U.S. swimmer Amanda Beard totally dissed Michael Phelps when asked if the two were dating: “Eww, that’s nasty … Come on, I have really good taste. He’s really not my type.”

“I have never, ever hooked up with Michael Phelps,” Beard said via telephone from Beijing on the “Johnjay and Rich Show,” which is broadcast on Kiss FM 104.7 in Phoenix.

I’ve struggled mightily to understand why NBC prefers to tape events and repackage them for a delayed broadcast as if the sports themselves are not inherently interesting to watch. NBCOlympics.com, like every other site in the world, reports major Olympic headlines and live results, but then turns around 12-15 hours later and pretends in their primetime broadcast that the audience is clueless. Suddenly it occurred to me: we are.

Soccer stud David Beckham, not content to cede the media spotlight to Michael Phelps, will appear at the Olympics next week as part of the official handover ceremony from Beijing to London on Aug. 24. Becks will arrive at the Bird’s Nest atop a double-decker bus and kick a soccer ball into the crowd. Phelps, not to be outdone, will visit London on his way home from the Games in a marketing tour that’s part of an effort to cash in on his eight gold medals.

Amid all of this flesh-trading is grumbling that London Olympic organizers can’t keep details of their preparations quiet. I guess it’s easier in China when an oppressive regime is in charge, so focused on image that they tape over logos on toilet stalls.

From Variety comes news that NBC is getting higher ratings in those parts of the U.S. where the Olympics are shown on a tape delay vs. the Central and Eastern zones that saw many swimming and gymnastics events live.

And you thought swimming had finished. Wrong again! NBC is touting this on their prime time schedule Sunday:

For the last couple of Olympics, it has started to bug me that so many medals are handed out in swimming. People are falling over themselves to declare Michael Phelps the greatest Olympian ever, greatest athlete in the world, etc…. I just don’t buy it. Swimming medals are the most watered-down handed out at the Games, and his eight, in my mind, don’t equal the four that Jesse Owens won in 1936 or that Carl Lewis won in 1984.

Imagine if in track & field they handed out a medal in the 100m for running, running backward, hopping and skipping. That’s essentially what happens in swimming.

The Summer Olympics just keep getting bigger. There are 302 gold medals up for grabs in Beijing. That’s a gold medal every 47 minutes for the sixteen-day span of the games. Doesn’t sound so special when it’s put that way, does it? But is that BMX gold medal really as significant as the historic one Michael Phelps won last night? No, and there are good reasons why. Follow the jump for an in-depth analysis of the most valuable gold medals and the sports that don’t even deserve to be in the Olympics.

Openly gay former Rutgers swimmer Sean Smith stops by to talk Olympic swimming. He gives us perspective on the difficulty of Michael Phelps’ accomplishments in Beijing. Also, why do some swimmers wear full-body suits and others wear just legs?

Click here to play.

Does Michael Phelps have some divine intervention pushing him along in the water? Westboro Baptist Church’s Shirley Phelps-Roper (from the Godhatesfags folks) thinks it may be the case, as she says she has gotten a flood of people asking if she is related to the Olympic swimmer. Can you see the resemblance? At the very least, she says, she appreciates Michael and national television for promoting her name.

Via GoodAsYou.

Ten world records in the first three days. Then six more on Wednesday. Thursday only resulted in two world records. In Sydney in 2000 a total of just 14 world records were set. Less than that many were lowered in Athens. The world record surge has become the biggest story of the games so far - that is, other than Michael Phelps, who himself has a new world record to go with each of his five gold medals (he swims for his sixth in just three hours). But is the world record story becoming a world record controversy?

Michael Phelps won his fourth and fifth gold medals of the Beijing Games and now has 11 for his career, more than any Olympian in modern history (for all we know, some Greek 3,000 years ago won more laurel wreaths). He is clearly the greatest swimmer ever, but is he the greatest Olympian?