If you saw the men's 4x100 relay swimming showdown, you might still be pumped up. Jason Lezak's anchor leg, in which he overcame France's Alain Bernard, was one of those Olympic moments that NBC couldn't have ordered up any better.
Lezak had been the anchor on the 4x100 teams of the past two Olympics that fell short of gold.
With his swim, he kept alive Michael Phelps' quest of winning eight golds here, but he and the other swimmers said there was no reason for Phelps to "thank" them.
"He was just a part of it and we were a part if it," Lezak said. "Whether he wins eight gold medals or not, it's not going to be our responsiblity.
"He's an amazing athlete, probably the best ever in this sport. So regardless of what happened here, he's still going to go down like that."
Maybe so, but based on Phelps' reaction to the Lezak's swim, he knew the eight-gold goal had been saved by an eyelash.
Tuesday, Phelps goes for Gold No. 3 in probably his most dominant event, the 200 freestyle.

Apparently, former Mizzou wrestler Ben Askren is going to do that, too, with his long hair. He said Saturday he didn't want to risk someone grabbing it and using it to beat him.
At the U.S. Olympic trials in June, Askren braided his hair to prevent that, which he said happened for the first time when he started wrestling in Russia after college.
Askren will compete on Aug. 20, and he's studied all his top competitors on film to try to help him prepare. Perhaps they've studied him, too ... although they're not going to recognize him with a crewcut, or whatever it is he gets. Knowing Ben, expect perhaps to see a Mohawk.

I didn't blog about the Opening Ceremonies, so as not to spoil any "surprises" for folks back home who had to wait until NBC's tape-delayed broadcast.
The drummers at the beginning were in place at their drums at least 40 minutes before the show started. The all just stood at attention, which is something the Chinese soldiers, dressed in their green uniforms, do with untiring precision.
It was so hot and humid here on Friday, but the soldiers were in their jacketed dress greens with gloves, standing at strict attention at all their posts. I thought they must have been boiling hot, but I guess they are used to it.
They also must be used to just staring at one space for hours and not moving. I've been told you can get them to smile every once in a while, but I haven't seen it yet.
Anyway, back to the opening ceremonies ... the amazing thing about watching them in person is seeing the precision with which all these people in full costume with props moved in and out of the stadium.

President George W. Bush is here at the USA-Czech Republic women's basketball game Satuday night in Beijing.
He and the First Lady and one of the First Twins, Barbara, are watching the Americans. He is talking to former WNBA president Val Ackerman. But ...
The Chinese fans here at the arena are all agog over the USA men's team, which is is the stands and watching, too. During halftime, the fans were clammoring in the aisles trying to get pictures of LeBron, Kobe and company. Every time one of the men would wave to the crowd, the fans would cheer wildly.
I'm not sure most of the fans even realize President Bush is here, too.
The section where the USA men are sitting is pretty much open except for them, to keep them from getting crushed by autograph-seekers.
Other parts of the arena are also kept empty for whatever purposes, but the top bowl is pretty full. The fans cheer just about every score, since they probably don't have a lot of rooting interest in USA-Czech Republic.

Gymnastic twins Paul and Morgan Hamm won't be competing here in Beijing because of injuries.
But think it's too late to add Mia Hamm - no relation, of course - to the U.S. women's soccer team roster?
She's been retired for a while - and has twins of her own, daughters with husband Nomar Garciaparra who were born in March 2007. The are obviously a bit too young to help the U.S. team.
But at this point, their mom might be as good an option for the U.S. offense as anyone.
Abby Wambach, who broke her leg before the Olympics, tried very hard to downplay her absence. But the way the Americans played in a 2-0 loss to Norway to open the Olympics showed just how much the U.S. team needs her.

You won't see the likes of swimmer Michael Phelps or gymnast Shawn Johnson marching in the opening ceremonies on Friday.
That gargantuan affair comes the night before Phelps starts his eight-gold quest. And Johnson and the other women's gymnasts start on Sunday and can't afford to get worn out taking part in those festivities.
"Maybe next time," gymnast Nastia Liukin said.
Meanwhile, the Texas-based Liukin already saw the athlete she most wanted to meet: the Dallas Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki.
"I almost had a heart attack," she said.
She got her picture taken with him in the village.
Johnson, however, is still holding out hope of meeting LeBron James and Yao Ming.

There is no doubt, of course, that performance-enhancing drug use has been a blight on the Olympics. But it was really a downer listening to John Fahey, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, on Thursday.
Frequently during the WADA meeting with the media, Fahey would say he couldn't comment on something ... and then would still be commenting about his "no-comment" several minutes later. Mr. Fahey, former finance minister of Australia, doesn't run out of words, that's for sure.
WADA has only been in existence for eight years, and was created largely in response to revelations of performance-enhacing drug use in cycling in 1998.
Fahey, who took over last year as president, said the methods to detect drug cheats are getting better all the time - and that WADA and national anti-doping agencies aren't just relying on testing to catch users.
As for these other methods ... he's not saying, exactly. Doesn't want to tip off those using drugs.
He also defended the accuracy of the 33 accredited labs that the organization uses for testing purposes. He said the accreditation is a yearly "robust process"

There are several press conferences being held in advance of the Olympics, and one of them Thursday morning was particularly crowded. Not just with reporters, but volunteers both sneaking inside and packed just outside the door, trying to get a glimpse of a famous Olympian.
Who was he? Swiss tennis player Roger Federer, who hopes to end his "Nadal jinx" at the Olympics.

Well, this was weird. Wednesday, we were talking to American gymnast Morgan Hamm about whether his brother, Paul, would come to the Olympics.
Paul had to resign from the team last week because of a hand injury that hadn't sufficiently. And so Morgan was saying he really wanted his twin to be there, that it would mean a lot to him. And he said he'd just gotten a text message that Paul was considering coming.
Then Thursday, as the U.S. women's gymnastics team was having its regularly scheduled press conference, we were told to stay put because there was going to be an men's announcement afterward.
Then Morgan Hamm and his teammates came in for a very somber gathering ... a chronic ankle injury had forced him to resign his place on the team, too.
The Hamm brothers were trying to make their third Olympics. Now their careers are over.
Alexander "Sasha" Artemev gets the nod as the second alternate. It's interesting the way it all worked out. Artemev had a really good first round at the U.S. Olympic trials in June ... but then a really bad second day. And he wasn't picked for the team. He was clearly pretty devastated.

Joe Posnanski and I arrived in Beijing on Tuesday night. Our trip _ from Kansas City to Dallas to Tokyo to Beijing _ was 8,211 miles and lasted 22 hours, 30 minutes.
We've spent Wednesday figuring our way around the Main Press Center (MPC), going to press conferences and trying to figure out the lay of the land.