That was amazing. I loved Phelps and Weber-Gale's reaction after they figured out the US won.

I was just as happy to see the US win as I was to see Australia beat the US when Gary Hall promised the US would smash Australia like a guitar. If you want to brag, back it up and win it.

Hee. That's what happens when you say stupid things before a competition. They may bite you back in the ass in the end.

And I also think that the press should have given Cullen Jones, Jason Lezak, and Garret Weber-Gale as much praise as Phelps (even though, playing devil's advocate, this was one of the events that he did miss out on in Athens).

Speaking of the French (or, more specifically, a French swimmer), has anyone ever heard of a story involving Laure Manaudou in which she: a) ditches her coach (and leaves France) a year before to go to Italy to train with her fellow swimmer (now ex) boyfriend and b) has a public breakup with said boyfriend (who not only ends up dating a rival swimmer, but allegedly posted nude pictures of Madamoiselle Laure on the internet...real classy for the ex if that were true)?

Just wondering, of course.

Bob Costas and his disembodied voice made light of that sordid tale as a pre-game segment for the womens 400m freestyle finals earlier (which both Manaudou and said rival both lost).

Question about gymnastics, would a younger than 16 gymnast be better than an older one i.e. 17? wouldn't the maturity also bring some advantage?

Younger gymnasts are lighter, more agile, bend-ier and probably heal faster. They're also more fearless and more easily convinced by surrogate parent-type coaches to devote their whole existence to gymnastics.

Older ones are more mature, but they are also heavier and break easier, are more aware of the fact that falling on their heads might make them into a vegetable, and don't have the same child-like zealous obedience to the coach.

Oddly enough, there one female gymnast who's actually a woman. Not a girl. Oksana Chusovitina is at her fourth games, and she has a child! Originally from the USSR, she's now competing for Germany. Not very pretty IMO, but she's good at what she does.

And I realised today why I like watching the women's gymastics. They remind me of Spider-Man, especially on the uneven bars. They swing around and leap from bar to bar. If Marvel ever make a Spider-Girl movie, they really should recruit a gymnast.

Yeah Oksana moved to Germany because of her daughter's cancer.

Oh, Andy. I'd feel upset with you, but quite frankly Lu played out of his skin.

Let's hope you and Jamie do better in the doubles.

It's just gone noon and I've already spent 7 hours watching random sports. I really need to get away from it all for a bit. Not that I will of course!

Lezak and the relay team kicked unholy ass in that race, in your face Bernard!

Yeah I had a huge WTF moment about that, followed up by the even more WTF moment of the one post-pubescent woman on the team who "begged" her family to quit gymnastics, and "luckily" for us she was forced to continue! The NBC gymnastics guy really needs to STFU.

Oh and I actually do think Shawn Johnson looks sixteen, she's short but she has secondary sex characteristics which is more than I can say for the Chinese team.

I was cheering for Kenny Egan! I loved that they showed his cheering section from Boomers. It makes me happy to see athletes with that kind of hometown support.

My DVR has betrayed me again. I didn't get to see the relay. Yet. I'm sure I'll see it replayed again and again.

I didn't know there was such a thing as synchronized diving until yesterday. It was surprisingly compelling.

I see know I have missed my calling as a fencer. Who knew there was a sport with light-up helmets, swords and where you can scream at people?

Yay Phelps and his second gold! And I can't really blame the commentators all being about the 'first gold, second gold, etc' - he's talked a lot about wanting to win the eight golds, from what I gather.

I can't believe that the GB women won gold and bronze in the 400m freestyle - the poor American swimmer! She must have been gutted.

There's a huge uproar likely to start in England very soon, as young diving sensation Tom Daley's synchro partner has blamed him for their failure to do well in this morning's final. Here's a typical story with Aldridge's quotes.

My husband works in elite sport (professional development for Olympic and other world class coaches) and British Diving is one of his clients, so it will be very interesting to hear what the unofficial view of all this is. It seems outrageous that one member of a partnership would put the boot into the other member like this, even if it was true (and I'd love to know whether it is - it looked to me like Aldridge's dives were the ones throwing up the most splash...)

I'm trying to give Daley's partner some leeway - he's upset and talking in the heat of the moment blah, blah, but then I come back to the theory that maybe he's just a douche.

For a start Tom is only 14, and did amazingly well to get there in the first place, and then not get crippled by nerves or start taking all the hype seriously.

Secondly, the British public love an underdog, particularly a sweet, young, articulate underdog, and if his current partner is seen to be a bully, I can see the powers that be finding him a new partner sooner rather than later.

I'd heard of it, but never actually seen it. It was pretty amazing.

Yay, men's 4 x 100 freestyle relay team! That was an incredible race. The top five teams all beat the old world record! Also, yay Norwegian swimmer who won a silver!

I just finished reading Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, and, damn, it's about put me off watching women's gymnastics. I understand that there have been changes made since the mid-90s, fortunately, including the Olympics age requirement. The book will give you an understanding of why and how the sport has changed from a women's sport to one performed by young girls.

One of the advantages of men's gymnastics is that it's not possible to perform at that level without a mature male musculature. Speaking of which, Justin on the high bar and Sasha on the pommel horse were awesome on Saturday.