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.

Out at the Rowing/Canoeing Park, the atmosphere was surprisingly casual. One little grandstand full of people, Chinese rock music playing, and 25 women diving off a jetty for the start.  Since they weren’t swimming in lanes, they had huge black numbers inked on their arms. Camera crews in boats got you as close to the swimmers as in the Water Cube. The online commentator mentioned that Russia’s Larisa Ilchenko was doing what she is known for — lurking just off the pace, drafting, drafting, then sprinting for the lead at the end.  It worked, and she won the first gold, with a time of 1:59:27.7. Great Britain took silver and bronze. The U.S.’s Chloe Sutton finished  23rd. The Chinese swimmer was DNF. There was a patter of applause, and that was it. History sometimes get made very quietly.

It was “focus on females” as the network honed into synchronized swimming, more gymnastics and the individual dressage finals. While the frenzied Phelps medal race was on, the Netherlands’ Anky van Grunsven has been quietly pursuing her third Olympic gold. This is a huge achievement in dressage, where you can’t pile up medals the way you can in swimming.  In all Olympic history, no individual rider has collected more than two golds.  Van Grunsven and Germany’s Isabell Werth, the two grandes dames, have been dueling for years.

A controversy in synchronized swimming has erupted over the swimsuits of the Spanish team. What’s causing the stir? They want to have lights on their outfits. “It looks a bit like Christmas lights,” Spanish swimmer Andrea Fuentes said. “This is a very conservative sport … their excuse that is you cannot have accessories on your swimsuit, but they are sewn in. If you use those standards, sequins are a type of accessory.”

Synch swimming is already one of the more odd Olympic sports, but to add lights? Before you know it, the event will look more like IGLA’s Pink Flamingo than an Olympic event.

It was rather touching to see Brazil’s Cesar Cielo cry after winning the men’s 50-meter freestyle. He cried in the pool, he cried after getting out of the pool and he cried on the podium. “I am overwhelmed by emotion,” he said. It was cool that he let the world see his emotions.

There was a rather odd reaction to Cielo’s win by Russia’s Alexander Popov, a multi-gold medalist of his own: “Cesar is very good. He has two balls, two arms and a strong head.” Are there guys swimming with less than two balls, two arms or a head?

More photos of Cielo.

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.

In all the deserved hoopla over Michael Phelps, another Olympic swimmer made some history in Beijing. American Natalie Coughlin won six medals this week to set a record for a woman. She also  has won 11 medals in 11 career Olympic medals.

I have always rooted for Coughlin since meeting her while covering a pre-Olympic meet in 2004. She was very gracious during the crush of interviews and happily posed for photos then and at other meets for Brent Mullins (see right, and after the jump). Sean Smith, a former Rutgers swimmer, said on our most recent podcast that Coughlin was one of the nicest people he has met in swimming and always gracious with her time. It’s easy to root for such people.

After Michael Phelps took his seventh medal last night, Bob Costas mediated an interview between Phelps and Mark Spitz. The 14-minute video shows the race in which Phelps took No. 7, then moves into the interview where Spitz says Phelps’ accomplishments are “epic” and called him “the best Olympian of all time.” Spitz was gracious in his heartfelt praise and the interview was a nice coup for NBC.

Cavic is the 6-6 swimmer raised in California who swims for Serbia, the guy who lost to Michael Phelps in the 100-meter butterfly by .01 of a second. He also has a website, where he keeps a journal and talks about his Olympic dreams heading into the race: “It’s a chance to fulfill my destiny of becoming an Olympic medalist, but in order to do that I have to overcome myself and truly believe that I’m worthy of the honor.” Photo of swimmer and fish after the jump.

I have watched the slow-motion replay a dozen times and still can’t believe that Michael Phelps (top swimmer in photo) won the 100-meter butterfly, tying Mark Spitz with seven gold medals in one Games. Phelps beat Serbia’s Milorad Cavic, by the smallest margin possible in the sport, .01 of a second. Cavic’s Serb team filed a protest but it was turned down by the international swimming federation.

Thanks to Finneye for this link of French swimmers Fabien Gilot, Julien Sicot, Frederick Bousquet and Alain Bernard after they won the bronze medal in a men’s 2007 relay race. Since some of them are Olympians, including gold medalist Alain Bernard, figured you’d want to see it.  Click here to see full-size image of the four shirtless Frenchmen.

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.

Australians take their swimming seriously. So when a less-than-fit looking Grant Hackett emerged from a Beijing open-water qualifier quite thick around the middle in May, it damaged their love affair with the two-time gold medalist in the 1,500-meter freestyle. This week, he’s been sluggish in the 400-meter freestyle, finishing sixth.

His chance for redemption comes tonight in the heats for the 1,500-meter freestyle. Less than perfection there could mean more trouble for Hackett, who is sometimes referred to as the Michael Phelps of long-distance swimming. Hackett has slimmed down from May, but still would qualify as “gay fat” in some quarters, especially if he’s standing next to Phelps or Ryan Lochte. The slimmer Hackett is above; view the unusual portrait of a portly swimmer after the jump.

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.

A few days back I ripped NBC’s swim announcers Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines for their inability to shut up and for Gaines’ propensity to declare the winner before the race was over. He did it again Wednesday night (Thursday morning in China) on the call of the women’s 200-meter butterfly final.

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?

An Argentine gay website has the scoop of the Olympics - American swimmers Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte are gay! Or maybe not. (See the web page after the jump).

Memo to NBC: Tell swim announcers Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines to shut up. Their incessant yakking is detraction from what has been a great swimming session so far.

They both understand the sport, especially past Olympian Gaines, but too often they try and predict and do not let the event play out and let pictures tell the story.

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?

From left, swimmers Brent Hayden (Canada), Jason Lezak (USA) and Dominik Meichtry (Switzerland), all Olympians. Lezak’s stunning final leg helped the US win the 4×100 relay. Photo taken this summer in Los Angeles by Brent Mullins. Full size below jump.

5 reasons why American Olympians rule and the rest of the world is just jealous.

- The President personally inspects the ass of every beach volleyball player to make sure it meets Constitutional standards for American athletes. I think it’s in the 34th Amendment or something.

- Complain about us, and we’ll have our sabre athletes slice your face off and take all your medals.

Like millions of of people, I stayed up last night to watch Michael Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones (photo) and Jason Lezak capture gold in the 4X100 freestyle relay. It was classic Olympics, from the come-from-behind win to the Phelps’ scream heard around the world. Phelps also provided one of the best images of the young Beijing Games — fists clenched, arms in the air, muscles tensed beyond belief as he celebrated.

Jones noticed Phelps, too. The swimmer, just the second African-American to snag gold in the pool, had this to say during a post-victory interview: “I have never seen [Phelps] squeeze and his six-pack jump out like that.” Well said, Cullen. Well said.

Why athletes talk trash before an event has always been one of sport’s great mysteries. All it ever seems to do is fire up an opponent and offer motivation. France’s Alain Bernard learned this lesson, embarrassing himself before a worldwide TV audience watching the men’s 4×100 freestyle swimming event.