 90 points. Wins bronze. Heymans guaranteed silver. Pressure dive on Chen. 3.4 dive. Has gotten 10s on this dive. Looks like gold medal dive. Gets 100 points. Four 10s. Rocks the dive. 15-years old. Amazing. Phelpsian!

Yikes, another track event. Men's 400-meter final. Jeremy Wariner is US hopeful. 2004 gold medalist. LaShawn Merritt is another American. David Neville is third American. No Jamaicans. No batons to pass. No hurdles to jump. False start on Rooney from GB. Merritt wins easily. Time of 43.75. Wariner well behind in second. Neville dives for bronze. Great time. Fifth fastest of all time. Wins by 0.99 second.

Oh no. Short race with hurdles. Could be in US jinx zone. 100-meter hurdles. Chinese superstar and reigning gold medalist Liu Xiang withdrew in prelims with an injured Achilles tendon. Cuban Dayron Robles holds world record. Probably the favorite. David Oliver is US hope. At least one Jamaican in the race. I'm betting on him. David Payne also from US.

Here we go. Robles rules. US second and third. 12.93. Wins by 0.24 over Payne. Close to world record. May have let up at end. Good performances by US runners.

"The Dragon of Dirt" is the course for BMX riders. Race is the supercross. This is women's final. Big crash at beginning. More crashes. Another wreck. France wins gold and silver. US bronze. Three riders out of eight crashed.

Men's BMX supercross next. Three out in one wreck. Latvia's Maris Strombergs wins gold! US silver and bronze. Big wreck made up for lost time. No wrecks until more than halfway through.

Sunny day for men's beach volleyball. US vs. Brazil. Rogers and Dalhausser vs Marcio and Fabio Luiz. Brazil won bronze with Ricardo and Emanuel. Bunt by Marcio for first point. 1-0, Brazil. Good rally. Brazil serve wide. 1-1. Dalhausser serves long. 2-1, Brazil. Stuff block by Brazil. 3-1. Error by Rogers. 4-1 Brazil. Dalhausser hits out. 5-1. Fabio blocks Rogers 6-1. Rogers wins pushing battle. 6-2. Kill by Brazil. 7-2. Finally a US kill 7-3. Kill by Fabio. 8-3. Bad return by US and Brazilian kill 9-3. Rogers kills 9-4. Fabio in net. 9-5. Change sides. Dalhausser stuff block. 9-6. Good bunt by Marcio. 10-6. Rogers kills 10-7. Four out of five for US. Great dig and kill by Rogers 10-8. Dalhausser stuff block. 10-9. Brazil calls time.

Another block by Dalhausser. 10-10. Dalhausser blocks out. 11-10, Brazil. Technical timeout. Rogers bunts. 11-11. Fabio kill 12-11. US thinks its a bad hit. Rogers kill 12-12. Fabio kills 13-12 Brazil. Good bunt by Rogers. 13-13. Fabio kills. 14-13. Brazil error 14-14. Marcio hits off top of block. 15-14. Great rescue by Fabio. Easy kill by Rogers 15-all. Big kill by Fabio. 16-15. Brazil hits long. 16-16. Maybe a touch by US. Delay of game warning against Brazil for arguing. Kill by Marcio. 17-16. Great game by Brazilians. Hanging in great. Drop shot by Rogers. 17-17. Dalhausser kills. His first. 18-17 US. First lead of match. Rogers serves wide. 18-all. Rogers over top. 19-18 US. Soft shot. Rogers outjumping Fabio despite 6" height disadvantage. Big hit by Fabio. 19-19. Rogers kill. Set point. 20-19. Fabio kills to tie at 20. Dalhausser kill. 21-20. Second US set point. Nice bunt by Fabio. 21-21. Rogers down the line 22-21. Fabio hits into net. US wins first set 23-21. Whew! One of few errors for Brazil.

Brazil leads 7-5 after ballhandling error by Rogers. Rescue by Brazil fails. 7-6. Great get by Rogers. Now 9-8 US. Serve long by Dalhausser. 9-9. Pretty placement by Rogers. 10-9. Dalhausser roofs Fabio. 11-9. Blocked with elbow. Kill off Dalhausser's head and OB. 11-10. Rogers kill bounces into stands. 12-10. Bad return by Brazil. Easy kill for Dalhausser. 13-10. Fabio kills off Dalhausser block. 13-11. Ace serve hits back line. 13-12. Another ace. 13-13. Both went for that one, but unsuccessfully. Good bunt by Marcio. Now up 14-13. Just when things looked bleak for Brazil, they run off four straight. Bad receive. Rescued and killed. 14-14. Kill by Brazil. Bounces off Rogers and OB. 14-15. Dalhausser just hits line. 15-15. Line is inbounds. Fabio kill. 16-15. 17th kill for Fabio. Fabio blocks Rogers. 17-15 Brazil. Dalhausser error. Spikes into net. 15-18. 8 of last 10 for Brazil. Rogers kills 16-18. Fabio kill off Dalhausser. 16-19. Marcio off Dalhausser. 16-20. Four set points for Brazil. Easy kill for Rogers. 20-17. Second set point for Brazil. Dalhausser nets serve. 21-17 Brazil. One set all.

Third set is to 15. First two points to US. 2-0. Dalhausser blocks. 3-0. Fabio cut shot. 3-1. Marcio hits lefty shot into net after hot rally. Great dig by Dalhausser. 4-1. Mishandle by Marcio. 5-1. Ball very sweaty. Dalhausser block. 6-1. Timeout.

US came back from this kind of deficit against Switzerland. Another Dalhausser block of Fabio. 7-1. Same play. 8-1. One more time. 9-1. Time for Brazil to try something different. Great dig by Rogers but couldn't quite finish. 9-2. Marcio serves into net. 10-2. Fabio hits long 11-2. Fabio kill. Dig OB. 11-3. Rogers bunts in front of Brazil. 12-3. Block OB by Dalhausser. 12-4. Serve out off net. 13-4. Fabio hits wide. 14-4. More match points than needed. Stuff block by Dalhausser wins gold medal for US. Amazing last set by Dalhausser. At least six points on blocks.

Just what I need. More late night volleyball. US and Russian men meet in a semifinal match. US wins first set; Russia leads second 20-18. Stuff block by US 20-19. Now 22-21 US after a kill. Russian timeout. US goes on to win second set 25-21. Russia had a 16-13 lead in that set.

Set three now tied at 6. Russian kill makes it 7-6. US kill ties game at 7. US uses push shot to go around the block. Service error. 8-7 Russia. Per analyst, Russia depends on big serves to get points. US plays more scrambling style.

Russia ruling third set. Now leads 19-15. US misses line with spike. 20-15. Biggest lead for Russia. US kill. 20-16. Russia has beaten US nine straight times leading up to this match. Russia kill. 21-16. US kill by Stanley, his ninth to go along with six aces. 21-17. Another kill high off block. 21-18. Russian kills bounces out of court. 22-18. US kill 22-19. Fabulous back set by Russia. 23-19. Blocked out. 23-20. Russia hits out. 23-21. Russia timeout.

Nervewracking for Russia. US needs serve in. Big kill by Russia. 24-21. Set point. Kill off Russia blocker and OB. 24-22. Set point two. Stuff block by US. 24-23. US making them work. Stanley stuff block. Tied at 24! Russian kill. 25-24. Fourth set point. Bunt to floor by US. 25-25. Russian kill off block. 26-25. Fifth set point. Russian stuff wins third set. 25-27.

US still up two sets to one. Russia up 4-2 in fourth game. Tricky kill by US. 3-4. Russian kill to floor. 3-5. Russia touches US spike on way out. 4-5. Now 5-5. Middle kill by US. 6-5. Kill from front middle. 6-6. Receiving error by US. 6-7. Russians run into each other. 7-7. Serve long by US. 7-8.

US serves out again. 9-10. US kill. 10-10. Russian kill off US block attempt. 10-11. Good push by Russia. 10-12. US kill 11-12. US serve into net. 11-13. Millar stuff block for US. 12-13. Russian kill. 12-14. US push. 13-14. Russia crushes a kill. 13-15. Good read by Russia. US ball out. 13-16. US error. Technical timeout.

Stanley kills. 14-16. US serve into net. 14-17. Too many service errors for US. Russia gives it back. 15-17. No touch per ref. 15-18. Replay shows otherwise. Millar kills. 16-18. Stanley serve out 16-19. Great set and kill by Millar. 17-19. Russian kill. 17-20. Serve into net. 18-20. Russian leftside kill by Russia. 18-21. Russia in net 19-21. Mikhalov kills for Russia. 19-22. He is tough. Serve way out. 20-22. Block just out. 20-23. US kill 21-23. Mikhalov too good. 21-24. Easy kill for Millar. 22-24. Two set points left. Russian kill takes set four. 25-22.

15 point tiebreaker next. 2-1 US. Millar breaks through. 3-1. Great point. Blocked out. 3-2. Mikhalov over line. 4-2. Stuff block. 5-2. Block out. 5-3. Can't stop Mikhalov. 27 kills by Mikhalov. Priddy kill 6-3. Volkov kill 6-4. Return bounces over net. Killed by Russia. 6-5. Timeout. Volkov serves long. 7-5. Priddy just misses wide. 7-6. Stuff block by Russia. 7-7. Salmon kills. 8-7. Change sides. Russia kill. 8-8. Salmon backline kill. 9-8. Stanley serves long. 9-9. Lucky point for US. Russians misplay. Hit into net. 10-9. Serve into net. 10-10. Russian ace. 10-11.

Lost some stuff there. US was down 11-12. David Lee had great stuff block. Russian setter seemed to throw a ball. No call. Lee kills for US. 14-13. Match point US. Timeout Russia. Priddy serves. Lee stuffs! US wins! 15-13. Great comeback in last few points. David Lee is team hero. First US gold medal game since 1988. Fabulous outcome for US team and coach, Hugh McCutcheon, whose father-in-law was killed in an attack just after the Olympics opening ceremony.

More Photos from Beijing

For more photos from the Beijing Olympics, check out my photofriend Alain's photoblog at http://www.photoblog.com/ofwordsandphotos/2008/08/20/

Alain is an excellent photographer and he and his friends are having a great time at the Olympics.

Beijing Olympics - Day Thirteen - May/Walsh Golden; Inside Volleyballers Advance to Gold Medal Game

10:55 p.m. - Sorry for the skimpy coverage. Busy day of medical appointments and meals out. The US men carried on and beat Australia 116-85 and will face Argentina in a semifinal basketball game.

We got back just in time to see two very happy women in a rainstorm - Misty May-Trainor and Kerri Walsh - celebrating their gold medal in women's beach volleyball. They beat a Chinese team in straight sets. Winners of 107 straight matches and prohibitive gold medal favorite, the pair did everything expected of them. At the end they hugged everyone in sight and expressed both joy and relief at the victory and possible end of their careers. Both women are recently married and ready to start families. As Walsh said to the interviewer, "you can't imagine how much I want a baby." They joked about needing to start the next generation of beach volleyball champions. The relief no doubt arose from the concern about a crushing upset that would spoil the end of their fabulous careers. And in a bittersweet moment, May-Trainor scattered a small vial of her mother's ashes on the sand, as she did in Athens when the team won their first gold medal in 2004. Overall, a long-running story with the happiest of endings.

Midnight - I'm very happy that NBC is covering live the women's volleyball game between the US and Cuba. This is a semifinal game. Cuba whipped the US in pool play, but US is doing well tonite, winning the first set by 25-20. Set two is tied 4-4. Nice dig by US results in a kill by Logan Tom. 5-4 US. Hitting error by Cuba. 6-4. Over the net on Cuba. 7-4. Ace by Scott-Ahudda. 8-4. Technical timeout.

Now 10-6 after great dig by Logan Tom. Now Cuba timeout. Cuba kills makes score 12-7 US. Service error by Santos. 13-7. Lift by Cuba. 14-7. Cuba stuff. 14-8. Logan Tom is tournament's top scorer. Very versatile player--aces, kills and stuff blocks are added together as points. Tom has 97. Cuba kill. Now 15-9. Cuba stuff block. 15-10. Service error. 16-10. Too many errors by Cuba. Timeout. Cuba's fifth straight trip to Olympic semis.

Now US up 18-12 after commercial. Cuba hits out. 19-13. Errors are 19-2 in "favor" of Cuba. Stuff block by Tom. 20-13. Big kill by Santos. 20-14. Kill by Tom. 21-14. Timeout. Tom serving. Cuba hits into antenna. 22-14. Set two close at hand. Willoughby kills. 23-14. Cuba kills 23-15. Tom kills from backline. 24-14. Ten set points. Cuba kill. 24-15. Willoughby kill takes set two. 25-15.

Set three. Expect more focused effort by Cuba with their backs to the wall. US has to stay strong and avoid errors. US receiving serve at 86%.

Cuba starts with service error. 1-0, US. Big hit by Cuba. 1-1. Bad reception by US, but Cuba hits long. 2-1. Stuff block by Tom. 3-1. Easy kill by Cuba. 3-2. Tom/Bown block. 4-2. Cuba kill 4-3. Bown kills. 5-3. Ace for Tom. 6-3. Cuba timeout.

Analysts wondering if Cuba was ready for morning match. Most other matches played at night. Cuba kill off head of Bown. 6-4. Glass kills cross court. 7-4. Corner kill by Cuba. 7-5. Glass from left side. 8-5. Technical timeout.

Upset in making. Cuba was undefeated in pool play. Now 11-7 US. Scott-Ahudda ace. 12-7. Brazil and China in other semi. Brazil is world #1. Calderon kill for Cuba. 12-8. Ruiz makes it 12-9. Ace by Cuba. 12-10. US timeout. Match about where Cuba was against China. China was up two sets and 15-11. Blocked out by Cuba. 13-10. Santos kill. 13-11. Cuba warming to task. Serve long by Cuba. 14-11. 25th error by Cuba. Receiving error. US kill at net. 15-11. US serves long. 15-12. Rare US error. Santos serves into net. 16-12. Technical timeout.

US up 18-14 coming back from commercial. US kill. 19-14. Cuba kill 19-15. Service error by Cuba. 20-15. Good set. Haneef-Park buries it. 21-15. Tallest US player.

Goal within sight now. US hits out. 21-16. Tom passes. Haneef-Park kills. 22-16. US in net. 22-17. Too bad. Spike was out. Could see net call on replay. Willoughby kills after long rally. 23-17. Tom serving. Willoughby kills. Blocked long. 24-17. Seven match points. Tom serving. Best rally of match. Willoughby ends it with a kill from right side. 25-17 and three game sweep. Best game of tourney by far for US. Might be hard to US to get back to that level for gold medal game on Saturday. First trip to volleyball final for US women since 1984.



7:30 a.m. - Despite the late night I still had to get up early to eat and watch the US-Australia men's basketball game. So far Australia has been worthy of respect, trailing 41-32 with 5 minutes to go in the second quarter. Now 41-36. Aussies shooting over 50%. US getting many more offensive rebounds. James makes basket; misses free throw. Anthony rebounds and gets fouled. Now 45-36. Aussies shoot threes well and can catch up in a hurry. Newley makes two free throws for Australia 45-38. Kobe makes circus shot and gets fouled. Misses free throw. 9-18 from line for US. Aussie makes field goal. 47-40. Long three misses. Aussie misses early putback. Prince misses first free throw. Makes second. 48-40. Lebron drive the middle. 50-40. Newley hits three. 50-43. Kobe misses. Mills misses three for Australia. Rebound OB. Deron Williams misses three. 2 for 12 from long range. James misses on drive. Acrobatic rebound and putback by Bryant. 52-43. Williams hits three at the buzzer. 55-43.

Lithuania and Spain will play in other semifinal. Winner of US-Australia will play winner of Argentina and Greece.

US opens second half with threes by Bryant and Anthony. Lead now 61-43. Bryant drives and gets fouled. Great hustle by James to save a loose ball. Bryant makes one of two. 62-43. Twelve in a row for US. Kidd makes layup. 64-43. Great one-on-one move by Bryant. Makes layup and goes to line. 66-43. Timeout Australia.

Kobe misses free throw. US rebounds. Air ball by Australia. Kobe hits three. 69-43. Gotta go.

US women's softball beat Japan in 9 innings. Will play Japan again for gold medal. Japan beat Australia in 12 innings to get into gold medal game.

Beijing Olympics - Day Twelve - Steiner and Shawn Both Golden

8:00 p.m. - Men's soccer on MSNBC; women's basketball on USA. US beats South Korea 104-60. Korea with no answer for Sylvia Fowles. She scores 26 and pulls down 14 rebounds. US plays Russia in semifinals. China vs. Australia in other semi. Winners play for gold; losers play for bronze.

Men's soccer match is between Brazil and Argentina - global heavyweights in semifinal. Winner plays Nigeria for gold medal. No score after 30 minutes of play. Argentina has free kick. Blocked by Brazil.

Back to USA for men's 2-man canoe. This looks like very hard work. Appears to be a pure sprint. 500-meter heat. Photo finish between Russia and China. China wins, but Russia and others advance.

Now the men's triathlon. No heats in this one. Swim 1.5 km; bike 40 km; run 10km. Winning time will be under 2 hours. Swimming takes place in a reservoir. Swimmers pass first turn buoy at 600 meters. New Zealander in first. Entire field around the buoy.

First guy gets out of the water at 17:50. Shane Reed of New Zealand. Bike ride should take almost an hour. Remarkable how tight the pack is after that long swim. Two bikers trying to break away, but not very far ahead. One of the US competitors goes to the wrong bike, but corrects himself - still lost a couple of seconds. Pack caught up to breakaway riders.

Competitors are well marked. Along with the decal on their helmets, they have their number inked on both upper arms and both thighs.

Another breakaway attempt accomplishes nothing. Almost the whole field is within a few seconds in the bicycling pack. Analyst says that drafting in the pack saves up to 20% of energy.

Alistair Brownlee of Great Britain is latest breakaway rider. Has a slight lead. Now a new leader. No one really trying to break lose from the field. A small group of about eight riders is lagging.

Now a group of three leads the way - Mexico, Belgium and Luxembourg are ahead by about 25 seconds. Still almost two laps of six left on the bike. Front group not rotating the lead very often. Analyst says they should rotate more often.

Two brothers racing - Shane Reed for New Zealand; Matthew Reed for US. Lead pack now has 35 second lead. Analyst says they need two minutes. Haven't seen the triathlon god Javier Gomez of Spain. Buried in chase group, but apparently he is the best runner in the field. Conceivable he could be more than 35 seconds ahead of the lead bikers.

Front group now out by 45 seconds. Race is in last lap of biking. Mexico fallen away from the lead pack a little. Just Luxembourg and Belgium in front. Analyst mentions need to create a little space for the transition to running. Having 30 or 40 bikers show up at once can get very hectic. Five or ten seconds can make a lot of difference.

First two are now running. Have 1:16 lead. Luxembourg in lead. Belgium second. Now the main group comes in about 55 seconds behind. Hunter Kemper of US and Brownlee are in front of big chase pack. Gomez in view. Moving up in chase pack. Belgium on heels of Luxembourg.

Belgium on top now. First lap about over. Analyst says that big guys are disadvantaged in the heat. Leaders now only 20 seconds ahead. Lead guys probably won't hold on at this rate. Brownlee and two Spaniards (Rana and Gomez) are in front of chase pack. Runners stretched out now. Looks like early leaders won't lead by end of second lap. Gomez moving up. Pack has caught leaders. Henning of Denmark and Brownlee in the lead. Early leaders dropped back quickly. Gomez and Rana are third and fourth.

Lead pack of nine runners now lead by Rana and Gomez. Brownlee third. Rana looks very smooth. Run about halfway over. Docherty of New Zealand now among the leaders. These four running together. Frodeno of Germany now joins group. Whitfield of Canada close behind. Lead group now numbers six. Brownlee in front. Analyst says that Gomez needs to get a lead because he's not a strong sprinter. Gomez now in lead. Frodeno second. Brownlee dropped from lead pack. Rana might be losing touch. One lap to go. 1:41. Whitfield won gold in 2000. Analyst seems to like Docherty. Whitfield has strong finishing kick. Gomez picking up pace.

Had a phone call - race finished in meantime - surprising gold medal winner was Jan Frodeno of Germany in a powerful sprint. Whitfield sprinted first then held on for silver. Docherty won bronze as Gomez fell back for fourth.

Argentina and Nigeria will play for gold in soccer.

Men's superheavyweight weightlifting next. MSNBC has this one. Latvian Scerbatish snatches 206 kg. Ukrainian Udachyn going for 207 kg. He's got it. Amazing. Steiner of Germany going for 207 kg. Competition combines snatch and clean and jerk. Scary. Bar tried to land on his head, but he got out of the way just in time. Chigishev of Russia going for 210 kg. Huge effort. He gets it airborne. Leader going into clean and jerk. 210 kg is 462 lb. I wish they'd relate this to an appliance.

Clean and jerk involves taking weight to chest/shoulders ("clean") and jerking it above head. Udachyn missed his third attempt. Latvian going for 242 kg. Cleans easily. Jerk OK. Total 448 kg. Udachyn drops to third. Steiner next. 246 kg (541 lb). Had it overhead for quite awhile. Couldn't get feet under control, a requirement for a completed lift. Almost threw it off the lifting platform.

Chigeshev going for 247 kg. Already the leader based on previous lift. Now destroying the competition. 8 kg ahead. Steiner missed 246 kg. Going for 248 kg. Silver medal lift. One excited German. Now in second. Still 6 kg behind the Russian. Chigeshev gets 250 kg. Scerbatihs going for amazing 257 kg. Cleaned well. Couldn't jerk. Still in third. Steiner going for 258 kg and gold. Gets the clean. And the jerk. Unbelievable! 258 kg. Going completely nuts. Total 461 kg. Gold medal for Germany's Matthias Steiner. Lost wife in car accident in 2007. One of most emotional victory outbursts. Steiner an early candidate for Tuesday Phelps Award along with countrymen triathlete Jan Frodeno.

China vs. Russia in quarterfinal women's volleyball. Rematch of 2004 gold medal match, won by China. Russia leads 9-7 in first set.

Had to do a little printing work there. China rallied to win the first set. Russia was set up to even the match, leading 24-22 in the second set before collapsing to lose 26-24. Russian women are among the tallest I've ever seen, even on US basketball team. They have two that are at least 6'8" -- mostly legs. Better teamwork, discipline and athleticism seem to be the margin for China. Russia is coached by an Italian--he has a translator to talk to his team. His predecessor, "the howling bear", yelled directly at them in Russian. Might make a difference. Russia up 16-14 in third set. Stuff block by China. 16-15. Another stuff block. Tied at 16. Russian kill from backline. 17-16 Russia. China kill by Wang Y.M. Tied at 17. Hit out by Russia. Had 13 errors in second set. China 18-17. Hit into net. 19-17.

Russia self-destruction continues. Now 24-19. Stuff block by China. They win 25-19 and 3-0. Sad match for Russia. Analyst calling for Russian coach to get pink slip.

Women's water polo semifinal next. Hungary vs. The Netherlands. Dutch are surprise team of tournament. Winner plays US for gold. Scored tied 2-2 in 2nd quarter.

Now in 4th quarter with just 2 minutes left. Netherlands holding on 8-7. Netherlands went only 1-2 in pool play, then upset Italy in quarterfinals. Used to dominate women's water polo but have slumped in last two Olympics. 1:30 left. Netherlands possession. Hungary undefeated coming in. Shot clock turnover to Hungary. 1 minute left. Good defense by Netherlands. No shot for Hungary. Foul against Hungary. Power play Hungary with just 22 seconds left. Strange ending. No defense by Hungary. Netherlands wins! Will play US in final on Thursday. Netherlands didn't qualify for Athens Olympics.

Pool round baseball between US and Taiwan (Chinese Taipei in Beijing-speak). No score in 4th inning. US batting in home half. Do you ever tire of my "Who is John Gall?" line. He flies out to right. Two outs. Lou Marson singles to right. Injured Yankee starter Chien-Ming Wang is from Taiwan. Marson is Phillies farmhand--a catcher. Could see some time with big club after Olympics with Ruiz struggling and Coste at age 33. Fly ball to center by next batter. US is 3-2 in pool play. Two games left--one each vs. Taiwan and Japan.

Taiwan leadoff hitter doubles into left field corner. Only second hit allowed by US pitcher. Good bunt moves runner to third. #9 hitter in RBI position. Grounder gets thru glove of 1B Matt Brown. Playing in. Couldn't make the play. Taiwan leads 1-0. Runner reaches first. US gets out without further damage. One run strategy works out for Taiwan.

Today's Marketing Question - whom do you like more (or dislike less), the Geiko caveman or gecko? I'm a gecko guy.

Triple off the right field wall for Dexter Fowler. Makes third easily despite admiring the shot for a couple of steps. US win gets them to the semifinal round. South Korea, Cuba and Japan already in. Barden plugs ball at base of right center field wall. Ties game at 1. He gets a double. Pitching change for Taiwan. Hsu out.

No pitching change. Defensive change. Announcers still trying to figure out who. Disadvantage of broadcasting from a remote studio. Fly to center. No advance. Strong throw to third. 1B Matt Brown next. Check swing strike out. DH Terry Tiffee next. Hitting .500. Taiwan down one player due to suspension for use of fertility drug. US has two injured subs. Backup catcher only non-pitcher on the bench. Tiffee walks on four pitches. US on 2nd and 1st with two outs.

Mike Hessman next. The living Crash Davis. 286 lifetime minor league home runs. Skied to center. Three outs. Tied 1-1 after five innings.

Man on second (double) and one out for Taiwan. Grounder to third. Runner holds. Two out. Single to right. Runner thrown out at plate by RF Schiurholz (sp?). Perfect throw.

Who is John Gall? Hitter of leadoff home run that gives US 2-1 lead in the home sixth. Pitcher gets careful and walks the next batter.

New pitcher. Sac bunt moves Marson to second. Fowler up next. Slice double down the line. Marson scores. 3-1 US. Fowler not running as hard as he could, but still made second. Barden strikes out. Third out on a grounder.

Leadoff hitter for Taiwan, Lin, homers to deep left. 3-2. Grounder to first. One out. Brandon Knight replaced as US pitcher. Mike Koplove in to pitch. A former Delaware Blue Hen. Good research team for these announcers as they name another half-dozen major leaguers from Delaware. Gets an out. Comebacker for third out. Nice job by Koplove.

Taiwan only 1-4 in Olympics. Lost even to China. Called strike three at knees on Mike Brown. One out for US in 7th. Tiffee grounds to short. Two outs. Called strike three on Hessman. US up 3-2 going into top of 8th.

US won gold medal in 2000. Didn't qualify for 2004 Olympics. Fowler tracks down a drive in right center. One out. Grounder to second. Two outs. Ben Sheets and Roy Oswalt led 2000 Olympians. o-2 to next batter. Now 2-2. Swinging strike out. Koplove retires all five batters he faces.

Gall doubles over the rightfielder's head. Marson up now. Swing favors current Phillies catcher Chris Coste. Count 2-2. Swings behind a pitch. One out. Trying to hit to right.

127 km per hour sounds fast, but is only 79 mph. Pitcher moves the ball around well. Donald singles to right. Gall scores. 4-2. Great piece of hitting and important run. Fowler next. Single, double, triple so far. New pitcher.

Next pitcher throws much harder - 147 km/hr. Donald steals second on strike two. Count 3 and 2 to Fowler. Missed low. Walk. Runners on first and second. Barden next. 1 and 2 count. Big fastball and big swing. Barden fans for fourth time. Did have an RBI double. Schierholtz next. Pop lands foul down left side. Swing and miss. Ends inning. One for US makes score 4-2. US needs three outs to get to medal round (without Taiwan scoring at least two runs).

Kevin Jepsen on for ninth inning. 154 kph on first pitch. Throws it past the batter. 0 and 2. Swing for strike three. Pitches in Angels organization. 23-years old. Looks like a great prospect. 0 and 2 to next batter. One hopper to third. Two outs. Lin up next. Has 2B and HR. Strike one. Maybe a different Lin. This guy is the SS. Other Lin was DH. Obviously, I'm not keeping a scorecard. Breaking ball low. After eight straight fast strikes. Fastball outside. 2 and 2. Fouled off to stands in right. Grounder to second. Game over. US wins 4-2! Joins Japan, Cuba and South Korea in semifinals.

3:15 a.m. Staying up far too late after an 8 hour car trip from Baton Rouge to Houston, but it's worth it to see Shawn Johnson win the gold medal in the balance beam final. Nastia Liukin finished second. Both routines were essentially flawless, Liukin's perhaps a little moreso, but Johnson's had higher difficulty, winning her the gold medal by 0.2.

On the track the results were more disappointing for favored American women. 400-meter favorite Sanya Richards cramped at the top of the stretch and finished third. 100-meter high hurdle favorite Lolo Jones was leading the race when she hit the ninth hurdle and finished seventh. Her postrace interview was gracious--she admitted that she messes up about twice a year, unfortunately one mess up in 2008 was in the Olympic final. Jones expected place at the top of the podium was taken by fellow American Dawn Harper, who couldn't quite believe the standings when she looked up at the scoreboard. She ran hard and took to heart her idol, Jackie Joyner-Kersee's, advice that anything can happen in one race.

Beijing Olympics - Day Eleven (And Tape from Day Ten)

Shelly-Ann Fraser of Jamaica won the women's 100-meter sprint, giving Jamaica a sweep of the men's and women's 100-meter races. Picture: Phil Hillyard

7:30 p.m. - Usain Bolt is back in a men's 200-meter quarterfinal. This was Michael Johnson's event--the runner that Bolt most reminds me of. Bolt cruises to 20.29 victory. World record is 19.32 by Johnson. Literally no sweat. USA's Shawn Crawford finished second and qualified for semifinals.

Thanks, readers! If you Google "phelps best olympic performance award", my post on the "Michael Phelps Award For Best Performance By An Athlete Not Named Michael Phelps" appears third on the front page out of 88,800 hits. Not surprisingly, the rest of the page is occupied by information about awards won by Phelps--most notably an ESPY for Best Olympic Performance (perhaps a nomination, this show was on TV shortly before the Olympics, or perhaps a special award that assumes that no one will win more than eight gold medals in Beijing.)

Walter Dix now in 200-meter quarterfinal. His sixth race (four 100-meters and second in 200-meters). Dix started strong. Finishes second. Winning time for Zimbabwean was 20.23.

Third US runner in next quarterfinal, Wallace Spearmon. Irishman wins. Spearman closes fast to finish second. Holds chain in his mouth for the entire trip.

Dadlak News Item - Anheuser-Busch is apparently working on having "This Is Budweiser" designated as the National Beer Anthem. Chevrolet failed in similar attempt to have John Mellencamp "This Is Our Country" designated as the National Car Anthem.

Women's pole vault is next. We're watching a feature about Russian superstar Elena Isinbaeva. She's taking a nap now while they move the bar up to a height that challenges her.

Stephanie Brown-Trafton of the US wins gold in the women's discus. Uncorked a big throw on her first try. 212' 5". No one could do better. First American winner of the event since 1932.

Can it be? More women's beach volleyball. Women's heroes Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh are featured in a semifinal match. Opponents are from Talita and Renata from Brazil. Winner advances to gold medal match. One-year anniversary of May/Walsh's last loss. "Phelpsian" Score is 1-1. Hot start for US 4-1. Great rescue by May. US leads 12-6. Great hustle by May and great teamwork. Stuff block by Walsh. 14-6. Total domination so far. 15-6 at time out. Now 18-9. Now 18-10. Block by Brazil. Brazil in net. 19-10. Good cut by Talita. 19-11. Walsh kills. 20-11. Many set points. Serve short by Walsh. 20-12. May kills. US wins game. Second set almost the same. US in finals.

Women's trampoline next. China's He Wenna does fabulous performance to take gold. Textbook work. High, straight, spins and twists. Canada second.

Men's still rings. Bulgarian Jordan Joechtel has two problems. Won't medal. Ukrainian Vorobiov does very fine routine. Gets 16.325. Lots of power behind him. Yang Wei next. Gets 16.425 despite looking a little shakier than Vorobiov. Rodrigues from France. Excellent work until dismount. Does back layout. 16.225. Third place. Danger spot with top Chinese gymnast still to come.

Women's uneven bars - Liukin is only US qualifier. Ms. Liukin is in the stands. He Kexin of China gets 16.725. Took step on landing. One other weak point per Daggett. Liukin next. Great landing. Small errors per Daggett. 16.725. Tiebreaker working on the problem. He placed first. Ukraine drops off top bar. 14.875. Nistor of Romania next. Good exercise. Bronze at best. 15.575. Koval from Ukraine. 16.375. Possible bronze medal. Yang Yilin. Fabulous exercise. Close to gold. We'll see. 16.65. Bronze medal. Two left, but unlikely to challenge. Tweddle from Great Britain. 16.625. Outside of medal. Semenova 16.325.



7:40 a.m. - Sanya Richards is lone US qualifier in women's 400-meter final race. Both US and Jamaica have three women in 100-meter final. Now back to men's gymnastics. Yang Wei gets 15.45 on pommel horse. Sasha Artemev is best US hope in this event. Xiao Qin gets 15.875. Now Artemev. Was going great. Then fell off. Back on the horse. Finishes beautifully, but no medal for Artemev. Gets 14.975. British gymnast Louis Simth goes last. Two leg deductions. Very hard dismount. 15.725 - silver medal likely. Ude from Croatia. Great routine. 15.725. Ties for silver. No medal for Yang Wei. Gold medal for Xiao Qin.

My family explained the Chevy crossover commercial to me. It features a guy with no shirt ironing clothes and scrubbing a toilet, with a cutaway to Chevy's new crossover in the middle. The ad is aimed at women, telling them that Chevy's vehicle is as great as having a hunky guy who likes to do housework.

Women's floor exercise next. Liukin and Johnson competing for US. Johnson starts. Great routine. No one lands like her. One extra step on a one landing. 15.50. Very close to her all-around score. Kramarenko from Russia - 15.025. Jiang Yuyuan of China next. Very strong - five tumbling runs. Chinese fans love her. 15.35. Good for second. Dos Santos from Brazil. Bounced out of bounds. Again. Too many trips OB to medal. 14.975. Now Pavlova from Russia. She got a "zero" in vault. Left too soon. Stumbled on one landing. A little short. Lands another on her knees. No medal for Pavlova. Cheng Fei next. Biggest threat left for gold. Stumbled out of pirouette. Bad fall on tumbling run. No gold it would appear. Chung Fei very upset. 14.55. No medal at all. Lowest score yet. Liukin next. Great routine. 15.425. Silver medal performance perhaps. But still one left. Izbasa from Romania. Got 15.55 in team competition. Fabulous exercise. No missteps. 15.65. Gold medalist. Johnson and Liukin take silver and bronze. No medal for China. No apologies by Izbasa. She was the best in this event and as Bela Karoyli said, the top three will be on the podium.

Jamaica vs. US in women's 100-meter dash. Kerron Stewart of Jamaica is the race favorite. No Jamaican woman has won a gold medal. Muna Lee of US is very thin. Sherone Simpson of Jamaica is more muscualr. Ferguson-McKenzie from Bahamas. Shelly-Ann Fraser of Jamaica, just 21-years-old. Torrie Edwards of US. Veteran of US team. Lauren Williams of US--great in big meets. Jeanette Kwayke of Great Britain in Lane 9. Fraser runs away with it. 10.78. Jamaica both second and third. Actually tied for second. 0.2 second margin of victory. First ever sweep in women's 100-meter by any country. Ms. Fraser is one happy woman. Can hardly talk through her smile.

Lopez Lomong competing in men's 1,500-meter run semifinal. Not a sure thing to make the final. In fact, he finishes 12th behind leggy winner Kiprop of Kenya and many others. Bernard Lagat of US (formerly of Kenya) runs in second semi. International field in this one. Seems like all continents are represented except South America and Australia. Lagat dropping back, but in better position on the track. Lagat making his move. Has to get to top four. Now in fifth. Lagat struggles in. Only 6th or 7th. Bahrain wins. Lagat thinks he will get in on time. Was not good enough. Misses by 0.02. No Americans in final.

Men's 110-meter hurdles next. Liu Xiang of China is favorite. Defending gold medalist - first ever track gold for China. Struggling with sore Achilles tendon. Withdraws after a false start. Now sitting with ice on Achilles.

Must be watching women's triathlon on USA. Didn't realize this was an Olympic sport. It looks like women's marathon, but I knew they already ran that race. 10-km run going on now. Bike already happened. Not sure about swimming. Kallie would really have a problem with this event - long swims and long runs. It appears that running is the last leg. Australian Emma Snowsill is leading by 15 seconds, but only one lap completed out of four.

11:50 a.m. Finally table tennis on MSNBC. Austria vs. South Korea in the men's team competition. Chen for Austria; Ryu for Korea. Ryu leads 9-8. Ryu gets bronze medal for South Korea if he wins. South Korea already up 2-1 in this team match. 10-9 for Ryu. 11-9, Game One for Ryu. Looks like best 3-of-5 to 11. I reached my athletic peak in this sport in college when I could compete with players who were much superior athletes to me otherwise. We used to play tennis sets - to six games at 21 points per game. Chen born in China. Austrian citizen since 2000. Chen up 3-2 in Game Two. Ryu won individual gold in Athens. Now 4-4. Ryu is offensive player with killer forehand. Chen playing defense. Hoping that Ryu will make errors. Now 5-5. Ryu just missed. Now 6-5 for Ryu. 7-5. They take a short break. Chen goes for a return and misses 8-5. 9-5 on big slam. 10-5. Game Ryu. 11-5. Leads two games to none. Outcome looks pretty inevitable.

Hope they show some of single's competition--expected to be among biggest draws on Chinese TV, along with women's volleyball and men's 110-meter hurdles. Audience for that one shrank when Chinese hero Liu Xiang dropped out.

Capitol One has one of the funniest commercials where superhero the Armadillo designs his new credit card. His wife surprises him and he rolls up into a ball, just like the real thing. His manservant delivers the surprising punchline, "Ooh, guacamole!" and digs into the snack that Armadillo's wife just brought.

Chen wins a long rally. Then Ryu whiffs. 2-2. Chen misses into net twice. 4-2 Ryu. Slam by Ryu. Return long, 5-2. Timeout by Austria. China and Germany will compete for team gold. Now 6-2. Forehand return long. Too much spin by Chen. Ryu hits long. Another winner. 7-3. Ryu plays many from side of the table. 8-4, Ryu. Chen gets a slam. 8-5. Chen misses long. 9-5. Rally scoring. Winner of point gets to serve. Ryu misses 9-6. Ryu misses serve. 9-7. Korean timeout. Big drive by Ryu, 10-7. Medal point for Korea. Chen whiffs. Ryu wins, 11-7. South Korea wins bronze in men's team table tennis.

Gold medal men's table tennis doubles between China and Germany. Best of five games. China leads 2-1. They already won two singles matches. One more game for China and they win gold. Wang/Wang for China. Boll/Suss for Germany. 2-1 for China. 3-2 China. Germany hits long 4-2. Long again. 5-2. Germany down two matches and two games. At the edge of the cliff. 6-2. China long 6-3. China slam. 7-3. China backhand winner 8-3. Germany gets one back. 8-4. Towel off. China long. Good hit by Suss. 8-5. Big forehand by China. 9-5. Two points. China long 9-6. Germany long. 10-6. Many gold medal points. China long. 10-7. China wins next point and gold medal.

More men's beach volleyball. Rosenthal and Gibb vs. Brazilian team of Emanuel and Ricardo--reigning gold medalists. Brazil leads 17-15. Ricardo is quite a physical speciment. 6'7" and 240 lb. Built like a tight end. Strongest offensive and defensive player for Brazil. Heard some chanting. Knew there had to be Brazilians in the crowd. Gibb blocks 17-16. Kill by Emanuel. 18-16. Brazilians have achieved one name status. Rosenthal off Ricardo block. 18-17. Easy kill by Ricardo. 19-17. Ricardo stuff block of Rosenthal. 20-17 Brazil. Serve out. 20-18. Ricardo pushes it over. 21-18. Brazil wins first game.

3-all in second game. Not sure the stakes in this match. Maybe a semifinal. Seems like they've been playing forever. But could be quarterfinal. Definitely not a medal game. Brazil prevails, 21-16. They advance to semis to play their countrymen, who also have just one name each.

Sorry for rolling through men's water polo between Australia and Montenegro without comment. Not sure who won. Do know that Montenegro has only been an independent nation for about two years (used to be part of Serbia; part of Yugoslavia before that).

Back to baseball. US vs. China. US winning. The mysterious John Gall flies to left to end an inning.

Beijing Olympics - Day Ten - Bekele Distance Champ

Winning feeling: Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia celebrates again in an event he has made his own Photo: Reuters

10:00 p.m. - Went out to dinner; watching DVD movie "The Kingdom" now in honor of stepson's birthday. Got to see a little of the individual gymnastics finals--women's vault. Taping the rest. North Korean won their only gold medal despite a bad landing. German Oksana (Soviet expatriate) Chusovitina won silver; China won bronze by a whisker over Alicia Sacramone. Kind of sad given that Alicia landed both vaults cleanly. Chinese girl landed one on her butt. Similar with gold and silver - North Korean had one great vault and landing out-of-bounds. Oksana was clean both times. Judging sometimes hard to understand.

This movie is about a fictional terrorist attack on Americans inside Saudi Arabia. All-star FBI team including Jamie Foxx (Ray), Chris Cooper (Adaptation and Seabiscuit), Jennifer Garner (Juno) and Jason Bateman (Michael Bluth in Arrested Development) has gone into investigate. Nathaniel Fisher from Six Feet Under is an intelligence biggie.

1:45 p.m. - I went to church early and missed all the morning events. Rowing was on when I got back, but I just watched while I ate lunch and cleaned the kitchen. As I remember, China, Denmark, Great Britain and Canada were among the rowing winners, with Canada capturing the coveted Eights gold. China spent a bunch of money developing a rowing program and it paid off with several medals. The US won their only rowing medal in the eights, a bronze.

Now it's women's volleyball, with the US and Poland in a tight match - not sure if we're still in pool play or in elimination. The match is one set all with Poland leading the third set 16-13. Now Poland leads 18-15. This is a pool game. US has already advanced to the medal round. Poland playing for their survival. Now 19-16 Poland. Kill for US. 19-17. Poland kill 20-17. Poland kill from left side. 21-17. US timeout. Set point for Poland, 24-18. First of six possible set points. Logan Tom bunts to keep America alive in set two. 24-19. Long kill by Poland wins second set. 25-19. They lead two sets to one.

Match in exciting third set. US up 12-11 despite starting 0-3. Last two US points on stuff blocks. Tom kills, 13-11. Polish kill. 13-12. Great serve by Poland. Tied at 13. Another block gives US a match point. Tom kills, US wins! 15-13. Second place in their group. Poland is out. US 4-1 in prelim round. Quarterfinal opponent will be Italy.

Men's 10,000-meter run is about halfway finished. It's more or less a replay of the African championship, as most of the top runners are from Kenya, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. There are two Americans in the lead pack and the pace is slow enough to put more runners in contention. There are a couple of runners from Qatar near the front. There are three Kenyans, three Ethiopians and two Eritreans in the top ten along with the two Qatarites (?) Now US runners have fallen into the second group. Only about 7 minutes to go. Bekele of Ethiopia has won this race before. He's in third. Portugese runner just lapped. Ugandan now in lead pack. Second place runner clipped heels of leader. There may be a Jamaican in the lead pack. Colors look right. Runners spread out all over the rack. More runners being lapped. Commercial.

Ethiopia goes 1-2; Kenenisa Bekele wins his second straight gold medal in the event. Kenya finishes third. An Ethiopian won the women's 10,000-meter race too. Sorry for the lack of late race coverage. Phone call from family.

Jim Lampley just conducted a nice interview with LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. They seem confident that the US "Redeem Team" can continue its excellent play and bring home the gold. Lampley asked a great question at the end--can this style of play be brought to the NBA to replace isolation and pick and rolls. They weren't so sure about that.

Women's beach volleyball at night - though probably not live. It's almost 5 a.m. in Beijing. This is Youngs/Branagh vs. Xue/Zhang from China. They're 4-0 against this American team. US hoping that tournament experience will help. Chinese women are in first Olympics. 19-year-old Xue kills. Youngs is the oldest player at 38. Xue is the youngest. Youngs won bronze in Athens. US recovered from 1-3 deficit to lead 12-9, but the Chinese roar back to win the first set 21-17. Several hitting errors hurt the US. Spikes OB or into the net.

May-Trainor and Walsh moved into the semifinals with a win over Brazil. Winner of this match will join them. Two service errors. Score tied at 1. Serve long. 2-1 China. Serve into net. 2-2. Cut shot. China 3-2. Youngs kill. 3-3. Zhang tap 4-3. Fabulous rescue by Zhang. 5-4. Youngs fans. 6-4. Youngs kill. 6-5. Good dig by US, but Zhang kills. 7-5. Youngs spikes long. 8-5, China. China rolling now before their home crowd. Up 13-8. US in big trouble. Zhang kills 14-9. Branagh kill. 14-10. Bunt by Xue. 15-10. Chinese don't look nervous. Ace by Xue. 16-10. Hugs after every point for China. Bunt for Youngs 16-11. Youngs to serve and follow. Zhang into net. 16-12. Kill by Xue 17-12. Time growing short. Block onto US side. 18-12. Three points from Chinese win. Ace for Zhang. 19-12. Right in the middle of the US pair. Zhang serves long. 19-13. Branagh serves into net. 20-13. Seven match points. Youngs bunts long. 21-13. China moves to medal round.

Beijing Olympics - Day Nine - The Year of Eights - "That Guy Can Run"

9:15 a.m. - I got up just in time for the USA-Spain men's basketball game. Good timing. Game tied at 11 after five-plus minutes of play. As always, LeBron James has been the US's best player. Kobe Bryant picked up two early fouls. Coach K sends in Dwayne Wade as a replacement. Nice option to have. James made two free throws and a three. Score now 16-13. Paul and Williams in the backcourt. Wade playing small forward. Steal and dunk by Wade. Sixth turnover for Spain. James and Bosh are the big men. Another steal by Wade. Spain's featured players are Pao Gasol of the Lakers and Jose Calderon of the Raptors. Paul at foul line. Makes two. US leads by seven. Ricky Rubio at line for Spain. 17-years-old. Makes two. Anthony answers with a three. 23-15. Rubio has been likened to Pete Maravich. Has shaggy haircut. Rubio makes one free throw. Turned pro at age 14. Some Spaniards have first name on shirt; others have last name. Paul makes two free throws. 25-16. Two fouls on Gasol. Paul feeds Anthony for dunk. Paul length of court to Wade. Reverse layup. 29-16. Fabulous start for US. Led by defense, but supported by better 3-point shooting. Two free throws for Marc Gasol, brother of Pao. That's why his first name is on his jersey. Marc G. hits 29-20. Bad pass by Williams. Spain playing zone defense for first time. Berni Rodriguez makes a layup. Scramble at both ends. Wade grabs it and goes in for the dunk. 31-20. Ten turnovers for Spain. Another great quarter for Wade.

Prior to US-Spain, China nipped Germany by four to reach medal round. Prince drains open three. 34-24. Prince alley oop pass to James for one-hand dunk. 36-24. Juan Carlos Navarro scores from the lane - played for Memphis last year. Gasol blocks Prince's shot. Prince gets it back. Foul on Spain. Offensive foul on Howard. Push off. Steal and Kobe dunk. 38-26. Good passing leads to open shot for Gasol. 38-28. Technical foul on Spain. Bryant misses first free throw. Makes second. 39-28. Good passing, but Bosh can't finish. Good inside move by Gasol. Makes shot and will shoot free throw. 39-30. Makes free throw. 39-31. James hits three. 42-31. US 5 for 8 from outside. Bryant hits three. 45-31. Biggest lead of game. Kobe fouls Marc Gasol. His third foul. Tough matchup. Gasol much bigger. Steal by James. Wade misses layup. Gasol dunks. 45-33. Spain shooting 65%, but have too many turnovers - 13. Anthony makes. 47-33. Anthony fouls Marc Gasol. Two free throws. Marc G. is a big man. His nickname is "The Tank". Will play with Memphis next year. Was traded for his brother. Another foul by Anthony. His third. 47-36. Three free throws altogether. Foul on Spain. James to Wade for dunk. Three seconds on Spain. 49-36. Williams hits three. 52-36. Williams layup. 54-36. Steal by James then turnover. Travel on Spain. Defended by James. 15th turnover, at least. Timeout. 3 minutes left in half. Foul on Marc Gasol. Paul makes a free throw. And another. 56-36. Garbajosa makes three for Spain. 56-39. 16 turnovers for Spain. Timeout.

Williams misses layup. Steal by Wade. Offensive foul on Wade. Prince fouls Rubio. Makes both. 56-41. Wade to Prince. Prince fouled in the act. Short with first. Makes second. 57-41. Great pass from Rubio to Rudy Fernandez for dunk. 57-43. Paul turnover. Paul rebounds Rubio miss. Paul races past defense. Fouled on drive. Boozer on for Prince. Paul makes two. 59-43. James rebounds a miss. Misses three. Less than 1 minute left in first half. Spain goes to line. Makes two. Boozer misses. Fernandez misses. Boozer scores on second rebound just before buzzer. 61-45. Spain shot too early; allowed extra time for US to score. Halftime. Shower time.

Great half by James. 14 points, 4 steals, 3 assists. Too many fouls and turnovers for US. Second half starts with a US flurry. Lead balloons to 72-48. Last bucket is layup by Jason Kidd, heretofore scoreless and without a shot in the tournament. Talk is that Spain will "experiment" for the rest of this game. Marc Gasol makes 72-52. Bryant misses three. Dishwasher empty. Kitchen clean. Back to the ballgame. Score is 86-63 after Bosh dunk from James. End of third quarter.

Paul hits jumper. 88-63. Turnover by Spain. Wade dunks. 90-63. Wade follows own miss. 92-66. Turnover by Wade. He takes a seat. Prince steals. Kobe misses. Howard misses layup. Lob to Gasol. 92-68. Williams misses layup. 3 for Spain. 92-71. Timeout US. Howard makes and gets fouled. Makes free throw. 98-71. Rebound and outlet pass. Redd makes and gets fouled. 100-71. Misses free throw. Turnover for Spain. US still playing defense. Williams deflects pass OB. Paul lobs to Howard. 102-71. 4 minutes left. Boozer in for Howard. Williams drives and scores on reverse. 104-71. Bleak second half for Spain. 12-0 run for US after they already had 21 point lead. Ten 3-pointers for US today. US-Germany on Monday. Last game of pool play. Pao dunks. Great pass to Williams for layup. Steal, Paul to Williams 108-73. Three for Spain. Lookaway pass from Paul to Redd for dunk. No D from Spain. 110-76. All US players have scored. Prince three. 113-76. Spain putback. 113-78. Boozer fouled on shot. US women's team in attendance. Boozer makes one. 114-78. Bad game for Calderon. He makes two free throws. 114-80. James to Boozer for layup. 116-80. Eight assists for James. Spain layup. Paul to Prince for three. 119-82. Prince misses three. Spain misses last three. Game over. Yikes. 58% shooting from field. 28 Spain turnovers.

Men's indoor cycling (pursuit) is next. NBC shows nice human interest story about US rider Taylor Phinney, whose father (a former Olympic cyclin medalist) is recovering from Parkinson's Disease. Unfortunately, Phinney loses his semifinal race to New Zealander Hayden Roulston, who apparently was not shown the video segment. Roulston, dressed in villainous black, has a medical condition all his own, some lengthy syndrome that means shortness of breath--very unfortunate for a competitive bicyclist. Roulston's opponent in the final is Brit Bradley Wiggins. I'm guessing he'll show no mercy for Roulston's medical condition. Of course, Wiggins has his own medical condition story (now healed). He was sick during the British qualifying for the Olympics. Wiggins leads slightly about halfway thru the race. Wiggins now 0.2 seconds ahead. Now 0.7. Now 1.2. Now 2.0. Looks like Wiggins will win. 2.4. Lap by lap, his lead grows. Again 2.4. Just one lap to go. Wiggins wins by 2.7 second. Gold medal for Bradley Wiggins. Repeats his 2004 triumph.

Now women's badminton. Both players from China. One set each. Zhang leads Xie 13-6. Announcer Jim C. has highlight. Describes shuttlecock as "landing like a butterfly with sore feet." He had to think that one up in advance. Xie coming back. 13-9. Just long 13-10. Great rally, Zhang's shot hits net and comes back. 31 shots on that rally. Commercial.

Back from commercial. Xie bunts into net. 20-17 Zhang. Gold medal point #1. Zhang won in Athens. Xie saves it. 20-18. Gold medal point #2. Xie was #1 seed. Xie hits into next. Zhang wins gold. Shots low and close to net are most dangerous.

Women's single sculls next. Favorites are from Bulgaria, Belarus and China. Spectators cycle alongside the course. Maybe those are the coaches. Czech Republic leads. Announcers nightmare - Czech, Bulgaria, Belarus--though Karsten is pretty easy to say, compared to Knapkova. Great event for a blimp shot. Bulgaria leads over Czech. Now Belarus second. I can't keep up with the history, but one competitor beat another by 0.01 seconds in 2000. American Guerrette in second. Very surprising. Bulgarian Neykova gets gold. Guerrette gets silver. Belarus Karsten gets bronze.

I missed men's single sculls. Now showing men's double sculls. We are rooting for American team, the Winklevosses - great name, but they are well behind. Canada and Australia lead the race. Aussies lead. Winklevosses about 20 seconds back. But they're OK; got a big settlement from Facebook in a legal case. They finished 30 seconds behind the leaders and 18 seconds behind fifth place South Africa. Australia wins gold; Canada silver; New Zealand gets bronze. One of their rowers is named Twaddle. Kallie notes that both Winklevoss and Twaddle sound like names out of a Harry Potter book.

Now women's double sculls. New Zealand and China are favorites. US in finals, but not favored. Each paddler has two oars, unlike the men's race. Not sure what that's about. Kallie thinks its sculling vs. rowing. China and Germany in front. New Zealand and Great Britain next. Now Germany leads. New Zealand inching into second. Germany about half-boat ahead of New Zealand. Great Britain in third. Best closers. Kiwis now very close to Germans. New Zealand wins gold by 0.01 second, on last stroke. Germany second. Great Britain third.

I missed a men's fours rowing race while making lunch. Men's water polo on now. US vs. Croatia. Probably a pool game (well, obviously that) rather than medal round. Croatia is world's top-ranked team and defending gold medalist, but US leads 6-4 with 4 minutes left. US just scored after Croatia cut the margin to one goal. 3:30 left. Upset of "epic"proportions in store. "Epic" is favorite word of this Olympics, led by Phelps' seven gold medal. Now 3 minutes to go. US could advance to medal round. Last won Olympic medal in 1988. "Titanic" upset. Penalty on US. Croatia scores. 6-5. Four of five Croatia goals on power play. 2 minutes left. No goal; foul on Croatia. Power play for US. Needs a goal here. Into center and a goal! 7-5, US. Beautiful pass. Croatian defender unhappy. 1:30 left. Offensive foul on Croatia. 70 seconds left. Offensive foul on US. 50 seconds. Croatia timeout. 41 seconds left. Power play for Croatia. US steals. They'll win! Final score, 7-5 USA.

Women's trampoline next. This optional round takes 16 competitors down to 8. Jumping inside the box is important. American Erin Blanchard didn't do it very well and probably won't qualify for final round.

What did we do before Car Wars and the breakfast chicken sandwich at McDonalds?

Great work by Chinese performer until she fell. Not sure what happened. Only 59 points total, not in top eight.

Romanian trampolinist (?) next. She stays suspended in air while HD transmission is interrupted. She'll be off the air before coverage returns. She's Canadian when NBC comes back. Nice score for her. Places fourth. Guarantees her the medal round.

Men's trampoline next. Fabulous performance by China's Dong Dong - 71 points overall. Difficulty of 16.2. Looked like a demo tape of how to score high on trampoline.

Ukraine next. He ends up with almost 71 points. Lost a little height during his 10 skills. Will qualify for finals.

Lu Chunlong of China next. Everything dead center. Again lost a little height from beginning to end, but that doesn't seem too important. He finishes first; teammate second. US competitor didn't make the finals

Great story from reporter Jimmy Roberts about ping pong diplomacy in the early '70s. A chance meeting between US player Jimmy Cowan and the then Chinese world champion sparked a change in Chinese foreign policy, which for 21 years had cut the country off entirely from the US. Later the US table tennis team was invited to China as honored guests to play a match. Shortly thereafter President Nixon visited China, perhaps the high point of his presidency. Thiry-six years later a modernized China hosts the world in the Beijing Olympics.

Ever more men's beach volleyball. Gibb and Rosenthal play a Spanish team. The Spaniards lead 17-16 in first set. Now tied at 17. Now tied at 19. Americans save a set point. Then Spain saves one. 21-21. Gibb kills. 22-21. Rosenthal bunts wide. Surprising he didn't kill to open court. Kills next one. Now 23-22. Kill by Spain. Gibb kills. 24-23. Gibb's middle name is Spiker (mom's maiden name). Mesa kills for Spain. 24-all. Service error by Spain. 5th set point for US. Gibb wins joust. Ball falls on Spain side. 26-24. Great dig by Rosenthal.

This is a knockout round. 16 teams started the round. Second set tied at 4. Nice bunt by Mesa. 5-4 Spain. Gibb kills. 5-5. Rosenthal digs one Mesa spike. Next one lands clean. 6-5 Spain. Rosenthal kills 6-6. Now tied at 7. Commercial.

Took a nap there. Live blogging the Olympics can be tiring. Will look up who won the beach volleyball match.

7:50 p.m. - Been watching women's marathon for awhile. Now NBC is showing the men's 100-meter semifinals on tape. Dix and Bolt are featured runners. Dix is 5-time NCAA champ. Bolt runs 9.85 into a slight headwind. Again looking around, as he did in 9.92 second prelim yesterday. He's a 200-meter specialist, but he figured out 100-meter pretty quickly. Analyst is upset - Bolt just jogged 0.01 better than his personal best.

Back to live coverage of women's marathon. Romanian is running about 50 meters ahead about an hour from the finish. There's a large pack of about 30 runners behind her.

Second men's 100-meter semifinal. American Tyson Gay in this one. Nursing sore hamstring. Asafa Powell also in this heat. Powell was former world recordholder. Powell wins and Gay finishes fifth, out of the final. Gay says he was 100%, but "not his day." Dix and Patton will represent US in final.

Constanina Tomescu Dita (had to look up that spelling) of Romania is 34 seconds ahead in the women's marathon. Now by 50 seconds. Stadium is almost full just to see finish of marathon in about 50 minutes. Only event of morning track session. Ran her last mile in 5:16. Will see if she crashes and burns near the end. Has had trouble finishing long races. Still eight miles to go. 55 seconds ahead. Tomescu Dita is 38 years old. Now 57 seconds ahead. Seems to be struggling a little more. Chase pack has spread out a little. Just five runners in lead group. Now eight in second pack. Includes two runners from China.

Tomescu Dita not looking to see how far the other runners are behind. Runners are coached not too look back. Good analysis about how she might get a clue about her lead - a quick look on a turn; listening for crowd reaction--though the crowd is well off the race course--on the other side of the wide boulevard with a median in between.

Tomescu Dita still leads by almost one minute. Less than six miles to go. 52 seconds. Analysts say that chase pack needs to work more together. Hazy cool morning in Beijing. Sight of Birdsnest will give leader a shot of adrenalin. Race now 2:06 hours old.

Now 2:10. Took a peek at 2:09. Now 1 minute ahead. 2:14. To commercial for Olympics soundtrack. Now AT&T - almost as familiar as McDonalds and Car Wars. The merger commercial is cute.

Just one mile to go. 2:17. Tomescu Dita still 1 minute ahead. Sure gold barring total collapse. Two China and two Kenya are in contention for silver and bronze. Less than one mile. Tomescu makes hairpin turn on way to Birdsnest entrance. Kenya and China battling for silver. Kenya leads. Tomescu Dita wins gold in 2:26.44. Kenya and China in a sprint for silver. Kenya's Ndereba gets silver. China's Zhou gets bronze. About 30 seconds behind. Tomescu taking victory lap. Oldest ever winner of women's marathon. World recordholder Paula Radcliffe is struggling to finish. In obvious pain.

Back to pool. Former British PM Tony Blair in attendance. Women's 50-meter freestyle. All eyes on US's Dara Torres. 41-years-old. Already oldest women to win Olympic gold at 33 in 2000. Aussies Cate Campbell and Libby Trickett are threats. Campbell is 16. Britta Steffen of Germany outtouches Torres by 0.01 for gold. Campbell third. Winning time 24.06. Steffen wins both 100-meter an 50-meter sprints. Like Phelps last race, Steffen won with her last stroke. Was behind the whole way. I thought that race was between Torres and Campbell, which Torres won.

Men's 1500-meter freestyle next. Australian Grant Hackett going for third consecutive Olympic gold in this event. Larsen Jensen is lone America. Ous Mellouli from Tunisia in Lane 7. Our favorite name. Hackett hasn't lost this race in 11 years. Ous, Hackett and Cochran are right together. Ous about a body ahead with 350-meters left. Still Mellouli at 300-meters. Mellouli still ahead at 200-meters. Now more than a body length. Hackett second. Mellouli still ahead 1.4 seconds with 100 meters to go. Hackett thrashing. Now 0.7 ahead. Hackett pulling hard. First-ever swimming medal for Tunisia, gold won by Ous Mellouli. 14:48. Hackett second for silver. Canada's Cochran wins bronze. Last individual gold of 2008 Olympic swim meet.

Men's 4 x 100 - medley relay with Phelps will end all Olympic swimming for this year. Women will race 4 x 100 medley relay first. Lezak should have lead going into the men's freestyle leg. Torres will swim anchor leg for US women in the relay. Torres goes straight from her medal ceremony to the ready room for the relay.

Women's 4 x 100 medley relay next. Australia heavily favored - Seebohm, Jones, Schipper, Trickett. US sends Coughlin, Soni, Magnuson and Torres, all medal winners. Coughlin and Soni are US best. Several contenders for bronze. Coughlin with lead after 50. Stretching it out. Soni in pool. Very close for first. Jones catching up. Russia leading. Jones staying with the Russian. Soni very close. All ahead of world record pace. Schipper and Magnuson in fly leg. Schipper ahead by about a body. Two-team race. Maybe one. Trickett vs. Torres at end. Torres making up ground. Half body length left. Now falling back. Australia wins gold in WR time of 3:52.69. Silver for US in 3:53.30, an American record. Great swimming but Australia just too good. Jones won this race for Australia. 1:04 for the breaststroke. Sweden DQ'd for false start. Australia wins gold. China wins bronze. Coughlin medalled in all six events. Great interview by Andrea Kramer with American women. They were pleased with their performance and gracious about the faster Australians.

Men's 400-meter medley is next. Chance for Michael Phelps to get his eighth gold medal. US favored, but total best times are close. Likely that freestyle anchor Jason Lezak will have to hold off Aussie Eamon Sullivan for the gold.

US team is Peirsol, Hansen, Phelps and Lezak. Aussies counter with Stoeckel, Rickard, Lautersetin and Sullivan. Rest of field will swim for bronze.

Stoeckel trying to stay close to Peirsol. Peirsol wins backstroke. 53.16. Hansen hanging on in breaststroke. Japan moving up, but should fall back. Phelps in pool now. Lauterstein going stroke for stroke with Phelps. Now Phelps ahead. Japan second. Lezak has a body length. Phelps 50.1. Lezak holds on for gold. 3:29.34. New world record. Australia wins silver. Eighth gold medal and seventh world record for Phelps. Japan wins bronze.
US has never lost this race in the Olympics. Lezak says he was inspired by LeBron and Kobe in the stands and couldn't let them down. A "Phelpsian feat." per Aaron Peirsol.

Ravens' fans go wild watching Phelps swim on big screen. They were in Ravens Stadium for an exhibition football game. Costas points out that eight gold medals fits with 8.8.08 0800 starting time for these games.

Men's 100-meter final next on tape. Jamaicans Usain "Lightning" Bolt and Asafa Powell are favored. Bolt broke world record for 100 meters in his second try. Powell and Bolt have seven of top ten times at 100 meters.

Runners on track. Ms. Bolt is jamming in the stands. Walter Dix is US Olympian in 100-meter and 200-meter. Third Jamaican in Lane 2; Doc Patten of US in Lane 3; Bolt in Lane 4; Thompson from Trinidad & Tobago in Lane 5; Dix in Lane 6; Powell in Lane 7 - only repeat performer from 2004 Olympics; Burns from T&T in Lane 8; Martina from Netherland Antilles in Lane 9.

Bolt wins in new world record 9.69 seconds. Spread wings for the last 20 meters when he realized that no one would challenge him. How fast would he have run if pressed? Ms. Bolt hugging every one in sight. Bolt poses with Jamaican flag and gold shoes. Thompson second and Dix third. Thompson is VERY HAPPY! Laying on the track. Powell very glum. Another non-medal run. After Honorable Mention yesterday, Bolt wins Michael Phelps Award for Saturday.

Bolt happy with the victory, not worried about time. Dix has understatement of the night about Bolt, "That guy can run."

Beijing Olympics - Day Eight - Phelpsian Phinish!

The final stroke from Michael Phelps, right, allowed him to edge out Serbia's Milorad Cavic at the finish of the men's 100-meter butterfly final at the Water Cube in Beijing. "It's almost too close to see," Phelps admitted of his winning margin of one-hundredth of a second. By Greg Baker, AP

7:00 p.m. - Back to NBC after the exciting midday tennis action. I had a rare Olympics-free late afternoon--I figured they'd show the Blake-Gonzalez tennis match. I already knew its disappointing outcome.

First event of the evening is prelim of the 400-meter medley relay. Phelps isn't swimming, but will swim in the final. Big pressure on replacement swimmers to avoid a disqualifying false start, which they have done. Ian Crocker is swimming Phelps' butterfly leg. US trailing Russia in this heat. Now US ahead. American anchor Weber-Gale just blew past the Russian in the last 15 meters. US will swim in Lane 4 of the final next to Australia. Phelps, Crocker and Serbian Cavic will swim in tonite's premier event, the 100-meter butterfly. Cavic has been extremely fast in the prelims. After the freestyle relay, this seems like the most dangerous race for Phelps, who does better the longer the race is, up to a point.

NBC reruns most of Liukin and Johnson's performances to lead into an interview with Bob Costas. Nice to see the performances again. Liukin is no less beautiful in replay.

Now they replay "Belavision" - it was all Bela Karolyi could to keep from kissing Bob Costas. I wonder if this was a planned feature, or something that was developed on the fly.

Shawn is so short - her legs don't reach the floor from the NBC couch. Now she sits forward so they do.

Both girls are still focused on the event finals rather than speculating about the future, though Shawn implies that she'll be in London in 2012 if her body holds up.

When this interview happened live, Shawn hadn't talked to her parents. She appeared with them on the Today Show this morning.

The studio crew gives a round of applause.

Over to the Birdsnest for track - a heat of the 1,500-meters. Reiging world champ is Bernard Lagat, a former Kenyan, now an American citizen. Kenyans would love to deny him the gold medal. Lagat won bronze in Sydney and silver in Athens. Top five advance. Lagat near back of pack. He finishes fourth. Had to work a little too hard. Got boxed in a couple of times.

Next heat includes Lopez Lomong - was a Lost Boy abducted from Sudan. In a Kenyan refugee camp he was inspired by watching Michael Johnson in Sydney Olympics. Lomong at back of pack. Moves outside. Lomong now six wide. Now in third. Finishes in fifth. Faster heat. Times in 3:36 range. Previous heat was 3:42.

Beach volleyball next. Back to Rogers and Dalhausser. The Prez likes these guys so I guess we should too. The opponents prove that you don't need a beach to play beach volleyball. They are from Switzerland. Were 20th seeded. This is a round of 16 match--loser is eliminated. Winner goes to quarterfinals.

US wins first set easily, 21-16. Swiss have set point in second set. Dalhausser kills. 20-20. Lanciga finds open court. 21-20 Swiss. Second set point. Rogers kills. 21-21. Schnider kills thru Dalhausser. Ace wins second set for Switzerland. One set each.

Swiss race out to 6-1 lead in third set. This set only to 15. Now 6-2. Timeout Switzerland. Schnider bunts out 6-3. Block by Dalhausser. 6-4. Another Dalhausser block 6-5. 7-5. Well placed by Rogers. 7-6. Dalhausse blocks. 7-7. Laciga upset about set. Big kill by Schnider 8-7. Kill by Dalhausser 8-8. Laciga to open spot. 9-8. Dalhausser kill 9-9.

Away to women's 200-meter backstroke final. Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) and Margaret Hoelzer (US) are favorites. They were roommates at Auburn. In that order at 100-meter. Coventry has nice lead. On world record pace. Coventry wins and sets world record. 2:05.24. Her seventh Olympic medal.

Back to volleyball. US has match point at 14-13. Rogers bunts onto sideline to win 15-13. Whew! Back to swimming.

Men's 100-meter butterfly final. Phelps going for 7th gold medal. Ian Crocker holds world record, but hasn't beaten Phelps since 2005. Cavic in Lane 4; Phelps in 5; Crocker in 6. Phelps won on last stroke. Wins by 0.01 second! Cavic stretched for wall. Phelps took one more stroke. 50.58 is Olympic record. Was behind until last inch--maybe part of an inch. Will do the calculation. Crocker finishes fourth. At a pace of 200-meters in 50.58 seconds, the swimmers travelled about 1-1/2" in 0.01 second. I think the clock rounded the margin up. The physical difference looked like the length of a fingernail. Ms. Phelps had to sit on the floor in surprise. She had two fingers up for 2nd.

Women's 800-meter freestyle final is next. No Americans in the final. Favorite is Rebecca Addlington from Great Britain. She's cruising with a big lead well ahead of the world record. Unbroken since 1989. Broke WR by 2+ seconds. Other swimmers well behind. Previous record held by American Janet Evans.

Next feature race is women's 50-meter freestyle. 41-year-old Dara Torres is the sentimental favorite, if not the race favorite--she might even be that. This is a semifinal.

But first comes the men's "splash and dash" - the 50-meter freestyle. Bernard and Sullivan are the favorites. Wildman-Tobriner of US is in lane 8. Brazilian Cesar Cielo Filho gets the gold. Bernard gets silver. You can't see the swimmers for the splash. Tears of joy. Sullivan finished 6th. No breaths in this race.

Cavic's coach is filing a protest on the finish of the 200-meter. In the meantime Cavic accepts the silver medal. Phelps was seventh at the turn. Scary and amazing. Officials accept the original result. As winner, Phelps qualifies for last relay race.

Now women's 50-meter freestyle semifinal. Libby Trickett of Australia is a favorite along with Brigit Steffen of Germany. Torres in the next semi. Lanes 3-5 finish 1,2,3. 24.45. "Nothing special" per Rowdy Gaines.

Dara Torres next. 41-years-old. Five-time Olympian and missed two others (96 and 04). Swedish girl in Lane 2 broke her suit. Back with new suit. Torres pointed this out. Torres wins easily 24.27. Best time of any qualifier. Final is tomorrow. Torres has ten Olympic medals--none are individual gold.

Now replay of men's 100-meter dash heats. Saw some of these today, but didn't take notes. Kay remembers that American sprinter Tyson Gay was the subject of a rewritten Internet article where the word "gay" was changed to "homosexual"--it was hilarious. Focus on the Family, or some such anti-gay organization, routinely reprints article with the substitution made. Gay finishes second, saves hamstring for the next round.

Jamaican Usain Bolt wins the next heat in style - runs 9.92 while looking left and right over the last 40 meters. No telling how fast he can go while trying. Usafa Powell is next Jamaican. He gets a great start and cruises to 10.02 win. Let up at the end.

US-China in men's volleyball while NBC sets up interview with both Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps. US won first two sets. Lead 11-9 in the third. US serve long 11-10. Serve long the other way. 12-10. Now 14-10. Timeout. Coach's father-in-law was killed by assailant on first day of the games. Remarkably, the team is undefeated. China kill 14-11. US answers with kill 15-11. Another kill, 16-11. Commercial. Looks like US will win in three sets. Now up 23-15. 24-16. Eight match points. Serve wide. 24-17. China blocks 24-18. US kill ends it 25-18. First game back for Coach McCutcheon.

Costas' interview with Spitz and Phelps is very gracious. Spitz showed no bitterness about Phelps' accomplishments. Call them "epic" and said that he knew that Phelps could do it even four years ago.


10:30 a.m. - Now watching Nadal and Djokovic in men's tennis semifinal. Nadal won first set. Djokovic took second set easily, 6-1. Sad result to other semifinal between Blake and Gonzalez. With Blake up 9-8 in the deciding third set, he hit a ball that appeared to glance off Gonzalez racket on the way out of bounds. The referees missed the deflection and Gonzalez didn't self-report. Gonzalez went on to win the game and eventually the match. In a post-match interview, Blake expressed disappointment with his opponent's sportsmanship. I didn't see the match, but felt bad for Blake who is such a classy player--self-effacing and erudite in his interviews. I'll root for whoever wins Nadal and Djokovic in the final. The loser will play Blake for the bronze medal--a very tough matchup for Blake.

Fabulous tennis by Djokovic and Nadal in the third set--slugging it out. Nadal leads 2-1, but match is on serve. Djokovic double faults by 15 feet. Follows with an ace. 40-15. Nadal nets a backhand. 2-2 in third set. No tiebreaker in third set. Nadal serves and volleys to hold serve for 3-2. Most aggressive play of set by Nadal. Djokovic holds his serve. 3-all. Great match. Djokovic wins first two points of next game. Then great serve by Nadal. 15-30. Blake dropped triple match point before the controversial call. 40-30 Nadal. Another good serve. Serve wide, hit long by Djokovic, 4-3 Nadal. Love game for Djokovic evens match at 4. Djokovic hits long. Nadal leads 5-4. Djokovic needs next game to stay in match.

Nadal gets Djokovic's drop shot then wins point with one of his own. 15-all. Djokovic nets a forehand. Unforced error. 15-30. Nadal two points from the match. Nadal mishits second serve. 30-30. Overspun by Nadal. Djokovic nets forehand. Match point Nadal. Monster forehand by Djokovic puts game at deuce. Let serve. Forehand groundstroke and backhand volley wins for Djokovic. His ad. Going for 5-all. Sensational passing shot by Nadal wins point. Great return of 2nd serve by Nadal. Second match point for Nadal. Djokovic hits sitter overhead wide. Nadal wins! Great rescues by Nadal to give Djokovic a chance to make a mistake. Nadal advances to final against Fernando Gonzalez of Chile.

Kudos to Jimmy Arias for outstanding analysis of this match--the best I've heard in any Olympic sport so far. He pointed out that the match was Djokovic's to lose--he would have to make some mistakes for Nadal to win. In the last game, Djokovic made two forehand errors as well as the game-losing botched overhead. Arias also picked up on a serve to the body that Nadal was using effectively in the third set. Arias didn't root for either player; as with many analysts he "oohed" over the great shots, but he also took the extra step of finding and communicating the key strategic elements of the match. Admittedly, I'm too ignorant of the technical aspects of swimming, water polo and volleyball to really appreciate the analysis (the volleyball analyst was doing a pretty good job with this, but I just had too far to go). I've watched a lot more tennis, and therefore was able to keep up with what Arias was saying. Still, a job well done--in keeping with the excellent tennis on the court.

Women's kayaking was won by Slovakian Eneda Kaliska by 14 seconds. An Aussie was delighted to take the silver. Other key competitors from France and Czech Republic missed gates in the final run and fell out of contention.

US beats Russia 12-7 in women's water polo. Should be able to advance to semifinal. Disappointing Olympics for mother Russia, who also lost to the tiny Chinese girls.

Time for a break after mopping floors during the lulls in the action. Back later, perhaps with a couple of new features. (Please see http://dadlak.blogspot.com/2008/08/michael-phelps-award-for-best.html) for the daily Michael Phelps Award For Best Performance By Athlete Not Named Michael Phelps.

8:15 a.m. - Opening with women's volleyball today. Match between US and China. Games are one all. China leads third game 21-14. Great blocking by China. Their tenth "stuff". Knuckleball serve for a US ace. 22-17 China. Spike error by China, now 22-19. Spike into antenna. 22-20. A US kill. 22-21. Finally a Chinese kill. 23-21. US needs this point. US stuff. 23-22, China. China kill. Set point at 24-22. Blocked to sideline. 24-23. Great kill by China wins the set. 25-23. Two sets to one for China. Good comeback by US falls a little short.

Bathroom break. 8-7 US in 3rd set. US and China exchange kills. 9-8. US over the net. 9-9. Good kill by Willoughby. 10-9. US stuff 11-9. Outside Chinese kill 11-10. Chinese stuff 11-11. Poor set. Chinese block OB 12-11 US. Back row spike. 13-12 US. Now 14-13 US. China blocks for 14-14. US coach Long Ping is most famous female Chinese athlete of all time. Great kill by Kim Glass. 16-14 US. Lots of volleyball left. Rest of this set and perhaps a fifth. Technical time out.

More play during the commercial. China takes lead 17-16. US wins next point after great rally. 17-all. Sitter killed by US. 18-17, US. China timeout. Chinese fans chanting. No love for US in this one. Chinese kill off the block. 18-18. Angled kill by Scott for US. 19-18 US. Chinese spike into net. 20-18. Spike out of bounds. 21-18 US. Getting close now. Spike into antenna. 22-18. Six of last seven for US. Outside kill by China. 22-19. Second kill attempt by Scott. 23-19. Scott is hot. 35-years-old. Outside kill by China 23-20. Kill by Logan Tom. 24-20. Four set points. Four hits by China. Two sets all. Fifth set tiebreak to 15 next.

President of PRC is in the stands. China stuffs first US spike. 1-0. Scott kills. 1-1. She is four-time Olympian. Spike long 3-1 US. US stuff. 4-1. Best match so far by US. Kill by Logan Tom. 13 for her. 5-1. Hit long by China 6-1. China timeout. China gets next two 6-3. Stuff by US. 8-3. Change sides.

Next two for China. 8-5. US timeout. Serve long by China. 9-5. Lift on China 10-5. US kill, 11-5. Monster kill by China 11-6. Logan Tom kills. 12-6. Her 15th. Two going for same ball--should have put it over. 12-7. Chinese kill off bad pass. 12-8. Chinese stuff. 12-9. Timeout US. Big kill by Glass. 13-9. US hits out 13-10. Scott kills. 14-10. Four match points. China gets kill 14-11. Scott stuffs. US wins 15-11! Second heartbreaker for China. They blew two sets to none lead to Cuba.

Beijing Olympics - Day Seven - Liukin Dazzles in All-Around Gymnastics

8:15 a.m. - Central vs. Eastern cost me the first half of the USA - Greece basketball game. That and having so many networks covering the Olympics. I watched some wrestling on MSNBC when I should have been watching basketball on USA. The US leads Greece 74-54 at the end of three quarters. Greece is scrappy but outmanned. James and Wade continue to lead the US effort, along with improved play from Kobe Bryant. Chris Bosh had a big game with 18 points. Wade misses two free throws. US leads 80-57. 24 turnovers by Greece. Final score, USA 92 Greece 69 - turnaround of Greece's win over US in World Championships.

Racket sports are next. USA has Federer and James Blake in tennis. MSNBC had badminton - mixed doubles. A Korean pair beat the defending silver medalists from Great Britain. In men's tennis, neither Federer nor Blake are playing particularly well. First set is tied 4-4. Interesting coverage - commentators aren't in Beijing. They are watching the match from a studio in New York.

Blake holds serve to lead 5-4. A lot of unforced errors from Federer. Blake breaks Federer's serve to win the first set. Lots of good groundstrokes. First Olympic experience for Blake - he was sick in 2004. Blake wins first two points on Federer's serve. Volley just long. Very good play now. Two break points for Blake. He already leads 1-0 in second set. Federer recovers to deuce. Back to deuce. Break point for Blake. Another good shot--made Roger think he was going the other way. Federer hits long. 2-0 Blake in second set--already won first set. Blake up 30-15 in third game. Announcers speculating how Federer will take losing, if that happens. 40-15--Federer gave up on the Blake's forehand. Blake holds to go up 3-0. Hasn't ever beaten Federer. Federer breaks back, now 3-2.

Happy and sad. Sad because I lost all my play-by-play commentary about the end of this match. Happy because Blake won. 6-4, 7-6 (7-2). Federer had beaten Blake eight straight times. Blake advances to the semifinals.

A few errands around town and now more tennis. Serena Williams is beating Elena Dementieva of Russia in a women's tennis quarterfinal match. The action is in the first set, but Serena seems well in control.

Well, not exactly. Serena won the first set, 6-3; then lost the second 6-4 after leading 4-2. She also lost the first five games of the third set before rallying slightly to lose 6-3. Dementieva got a little nervous in the last set (she has a history of blowing big leads) but she held on. Serena was too tired to make it all the way back. Venus also lost to a Russian.

9:50 p.m. Back from Scrabble club in time for women's all-around gymnastics. Scored 548 in the last game. Wish I had a picture. After two rotations, Liukin is 2nd and Johnson is 5th. Announcers are put out about low mark given to Liukin on vault and uneven bars. Yang Yilin of China is first. Her Chinese teammate Jiang landed seat down on the vault. Lukin and Johnson on balance beam next. Johnson goes first. Wobbly landing on one move. Short step on landing. Great work, but not fantastic. She gets 16.05. Jiang is next. Several balance checks. She was in 6th place going in. Should lose ground to Johnson. 15.425. Announcers think it was too high. Had more balance checks than Johnson's routine.

Semenova of Russia had great uneven bars routine. She's in fourth. On balance beam now. Very nice routine 15.925. Yang Lilin next on beam. She gets 15.75. Liukin next. Daggett upset with every set of marks. Chinese too high. US too low. Here's Liukin. Great exercise. Perfect landing. She gets 16.025. Liukin leads by .150. Yang second. Johnson 3rd 0.6 back.

Leaders on floor exercise. Jiang is first. Missed one easy turn. 14.775. She won't medal. Pavlova of Russia next. Very elegant. Dramatic Russian music. 15.05. She came in 7th. Won't get to a medal. Semenova next. 0.05 behind Johnson. Yang Yilin next. Semenova got 14.775. Yang Yilin stays in the running. Fine performance. Guarantees a medal. Yang gets 15.0.

Liukin needs 14.85 to take lead. Clean routine. Should take her into first. 15.525. Gold medal performance. Johnson closes. Great routine. Added a tumbling run. Clean exercise. We'll see if she did enough to get silver. Gold out of reach. Needed 16.125 for gold. Nastia gets gold. Her dad won Olympic gold in 1988 for Soviet Union. Johnson gets silver by 0.075.