Motor City Sports

The final RealSports Medal Standings for the 2008 Summer Olympics:

1) United States 34 gold, 30 silver, 32 bronze = 292 points (1st in 2004)
2) China 29-18-19=218 (3rd in 2004)
3) Russia 18-16-21=159 (2nd in 2004)
4) Great Britain 17-13-9=133 (8th in 2004)
5) Australia 12-13-17=116 (4th in 2004)
6) Germany 13-7-12=98 (5th in 2004)
7) France 7-13-13=87 (7th in 2004)
South Korea 9-9-5=77 (10th in 2004)
9) Italy 7-8-10=69 (6th in 2004)
10) Japan 9-4-9=66 (14th in 2004)
11) Ukraine 6-5-8=53 (12th in 2004)
12) Spain 5-7-3=49 (13th in 2004)
13) Holland 6-4-4=46 (11th in 2004)
14) Kenya 5-2-4=44 (27th in 2004)
15) Jamaica 6-2-3=39 (33rd in 2004)
16) Belarus 4-3-9=38 (22nd in 2004)
17) Cuba 2-7-7=38 (21st in 2004)
18) Brazil 3-4-7=34 (15th in 2004)
19) Canada 3-4-6=33 (25th in 2004)
20) Hungary 3-5-2=32 (9th in 2004)
21) Poland 2-6-1=29 (19th in 2004)
22) Czech Republic 3-3-0=24 (28th in 2004)
23) Norway 2-4-2=24 (18th in 2004)
24) New Zealand 3-1-5=23 (23rd in 2004)
25) Ethiopia 4-0-2=22 (24th in 2004)
26) Slovakia 3-2-1=22 (32nd in 2004)
27) Romania 3-1-2=20 (17th in 2004)
28) Kazakhstan 1-3-5=19 (60th in 2004)
29) Georgia 3-0-3=18 (52nd in 2004)
30) Denmark 2-2-2=18 (30th in 2004)
31) Turkey 1-3-1=15 (29th in 2004)
32) Switzerland 2-0-4=14 (41st in 2004)
t32) Argentina 2-0-4=14 (35th in 2004)
34) Zimbabwe 1-3-0=14 (43rd in 2004)
35) Azerbaijan 1-2-3=14 (67th in 2004)
36) Sweden 0-4-2=14 (20th in 2004)
37) Slovenia 1-2-2=13 (58th in 2004)
38) Uzbekistan 1-2-1=12 (no medals in 2004)
39) Bulgaria 1-1-3=11 (34th in 2004)
t39) Indonesia 1-1-3=11 (42nd in 2004)
t39) North Korea 1-1-3=11 (45th in 2004)
42) Finland 1-1-2=10 (65th in 2004)
43) Latvia 1-1-1=9 (44th in 2004)
44) Lithuania 0-2-3=9 (40th in 2004)
45) Mongolia 1-1-0=8 (no medals in 2004)
t45) Estonia 1-1-0=8 (61st in 2004)
t45) Portugal 1-1-0=8 (46th in 2004)
t45) Belgium 1-1-0=8 (47th in 2004)
49) India 1-0-1=6 (63rd in 2004)
50) Trinidad & Tobago 0-2-0=6 (69th in 2004)
51) Thailand 1-0-0=5 (no medals in 2004)
51t) Cameroon 1-0-0=5 (53rd in 2004)
51t) Panama 1-0-0=5 (no medals in 2004)
51t) Bahrain 1-0-0=5 (no medals in 2004)
51t) Tunisia 1-0-0=5 (no medals in 2004)
56) Austria 0-1-2=5 (26th in 2004)
56t) Nigeria 0-1-2=5 (66th in 2004)
56t) Serbia 0-1-2=5 (50th in 2004)
59) Bahamas 0-1-1=4 (48th in 2004)
59t) Algeria 0-1-1=4 (no medals in 2004)
59t) Kyrgyzstan 0-1-1=4 (no medals in 2004)
59t) Colombia 0-1-1=4 (68th in 2004)
59t) Greece 0-1-1=4 (16th in 2004)
59t) Croatia 0-1-1=4 (37th in 2004)
59t) Tajikistan 0-1-1=4 (no medals in 2004)
59t) Morocco 0-1-1=4 (36th in 2004)
67) Armenia 0-0-4=4 (no medals in 2004)
68) Vietnam 0-1-0=3 (no medals in 2004)
68t) Ecuador 0-1-0=3 (no medals in 2004)
68t) Malaysia 0-1-0=3 (no medals in 2004)
68t) Singapore 0-1-0=3 (no medals in 2004)
68t) Chile 0-1-0=3 (39th in 2004)
68t) South Africa 0-1-0=3 (31st in 2004)
68t) Sudan 0-1-0=3 (no medals in 2004)
68t) Iceland 0-1-0=3 (no medals in 2004)
76) Taiwan 0-0-2=2 (59th in 2004)
77) Egypt 0-0-1=1 (no medals in 2004)
77t) Togo 0-0-1=1 (no medals in 2004)
77t) Iran 0-0-1=1 (55th in 2004)
77t) Israel 0-0-1=1 (54th in 2004)

China and Great Britain were both up 60 points from 2004, while Kenya and Jamaica were both up around 25 points from much lower bases. Of course, neither of those countries won a single medal outside of track & field.

On the other hand, did anyone inform South Africa that the Olympics were being held this year? One silver medal? They only won six in Athens, but that’s a lot better than one.

And if there’s any question about the home-field advantage in the Olympics, we give you Greece. In 2004, 10 medals and 30 points. In 2008, two medals and four points. They did manage to have one high-profile doping bust in both Olympiads, though.

One last thing. Michael Phelps had a good Olympics in Greece in 2004, but became The Greatest Olympian Ever in 2008, right?

As a country, MichaelPhelpsLand finished 15th in Athens and 15th in Beijing.

Let me get this straight. The IOC is ditching softball, because the Americans are too dominant, even though Japan just won the gold medal, but they are keeping women’s basketball? The US just won their fourth straight gold, routing Australia 92-65 in the final game.

On paper, the Americans shouldn’t be this far ahead of the field. Australia has two of the best players in the world - Lauren Jackson and Penny Taylor - and a deep roster, but the United States crushed them.

The American men looked just as good in the 4×400 relay, winning by open daylight, but the women had to work for it. Sanya Richards made up for her fade in the 400-meter individual race, running down the Russians in the last few yards to clinch the gold.

The other big story came from the Belgian women’s track & field juggernaut. After not winning a single medal in the first 112 years of the modern Olympics, they won their second in two days on Saturday. This time, it was high-jumper Tia Hellebaut upsetting Croatian star Blanka Vlasic.

There was also one of the stranger moments in Olympic history, when Cuba’s Angel Matos kicked a referee in the head after being disqualified during a taekwondo bronze-medal match. Both Matos and his coach were giving lifetime bans from the sport.

RealSports Medal Standings
1) United States 32-29-32=279
2) China 29-18-19=218
3) Russia 18-16-20=158
4) Great Britain 17-13-9=133
5) Australia 12-13-17=116
6) Germany 13-7-12=98
7) France 6-13-13=82
South Korea 9-9-5=77
9) Italy 7-8-10=69
10) Japan 9-4-9=66
11) Ukraine 6-5-8=53
12) Holland 6-4-4=46
13) Spain 5-6-2=45
X) MichaelPhelpsLane 8-0-0=40
14) Jamaica 6-2-3=39
15) Kenya 4-5-4=39
16) Belarus 4-3-9=38
17) Cuba 2-7-7=38
18) Canada 3-4-6=33
19) Brazil 3-3-7=31
20) Poland 2-6-1=29

I’m writing this post from the press box at Ford Field. Eight stories below me, Drew Henson is warming up in his new Detroit Lions #12 jersey. The Lions signed him yesterday as an emergency fill-in while Drew Stanton recovers from a thumb injury.

This isn’t how it was supposed to happen. Ten years ago, he was the ultimate stud - the best high-school football player in Michigan and the best high-school baseball player in Michigan. Sports Illustrated was doing big stories on his seemingly unlimited future, and the only question was how fast he would take UM’s starting quarterback job away from the incumbent - some stiff named Tom Brady.

“Will he be the starting quarterback as a freshman for defending national co-champion Michigan when its season opens on Sept. 5 at Notre Dame? Some of the stories say this could happen. Yes, it could. Will he be the next young star in New York Yankees pinstripes, a power-hitting third baseman who someday could be trying to bring Roger Maris’ record back home to the Bronx? Other stories say this could happen. Could he have passed on the football scholarship and done something else? Could he have gone in the first round of the June baseball draft as a fastball pitcher, a 95-mph strikeout wonder? Could he have gone to a Division I college as a blue-chip basketball recruit, possibly as a two guard? Could. Could. Could.” - Sports Illustrated, Aug. 8, 1998

For three years at Michigan, everything went according to plan. He was good enough to take some playing time away from Brady in his freshman and sophomore seasons, then took over as the full-time starter as a junior. By the end of that season, he was being discussed as an early Heisman Trophy favorite for 2001.

That’s when he made the decision that ruined everything. He chose to give up his football career to sign a huge contract with the New York Yankees. He’d been playing for them on a part-time basis since finishing high school, but this was a complete commitment.

It was a disaster. Henson spent the next three years as a bad Triple-A player for the Yankees and Reds. By the time he gave up after the 2003 season, he had collected exactly one (1) major-league hit.

So he went back to football, joining the Dallas Cowboys in 2004. By Thanksgiving Day, he was the starting quarterback.

For the second time, it was a disaster. On national television, Henson looked terrible, and he lost his starting job after one game. He’s never started another game, and hasn’t played in the NFL in four years.

He spent 2005 as Dallas’ third-string quarterback, but they cut him before the 2006 season. Since then, he’s had tryouts with Minnesota and Jacksonville, but no one was willing to sign him until the Lions got desperate this week.

Even now, there are people on message boards saying that this is the chance he needed, and that he’s going to light it up as a Lion. The reality is that he’s only here because the team has two exhibition games and wants to limit the chance that Jon Kitna or Dan Orlovsky will get hurt. Remember Jeff Garcia breaking his leg in Buffalo a few years ago?

Henson won’t play today unless Orlovsky gets hurt, but he’ll probably see some action late in Thursday’s game in Buffalo. And then Drew Stanton - the first great Michigan high-school quarterback after Henson - will come back and Henson will fade back to obscurity.

I wonder how many times he has second-guessed what he did in 2001.

When did the decathlon lose its luster? As late as the 1980s, it was the second most important track & field event of the Olympics, next to the 100-meter dash. These days, though, it just seems like another event.

That’s not fair, though. These guys go through hell for two days - 10 events that go from early morning to well after sunset on back-to-back days. This year, that included running the 100-meter dash in a driving rainstorm, then spending hours on the pole vault on a humid afternoon where temperatures hit almost 100 degrees.

So let’s give some credit to Bryan Clay. On Thursday, in the rain, he ran the 100 meters in 10.44 seconds, long jumped 25′6″, threw the shot put 53′4″, high jumped 6′6″, then ran 400 meters in 48.92 seconds.

None of those would be gold-medal winning performances on their own, but he had to be able to do well at all five on the same day. And, then, after four hours of sleep, he had to get ready for the hard half of the event.

He started with a 13.93 in the 110-meter hurdles, an event that has tripped up many people who specialize in it. He followed that up with 176′6″ in the discus - the best throw by a decathlete in Olympic history.

Then came the event that can destroy a medal chance in a heartbeat - the pole vault. Remember the “Dan and Dave” Reebok ads in 1988 that were ruined when Dan O’Brien missed all of his jumps and was eliminated? It happened in Beijing, too. American Trey Hardee, who has gone over 17 feet in the pole vault, missed three times at his first height - 15′5″. That dropped him from 4th place to out of the competition.

Clay made that height on his first try, and eventually cleared 16′5″ to give himself a commanding lead. After a javelin throw of 232′10″, all he had to do was finish the 1500-meter run in less than 5:30 to win the gold medal. Considering he has run it as fast as 4:38, that wasn’t likely to be a problem.

After two hot, wet days of exertion, he didn’t come close to 4:38, but he didn’t come close to 5:30, either. Keeping a close watch on the clock, he ran a safe 5:06, winning the gold medal with a score of 8,791 points. That was actually 29 points fewer than he scored while winning silver in Athens, but in the brutal Beijing conditions, it was 240 points more than silver medalist Andrei Krauchanka.

Clay’s effort provided a marked contrast to the silliness of the 4×100 relay races. Several teams, including both the American men and women, had dropped the baton in the semifinals, so it looked like Jamaica would cruise to easy victories in both finals. Except that the Jamaican women promptly dropped the baton in the final, allowing Russia to win and Belgium to finish second - the first track & field medal by any Belgian women ever.

With the US out of the men’s race, the baton was certainly the only thing that could be Jamaica. They were so deep that they didn’t even use Usain Bolt on the anchor leg - he ran third, with former world-record holder Asafa Powell going last. They didn’t drop the baton and they destroyed the world record, running 37.10 when the old record was 37.40. They won the race by almost a full second - the biggest victory margin since 1936.

So Usain Bolt finishes with three golds and three world records - probably. The Jamaicans could draft him onto the 4×400 relay team tonight, even though he doesn’t normally run that event.

And somewhere, Michael Phelps is very glad they don’t use batons in swimming.

Away from the Bird’s Nest, it was a big day in kayaking and canoeing for Belarus and Germany. Both countries won a pair of gold medals in the flatwater events, jumping them up the medal table. China had a bad day, but a sweep of women’s table tennis ended any last Russian hopes of a rush for second place overall.

RealSports Medal Standings
1) United States 29-28-31=260
2) China 27-17-17=203
3) Russia 17-14-16=143
4) Great Britain 17-13-8=132
5) Australia 11-12-16=107
6) Germany 11-6-10=83
7) France 5-12-13=74
South Korea 8-9-5=72
9) Japan 9-4-9=66
10) Italy 7-7-9=65
11) Holland 6-4-4=46
12) Ukraine 5-4-6=43
X) MichaelPhelpsLand 8-0-0=40
13) Jamaica 6-2-2=38
14) Belarus 4-3-8=37
15) Cuba 2-6-7=35
16) Spain 4-4-2=34
17) Canada 3-3-6=30
18) Brazil 2-3-6=25
19) Czech Republic 3-3-0=24
20) Kenya 2-4-2=24

There is one day late in each Olympiad that shows why the United States is unique among the world’s sporting nations. It is the day that we show that no one else can match us when it comes to women’s team sports.

In Beijing, that day came on Thursday.

It started on the beach, when Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh won their second straight gold medal in beach volleyball, and it ended on the soccer field, where the Americans won 1-0 in overtime to successfully defend their 2004 title. In between, there were a couple blips - the softball team took silver, as did the water polo team, but the basketball and volleyball teams both advanced to the gold-medal games.

Six teams. Six trips to the gold-medal game. No other country can match that.

RealSports Medal Standings
1) United States 27-27-29=245
2) China 26-15-16=191
3) Russia 15-13-15=129
4) Great Britain 16-11-8=121
5) Australia 11-11-14=102
6) South Korea 8-9-5=72
7) France 4-11-13=66
Japan 9-4-8=65
9) Germany 8-5-9=64
10) Italy 6-7-8=59
11) Ukraine 5-4-5=42
12) Holland 5-4-4=41
X) MichaelPhelpsLand 8-0-0=40
13) Jamaica 5-2-2=33
14) Cuba 2-6-5=33
15) Spain 4-3-2=31
16) Canada 3-3-5=29
17) Czech Republic 3-3-0=24
18) Kenya 2-4-2=24
19) Belarus 2-2-8=24
20) New Zealand 3-1-5=23

Michael Phelps won eight gold medals in Beijing. I wouldn’t have believed that there could have been a serious discussion about whether he has been the star of the Olympics, but Usain Bolt has made that happen.

After his victory in the 100-meter dash, where he broke the world record despite celebrating for the last 10 meters, people wondered what would have happened if he had run the entire race at full speed.

This morning, we found out.

Bolt destroyed the 200-meter final, winning by several meters and breaking Michael Johnson’s 12-year-old record of 19.32 - a mark that people thought might last for another decade. Bolt was so dominant in running 19.30 that the second- and third-place finishers were both eventually disqualified for running out of their lanes while trying in vain to catch up.

So Bolt joins sprinters like Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis by winning the 100 and 200 in the same Olympics, but he becomes the first to do the double while setting world records in each event. No other sprinter has even held both world records at the same time since another Jamaican, Donald Quarrie, in the mid-1970s.

So who is the brightest star of Beijing? I still think it is Phelps, because of the awesome difficulty of his feat. He had to perform in eight events, swimming four different strokes, and set a world record in seven of them. Like Bolt, he won races with amazing ease, but he also had to find a way to dig inside himself and win a race by a fingernail. Bolt hasn’t had to do that, although he could still pull something off in the 4×100 relay.

Either way, they are both going to be remembered for a long, long time.

RealSports Medal Count
1) United States 24-22-26=212
2) China 26-14-15=187
3) Great Britain 15-9-8=110
4) Russia 12-11-15=108
5) Australia 11-10-12=97
6) South Korea 8-9-5=72
7) France 4-11-13=66
Germany 8-5-6=61
9) Japan 8-4-8=60
10) Italy 6-7-7=58
11) Ukraine 5-4-5=42
x) MichaelPhelpsLand 8-0-0=40
12) Holland 3-4-4=31
13) Cuba 1-6-5=28
14) Jamaica 4-2-1=27
15) Spain 3-3-2=26
16) Kenya 2-4-2=24
17) Canada 2-3-5=24
18) Belarus 2-2-8=24
19) New Zealand 3-1-5=23
20) Poland 2-4-1=23

Results include changes due to doping violations up to and including the women’s heptathlon.

If you’ve wondered why the United States is winning my RealSports medal standings but are so far behind China in the “real” standings, keep this in mind. As of Wednesday morning in Beijing, China has 18 non-sport gold medals. Germany is second with three - all in dressage. The United States has two - one by Nastia Liukin and one by Shawn Johnson. No other country has more than one.

Also, I’m impressed that Yahoo! Sports came up with the idea of doing a “Real 2008 Medal Count”, just 12 years after I started doing this.

Every judging break seems to have gone China’s way during these Olympics. I’m not suggesting a conspiracy, I just think that judges are humans who are influenced by big names, fans and other external factors. Oh, and they’re also terrible. Judged events will always be viewed with skepticism by those who lose for this reason, particularly those who lose to a member of the home delegation. (Think Roy Jones Jr. at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.)

It is because of this skewed inconsistency that Fourth-Place Medal introduces The Real 2008 Medal Count. Our medal count will tally medals won in sports decided on the field of play, not by a judge in a teal blazer.

The judged Olympic events we will ignore for our tally are: boxing, diving, equestrian, gymnastics, judo, taekwondo, trampoline and wrestling. We debated whether to include boxing, wrestling and the martial arts in the list, as they can be decided by competitors. However, because the judging is prone to error and shenaningans, we will include it.

The Real 2008 Medal Count

China: 22 gold; 11 silver; 11 bronze

United States: 21 gold; 19 silver; 21 bronze

As you can see, in the events where medals are determined by competitors rather than judges, the gold medal gap between China and the U.S. is greatly narrowed, and the total medal count is an American runaway. Counting the judged events, China has a commanding lead in golds. Hmmm… Nope, nothing fishy about that!

Wow. What an original concept.

In Athens, it was Perdita Felicien. In Beijing, it was Lolo Jones.

The 100-meter hurdles is a tough race.

Four years ago, Canada’s Felicien was a big favorite going into the race, but crashed into the first hurdle and didn’t finish. This morning, Iowa’s Jones was the favorite, and was in control of the race until she clipped the ninth hurdle. She kept her balance, but lost about a tenth of a second, which sent her from first to seventh. American Dawn Harper won the gold, and in a reversal of what happened four years ago, Lolo’s stumble let Priscilla Lopes-Schliep win Canada’s first track medal since 1996.

Another American favorite failed down the stretch as well, when Sonya Richards ran out of gas in the final 100 meters of the women’s 400 and finished third. Christine Ohuruogu, who won an appeal after being banned for life for repeatedly missing doping tests, won the gold for Britain.

Some of the day’s biggest drama came 500 miles away from Beijing, on the Yellow Sea off Qingdao. In the final women’s Laser Radial sailing race, American Anna Tunnicliffe was in ninth place out of 10 boats at the midway point of the race. That would have cost her the gold medal, and might have even cost her the silver.

But she tacked way to the left, the wind shifted a little, and she sailed past five boats in about 100 yards. At the last second, she dove for the marker buoy, and just cut in front of the Chinese boat in time to make the turn in third. She passed another boat on the final, downwind leg and finished the race in second. That gave her enough points to clinch gold.

The most emotional winner had to be Germany’s massive Matthais Steiner, who won super-heavyweight weightlifting by lifting 569 pounds over his head. After the lift, he fell to the ground in disbelief, then jumped around like a happy child. During the medal ceremony, he held a picture of his wife, who was killed in a car accident in 2007.

Tunnicliffe, Harper and wrestler Henry Cejudo helped the United States move their lead to 22 points in the overall standings. The British, who finished 8th in Athens, are now in third thanks to their domination of cycling.

RealSports Medal Standings
1) United States 24-19-26=203
2) China 25-14-14=181
3) Great Britain 15-8-5=104
4) Australia 11-10-12=97
5) Russia 10-11-14=97
6) South Korea 8-9-5=72
7) France 4-10-13=63
Germany 8-5-6=61
9) Japan 8-4-8=60
10) Italy 6-6-7=55

No one came into the Beijing Olympics under more pressure than Lu Xiang.

Yes, a lot of Americans wanted to see Michael Phelps win eight gold medals, and there are other athletes like Kirsty Coventry who were their nation’s only real chance at a medal.

But Lu Xiang was China’s face of the Olympics. He shocked the world with his gold in the 110-meter hurdles in Athens, and his repeat victory was going to be the signature moment of the 29th Summer Olympiad. China has won more gold medals than any other country, but this wasn’t going to be a win in table tennis, badminton, weightlifting or even gymnastics. This was going to be China’s star winning another gold medal in the Olympic Stadium as the whole world watched.

This might sound like hyperbole, but it really isn’t. Lu’s image is everywhere in China - he has truly become a national hero since winning that medal in Athens. Yesterday, ticket scalpers were getting thousands of dollars for seats at the morning session, just to see him run in the first round.

Caveat emptor.

Lu pulled out of an event in late May with a leg injury and hasn’t raced since. He’s been training in seclusion, but the Chinese coaches have been assuring the public that he was fine. That turned out to be a lie. In the warmups, Lu only managed to get over two hurdles before crumpling to the ground in pain and grabbing his right Achilles’ tendon. He actually got into the starting blocks for his first-round heat, but he pulled up after about three strides. As the rest of the field went back to the blocks - it had been a false start - Lu pulled off his lane number and walked slowly out of the stadium.

China will still finish the Olympics with more gold medals than any other country, but they just lost their signature moment.

Somehow, the Games managed to go on.

The most impressive performance of the day probably belonged to Australia’s Emma Snowsill, who wiped out the field in the triathlon. She swam 1500 meters, biked 40 kilometers and ran 10 kilometers in just under two hours, beating Portugal’s Vanessa Fernandes by over a minute.

The other contender for Olympian of the Day would be Russia’s Elena Isinbayeva, who didn’t even have to work hard to win the pole-vault gold. The only time she was challenged was when she needed three tries to break her own Olympic record and then three more to break her own world record. By that point, everyone else had been done for an hour.

Between Snowsill and Australia’s sailing golds, they are now comfortably in third place in the medal standings. Russia’s sweep of women’s single’s tennis has helped them take over fourth and Great British dominance of the cycling events has gotten them into fifth. South Korea, which had been locked into third for about a week, hasn’t done much of anything now that the archery and judo are finished.

At the top of the standings, the United States moved back into first place, thanks to the sweep of the 400-meter hurdles. With track and field and team sports now taking center stage, the Americans should start to pull away. Sonya Richards is almost a lock for gold in the women’s 400 meters tonight, and our women’s 100-meter hurdles team could sweep, led by Lolo Jones.

RealSports Medal Standings
1) United States 21-19-25=187
2) China 25-14-12=179
3) Australia 11-8-12=91
4) Russia 8-10-11=81
5) Great Britain 11-6-5=78
6) South Korea 8-9-5=72
7) France 4-10-12=62
Japan 8-3-7=56
9) Italy 6-6-6=54
10) Germany 6-5-6=51
X) MichaelPhelpsLand 8-0-0=40
11) Ukraine 5-3-5=39
12) Holland 3-4-4=31
13) Cuba 1-5-5=25
14) Kenya 2-4-2=24
15) Spain 3-2-2=23

So swimming is over - well, except the crazy 10k open-water races being held at the rowing venue later this week.

To review the events at the Water Cube, Michael Phelps won every race, and was the only swimmer entered in all of them except the dude with the short fingers.

No, not really. Did you know that 20 swimmers other than Phelps won at least three medals? Natalie Coughlin led the way with six, while Libby Trickett, Kirsty Coventry and Ryan Lochte had four each. Coventry even did it without the help of any relays - she was all Zimbabwe had. Stephanie Rice won three gold medals, while 41-year-old Dara Torres won three silvers, 24 years after winning her first medal in Los Angeles.

Coughlin and Alain Bernard both won at least one of each kind of medal. Coughlin has now done that in back-to-back Olympiads, which gives her trophy case a lot of variety.

Remember the story I told a couple days ago about American shooter Matt Emmons blowing an easy gold medal by shooting at the wrong target? Yesterday, he had a huge lead going into the last round … and his gun went off prematurely. He finished fourth.

China increased its lead in the medal standings from 10 points to 14 thanks to a boatload of medals in badminton and table tennis. Great Britain moved from seventh into a tight battle for third after dominating the cycling venue for a second straight day.

RealSports Medal Standings
1) China 24-14-11=173
2) United States 17-17-23=159
3) Australia 8-8-11=75
4) South Korea 8-9-4=71
5) Great Britain 10-5-5=70
6) Russia 6-8-8=62
7) France 4-9-11=58
Japan 8-3-7=56
9) Italy 6-6-6=54
10) Germany 6-4-6=48
X) MichaelPhelpsLand 8-0-0=40
11) Ukraine 5-3-4=38
12) Holland 2-3-4=23
13) Romania 3-1-2=20
14) Poland 2-3-1=20
15) Czech Republic 2-3-0=19
16) Slovakia 3-1-0=18
17) Cuba 1-3-4=18
18) Canada 2-1-4=17
X) StephanieRiceville 3-0-0=15
19) New Zealand 2-1-2=15
20) Kazahkstan 1-2-4=15