Women's gymnastics and Phelps

If it's early, it's got to be beach volleyball, and it's Misty May-Treanor and Karrie Walsh against two unknown Belgians, who at the moment are up late in the first set. They haven't even lost a set in a month; Belgians are three points away from doing that.

It's very back and forth, nobody's really been able to get much on their serve as of late. Break for the U.S., Belgians push an easy shot wide. Now 2 points away for Belgians. Set point, Belgians won the point in spectacular fashion. U.S. saves two set points, then a timeout; and then they save the third set point, tied at 20 now.

Now tied at 21, this is pretty exciting. Tied at 22, it's just back and forth. Finally, U.S. up 23-22, they're gonna finish it off here I think. Yeah, Belgians miss an easy point at net, U.S. saves 5 set points and wins.

Cool, so now back to normal. U.S. in the second set is literally pounding the Belgian, Walsh spiking it powerfully several times. They win easily, a tough test for them early but they just powered through.

Mary Carillo, who introduces us to a Chinese artist who came up with the Olympic mascots and logo. Just a few seconds of watching him draw convinces me he's very talented; he even says being imprisoned during the cultural revolution was good, for a man. His calligraphy is beautiful. Carillo is really good, she listens, doesn't try to be the star. Walks us through how he came up with the logo, and what it represents. It's beautiful, she says after they spent 5 hours with him. She's visibly emotional talking to Costas after, he says no matter the differences, so much to admire here, so much to learn. Two great journalists; in this Internet age, needed more than ever.

On a side note, an interesting article about a study that found basketball players essentially feel in their own body what their opponents are doing, which allows them to predict whether shots will go in or not. The players did a lot better than coaches and journalists when they watched someone just about to shoot a free throw; brain scans showed they were 'feeling' the shot along with the shooter.

They're showing 50M freestyle semis, two Americans in the second heat, Ben Wilman-Tobriner qualifies last for the final.

Next, women's 200M breastroke, Rebecca Soni. Outside of Phelps-involved events, the U.S. swim team has totally underwhelmed here. Rowdy doesn't think Soni will win, Aussie Jones is his pick. Hmm, they're the two leaders early, Soni seems to be swimming well but Jones leads after the first turn. The two of them are going to be 1-2. Soni looks really good, I think.

Jones a bit up after 2nd turn. Rowdy thinks Soni may be going too fast, but I think she looks really good, both are way in front of WR pace; Soni is making a run here, and she's got the lead at the last turn. I think she's going to do it, Rowdy says it could be the upset of the Games in the pool, Soni is just getting stronger. I'm telling you, she looked really good early; she's going to win gold, and has the new WR too! Yeah, this is awesome! Mabye get the other U.S. swimmers going too; Jones is gasping, exhausted; Soni looks to be in great shape.

On replay, Soni just looks so eager; I could see it at the very start. Her U.S. teammates are all up in the stands going nuts; it's awesome. Nice moment for the U.S. She's so cute in the interview afterwards, totally sincere and seems like a really nice person.

Now, Men's 200M backstroke, chance for the U.S. to finish 1-2 with Aaron Peirsol and Ryan Lochte. Gaines says he's now shy of making predictions, but thinks the Americans. Hmm, everyone's bunched up, Americans trailing at the first turn. Now moving out front a bit, the Russian is leading still though after the second turn. Wow, the Russian guy is extending his lead a bit, starting to fall a bit, but still leading after the third turn. Here they come down the stretch, Americans passing WR line now, they're going to be 1-2, Lochte wins, gets WR, Peirsol takes silver. Now Lochte is facing Phelps in the 200 IM final. Rowdy says Lochte won this on the walls, first gold for him; Russian gets bronze. 26 minutes until Lochte has to swim again.

Women's 200M backstroke semifinal with Elizabeth Beisel of the U.S., these races are just coming bam bam. She's trailing a bit going into the first turn, Japanese swimmer out front. Better second half swimmer says Rowdy, which is good cause she's like 4th now; inching up a bit, but still trailing. Beisel is now up in second, two Japanese a bit ahead; and now it looks like Beisel is moving up, and she winds up edging out the Japanese swimmer. She's just motoring at the end, nice to watch.

She talks about her experiences after Sydney, and moving to Auburn to train for Athens; funny accent, from Zimbabwe. Kirsty Coventry, seems like she's reading from a script as she narrates. They show people cheering her in the streets, says babies were being named after her. Margaret Hoelzer also in this semis, they used to room together at Auburn. Wow, Hoelzer is out strong, rest of the field catches her though. Coventry leading after the first turn, Hoelzer in the pack; not the best of friends says Dan, pretty competitive. Pack is catching up a bit with Coventry; Hoelzer is like 3rd or 4th coming down the end; now she's up in second coming out of it. She's caught Coventry, finishes in third after they slow up a bit at the end, Coventry wins. Best backstrokers not really on their back says Rowdy, constantly rolling side to side. I wish they'd run little swimming tips during these things.

They're previewing tonight's gymnastics competition, are pretending the two Americans will be fighting it out between them for gold, breaking them down head-to-head. Uh, okay.... This ain't swimming, both the men's and women's team has seemed in over their heads at times; I think some of the other gymnasts are going to be heard from, let's not pretend the U.S. is in some tier by themselves.

Okay, the men's 200M IM. Phelps holds both the WR and OR here, gold medal #6 hopefully on the way. Oh no, they're not going to profile him again--my god, yes they are; some wacky thing about if you were going to build the perfect swimmer, you'd wind up with Phelps. They keep talking about how he's double-jointed; there's no such thing.... Interesting, his legs are short for his height, the rest of his torso is tall for his height. He burns 4,000 calories in a workout; heart pumps twice as much blood, 8 gallons/minute, as the typical man. Okay, this is actually pretty interesting. And unlike Lance Armstrong, he does it all without cheating.

Hasn't lost this race in seven years. Lochte seems to be his main threat. They're introducing everyone, I'm wondering if any of them will be remembered as the man that took down Phelps. Ah, Laszlo Cseh; maybe he'll be the one, having the meet of his life Dan says--except Phelps is having the meet of everyone's life.

Man, Phelps gets a nice jump into the pool, already out in front in the butterfly. Cseh is right next to Phelps, though--wow, Cseh looks like he's catching up, actually. Phelps still in front at breaststroke. Phelps is extending his lead here though; he's ahead of WR tim, pulling away; just motoring home on the freestyle, he's just blowing everyone else away, swimming like a machine--my god, so smooth, another gold, another WR. Lochte gets bronze, Cseh silver; Phelps actually looks tired here, winces a bit in pain. Sixth gold of the games. 26 minutes or so from the 100M fly semifinals; wow, won this by more than 2 seconds, Cseh 2nd to him for the 3rd time.

Medal ceremony for Rebecca Soni; one of the best parts is watching the flags rise up so smoothly. Hmm, are the medals made out of jade?! Yeah, they are; cool. Wonder if it were in South Africa if it'd be diamond.... Back from break, Lochte getting his medal. Never gets old, hearing the star spangled banner at these things. Peirsol throws his flowers to someone in the stand, Lochte gives his to his parents, cool seeing his dad. They show massage staffers working on Phelps.

Women's 100M freestyle final, Aussie Trickett who holds the WR was the one who got in because of the Chinese swimmer's false start. Natalie Coughlin, who has nine Olympic medals. Wow, and people barely know her. Some interesting goggle designs here, the Danish swimmer's has no rims and is very flat; China has 5 swimming medals, hopefully they get no more. Hmm, Coughlin is trying to win 6 medals here.

Coughlin gets out really well, Rowdy says the turn is key for her. Trickett's in front at the turn, Coughlin third; wow, Trickett is just way out in front. Couglin coming up fast, though--Couglin gets third, Trickett second, and the German Britta Steffen gets gold; Rowdy says Coughlin swam the race of a lifetime, did what she needed to do. Six medals for the U.S. in the pool tonight; 3 golds, a silver, 2 bronzes.

Now it's gymnastics, just back for Phelps' freestyle semis I think. Wow, they're really going to paint this as between the two U.S. gymnasts, Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin. Chinese gymnasts in the same grouping. Hmm, Johnson running a bit non-smoothly on the warmup.

Yang Yilin up first; lowish start value, 5.8. Not bad, hop on the landing but clean. 15.175. Liukin, in hot pink; born in Russia, raised in U.S. Man, she totally nails it, perfect landing! Her dad won a gold medal; nice form, she's tall and thin so it looks really good; 15.025. A large step for Shawn, but tougher vault, so she'll score well. Oooh, really twisted on the replay; Mary Lou Retton in the stands.

They're taking a long time on the replay. They're peeking at the judges' screens, it's funny, they essentially are able to predict what the judges are going to give her. She gets a 15.875, slightly disappointing says Tim. Jiang Yuyuan, who wasn't used in the team final--bizarre that she's in the all-around. Oh, she totally falls; Elfi had said that's why they didn't use her in the team, she wasn't reliable on this. Not even close to hitting it.

Back to Phelps, 100M butterfly semi, Phelps not the WR holder here, fellow American Ian Crocker is. 15th of 17 swims for him. Needs a good start says Rowdy. He's with the pack early, trails at the wall; still bunched with everyone else coming down the stretch; beginning to surge a bit, and wins. But not effortless, and it's a short race so no margin for error....

Crocker in the other semis, trails after the first turn but leading coming down the end, and Milorad Cavic of Serbia--who swam the second-fastest time ever in the prelims--wins, Crocker comes in second. Hmmm... Cavic's time was faster than Phelps, too.

Finishing up the first of four rotations, such a different type of tension and pressure than the swimmers face. Romanian on the uneven bars, seems a bit rushed, not totally deliberate; but a good landing. Funny how the gymnasts carry their own big backpacks to the next event.

Liukin's in 10th, Johnson in second after the first rotation. Wow, a commercial for GE with a Chinese mini love story and song, how great is that. That awful Karolyi guy is back in the studio with Bob, they need to drop him.

Liukin up first on uneven bars, this is apparenlty her speciality. She looks really good, so long-limbed, neat that her dad's there to catch her. Big step on the landing, but nicely done, Tim says it's gonna be a huge number. Whoah, 16.650, wow. Shawn looks so determined, Nastia more tense. Not nearly as smooth, she's more powering through this thing; oh man, she nails her dismount though, awesome--big smile, I think that routine really has got her going. She's in red; Tim says they're roommates here.

Instead of watching the scores, Shawn always goes straight to her back and takes her wristbands off and stuff. 15.275, Tim thinks it's low, but she probably lost half a point on one part. Jiang Yuyuan, the one who fell; man, the background stuff for the floor exercises is totally distracting. As Tim says everything looks light, like a kid playing in the playground; nicely done.

Romanian on the balance beam, Elfi says this has been their defining event over time, gymnast is really attacking it, no fear; Tim says it's like part of their culture. Hmm, a bobble, then another. 15.55 for Steliana Nistor. Shawn's practicing her balance beam routine on the white line on the floor, while Nastia standing there, then moves. Shawn's definitely the type of person who's always got a project, always has something to occupy herself physically; Nastia broods, thinks; I guess she is Russian, after all--current world champ on this event, up by a point over Shawn. Yang Yinlin gets a monster 16.725 on the bars, wow.

Watching the Natasja Saad video for Calabria, it's hypnotic; especially the whoop whoop part, and her little hip waggle. Wonder if someday some future archaeologist will come across the puzzling lyrics. Horrible that she died in a car accident, she seems really interesting.



Back to the pool, Andrea Kramer and Phelps, brief interview. Yinlin in first after 2 events, Liukin about .2 back in 2nd, Shawn in 5th. Karolyi complaining about the scoring tonight.

Johnson up first on the beam, I really like her demeanor; steady, strong, Elfi says her best event here. Man, she starts out perfectly. A bit of a big wobble on a full twist; Tim says her first balance check here. Man, she's really solid though. Stupid floor exercises music. A step on the landing, but small; nice routine. Tim says for some reason the judges haven't liked Shawn's look. 16.050; not bad. A wobble right away for Jiang, an easy mount too says Tim. She's in 6th, 8/10ths out of medal contention which is quite a bit; lots of wobbles, she's not going to do anything out of this. And step out of the dismount. Nistor, who was in bronze medal position, screws up on the floor exercises says Al, 14.25 only, then they show it to us. So odd.

If it were up to me, I think I'd rather end on vault--it's high-scoring, and is over in a flash, no time for nerves and the moment to jumble you. Jiang YuYuan gets a pretty high score, Tim and Al and Elfi are all not sure what's going on. Hmm, Shawn is last on floor, Tim says she'll know exactly what she needs to win. Shawn is now just sitting there calmly with her coach, the one who's Chinese, Liang Chow. Hmm, he's head coach of the whole team, didn't know that. Shawn calls him her second dad; says she wants to help him show the Chinese how much of a success he's been in the U.S.

Gotta root for her now. Russian up next on beam, as Pirates of the Caribbean theme plays for some idiot's floor exercise (or, maybe just a young girl). Loooooong wait here, for another Russian's score, Tim says the immediate judges are being overruled; 15.975, her score went up. Her teammate starts, she's very fast; a bit cavalier almost, but she's small, the beam looks huge for her. This is like old-style balance beam, nails the landing too; nice routine, she skips on her way over to hug her coach. Good for her; Kseanie Semenova gets 15.925.

Yang Yilin next on balance beam, with Liukins the last. Yang looks good so far, very precise. Oooh, a big wobble on an easy element. Then another bobble; plus a weak jump; ugh, and screws up her landing. She doesn't deserve to win gold, in no way gives off the vibe of a champion.

Shawn is now jogging to warm up for the final event. 15.75, that's totally unfair! Wow, that's messed up. Tim says there aren't more Chinese judges just cause we're in China. Liukin up; beautiful lines. She's clean so far, oh man, she totally nails her dismount too. Elif says stunning, the best; Tim says if that does not get it, then there's something wrong. That was really nice. Elfi's getting a bit emotional, says come on, that's the best in the world. Tim thinks it'll be a big score, Al is gushing, calls it like ballet; 16.125, nice, she's now in first.

Shawn Johnson .45 behind Yilin, who in turn is .15 behind Liukin. I think the judges may just not be responding to Johnson's workmanlike effort, she's stocky and it just doesn't look as good as the willow thin girls. She's also just .05 in front of the Russian.

Liukin falls down during floor exercises warmups. Karolyi says Johnson's going to put back in a tough element; go for it, you can do it, pumps his fist. Well, this part of his enthusiasm is infectious; the crowd is into it. Tim says she's put the tumbling run back in.

This is really exciting. Jiang up first, big ovation from the crowd; strikes a big, fake pose, Tim says it's a fun routine, goes from Russianish strings to some sort of pipey pop. Her gestures are all exaggerated, and they don't really fit either the music or her personality; then she screws up a simple dance turn. 14.775, about what she deserved.

Anna Pavlona, the other Russian, in 7th. Wow, huge height, nice opening run. Looks very confident, moves are all determined, not half-hearted; she's not going for cute, just pure execution. It's pretty flawless; Elfi says a beautiful, classic Russian style. Tim says at their peak the Soviets churned out routine after routine that were filled with passion, hadn't seen it for a while but we saw it now.

Tim says Liukin will be tough to beat, has a good lead, does a harder routine, and floor exercises have been scored low. 15.05 for Pavolova. Semenova, whoach, she totally nails her opening, is fast and powerful; music is bizarre, syncopated weirdly, like some experimental euro thing from the 70s or something, riffing off putting on the ritz, which now comes out. She's really good, though--I didn't see any mistakes, she's totally happy afterwards. Finally, Russia doing something in gymnastics says Tim.

Last three at the top three. Yilin's scored a 15.0, both Americans have scored better. Very dramatic music, nice opening; auditorium is dead quiet, then roars after her landings. Music picks up, ooh, she screws up a run, lands cross-legged; not as good as the Russians in terms of tempo and feel; she looks nervous; nice height though, and lines are good, crowd roars as she's done. Al says how about wow, Tim and Elfi are praising her; guess I wouldn't make a great judge here, I liked the Russians better. Tim points out some flaws. 15.0, so the Americans just need to do what they've already done. Liukin needs just a 14.85, Tim says land on your feet and stay inbounds.

Oh boy, here we go. Nice violin music; nice opening, the crowd applauds her. Nails her next; man I think she's going to be allright here. Maybe just one pass left, so far so good; announcers haven't said a thing; she's actually really nice to watch. Slight step on her last run, but I think she wins gold. Al says that could be a routine that we're watching for generations; Tim says at least a silver, no question about that; she's done everything she could do to win gold. I think she does it. Tim says if she move ahead of Yinlin, he'll fall down dead, because she was much better. I wish they'd show the scoreboard live--15.525, wow! So she's got gold, no way Shawn can catch her--but Shawn flashes a big smile, needs a 16.125. Not possible, says Tim.

Yeah! Gold for the U.S. Maybe silver too?! 15.45 to take silver. Man, she NAILS her opening; I think she's gonna do it, no pressure in a way. Big smile. Man, throws in the extra run, nails it; the music is a bit discordant, but I'm totally into her routine, even more so than Liukin. Go Shawn! Just nailing her landings, I think she'll get silver--the crowd even gives her a huge hand. Tim says a phenomenal routine, Mary Lou Rettin is smiling; and Johnson and Liukin hug as the crowd starts chanting U.S.A.

The third American to win all-around gold; America, meet Nastia Liukin. Al points out the international connections of the U.S. team. And... 15.525! U.S. finishes 1-2, how great is that?! Big smile for the champions; too bad we lost team gold, but this maybe makes up for it. I guess NBC had it right from the start by focusing on these two.

This is great--what a great night for the U.S., Johnson wins by .075 over Yinlin. Nastia's on the phone, likely with her mom they say; we're staying here live through the medal ceremony. What a great moment! Man, this should really give the rest of the U.S. team a big boost. And hopefully more medals from these two in the individual events.

Air's clean here, says Costas; and first time ever two U.S. women above the podium. Karolyi is so excited in the studio afterwards, they show him reacting to the routine, he's like bouncing up and down, then when she finishes he's so excited, goes over and grabs Bob, claps his hands; it's actually funny and awesome.

They're both in tears waiting for the medal ceremony, this is the greatest moment of these games so far in my opinion, tops the relay even. Hope it encourages a ton of girls to sign up for gymnastics; and the diversity angle is great too.

They're really showing this medal ceremony from the beginning, they're walking onto the floor now, up to the podiums. Tim says Sventlana Khorkina came up to him beforehand, and said today is USA's day. Wow, Nastia's mom was a world rhythmic gymnastics champ; great genes.

Silver medalist, Shawn Johnson, she has a huge smile, goes over to shake Yinlin's hand first, nice touch, then steps on the podium. I really like her, she's the best of what America's all about. Do your best, and be gracious. And now, gold medalist and Olympic champion, the United States of America, Nastia Liukin. She also congratulates everyone else, then mounts the podium, she looks soooo happy, and composed.

And now they get set to play a new song, says Al. Definitely the most emotional of the anthem ceremonies. Some spotty camerwork on Nastia. She's mouthing the words, big smile as it ends; her dad's choking back tears too. Nastia gets them all together for photos too, she's very composed.

Born in Moscow, of all places, so Al; but when you watch her, as American as it gets. Ha, Russia, eat your heart out! Medal count: 14 golds for U.S. to 22 for China, 43 for U.S. to 36 for China overall.

Wow, 12 medals in 1 day for the U.S.! And we saw 8 of them.