LONDON (AP) — Around the 2012 Olympics and its host city with journalists from The Associated Press bringing the flavor and details of the games to you:
THE DAY’S ACTION: So, two more swimming world records were broken on Sunday and Spain’s highly favored football team tumbled out of medal contention after losing to Honduras.
American Dana Vollmer won the 100 butterfly in a world record and was followed by Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa, who set a world mark to win the 100-meter breaststroke.
The biggest surprise of the day came from France’s 4x100-meter freestyle relay team, which upset the favored United States and Australia.
GATES HERE: AP’s Steve Wade saw Bill Gates as he slipped into the table tennis venue to watch Ariel Hsing. “I’m wishing her good luck but she has a really great opponent,” said Gates. “She’s done very well to get this far.”
He asked if Gates had ever won a point off Hsing. “Not legitimately. She beat me when she was 9, easily. She has been nice to me in social situations.”
TWITTER TRASH TALK: Hope Solo’s angry Twitter rants are U.S. coach Pia Sundhage’s latest challenge.
The U.S. women’s soccer team won 3-0 Saturday against Colombia, but Solo, the U.S. goalie, took exception on Twitter to comments by her former colleague Brandi Chastain, who is now a TV commentator.
“The game has changed from a decade ago,” Solo tweeted.
Sundhage says she spoke with Solo and reminded her that the most important thing now is the team’s next Olympic game against North Korea on Tuesday. But the coach says she’s not going to bother stopping her star goalie from tweeting.
“It’s all about the next game,” Sundhage said.
LOW EXPECTATIONS: British swimmer Rebecca Adlington was probably the most surprised by her bronze medal swim in the 400 meters final.
Her tweet from earlier Sunday: “Just sneaked into tonight’s final in 8th place! Not expecting anything tonight, all I can do is my best :-) thank you for all the support.”
SOLDIERS FOR FREE: AP’s Cassie Vinograd says some of those empty seats that have been a feature of the games so far are being filled by uniformed British soldiers at the women’s gymnastics event. They’ve taken up about eight rows.
Still, many seats in the lower level remain unaccounted for.
BRITS AND HOOPS: Football’s the undisputed king of sports in Britain. But basketball is capturing the imagination here at the Olympics.
After being disappointed in the road race on Saturday, Britons flocked to the basketball arena for their team’s hoops opener against Russia.
The upper level is jammed, the Union Jack is flying proudly and the crowd is roaring at every basket by Luol Deng or Joel Freeland.
YIKES FROM YI: So far Chinese basketball star Yi Jianlian has had difficulty finding playing time in the NBA.
That may change. After scoring 30 points and grabbing 12 rebounds Sunday in a loss to a Spanish team full of NBA players, Chinese coach Bob Donewald says he has no idea why his best player can’t get minutes stateside.
“I don’t know why he didn’t play in Dallas but I think he’s one of the best players in the world,” Donewald says. “And he showed that tonight.”
BROKEN JAW (AND DREAMS): Ghana’s flagbearer is out of the Olympics after failing to recover in time from a broken jaw sustained in a qualifying fight.
Maxwell Amponsah had surgery to reset his jaw following the fracture on May 5 but it hasn’t fully healed, meaning he carried his country’s flag at Friday’s opening ceremony but won’t get to compete.
Ghana’s Olympic committee says “there are potential major complications if he re-fractures his jaw.”
LEBRON’S LEAP: Nothing like an Olympics to boost your social media profile, it seems.
LeBron James has acquired almost 600,000 new Facebook fans in the last week, with Kobe Bryant coming in second in terms of popularity with an extra 78,000.
But Kobe’s still the top Olympian on the social media site in terms of overall numbers.
Facebook has released the following overall fan figures: Kobe - 13.57 million, LeBron - 11.93 million, Roger Federer - 11.23 million, Maria Sharapova - 7.8 million, Usain Bolt - 7.07 million
LONELY SEATS: The rows of empty seats at some Olympic venues have enraged sports fans in London who tried but failed to get Olympic tickets.
And now the seats are putting their side of the story across — through Twitter, naturally.
An account, (at)Olympic seat, emerged on Sunday evening.
“I feel so empty,” read one post, accompanied by an avatar of empty seats.
“It was my lifelong ambition to be an Olympic seat,” read another tweet. “To provide rest and comfort for cheering sports fans. I feel like such a failure.”
BELLE OF THE BAR: The Americans dominated the afternoon qualifying for women’s gymnastics, but Britain’s athletes got the loudest cheers.
An ovation greeted Britain’s Beth Tweddle, who earned a 16.133 on the uneven bars for the top score of the session.
“I was nervous,” she admitted later. “It was nerve-wracking to do the bars last.”
Tweddle, at 27, is the oldest member of the team and Britain’s most decorated gymnast. She’s never won an Olympic medal, however.
Her performance Sunday helped Britain make the team finals, four years after they missed the last slot at the Beijing Games.
“We know we’re not going to be able to touch USA, Russia, China,” Tweddle said. “We are the level below them. Four years ago, we wouldn’t be looking at that, so we are getting better.”
IT’S OKAY, ROOMIE: Jordyn Wieber has released a statement of support for close friend Aly Raisman, who bumped her out of the all-around gymnastics finals.
Wieber, the reigning world champion, had to watch Raisman’s performance knowing a strong showing would keep her out of the individual competition. She left the arena sobbing after missing the cut.
“It was hard because of course I wanted that spot. But I also wanted Aly to do her best for the team,” she said.
The two are roommates here at the London Games. Wieber will be relegated to cheerleader now as Gabby Douglas and Raisman compete for the all-around title.
“It has always been a dream of mine to compete in the all-around final of the Olympics,” she said. “I’m proud of Aly and Gabby and happy that they reached the all-around and I was able to help the team get to the Finals. It was always going to be close between the three of us doing all-around and in the end it is what it is.”
