So, I’m sitting here, doing something I promised myself not to do –actually watch even so much as a second of the men’s basketball games– and NBC cut away at half-time for an interview with Bob Costas and IOC President Jacques Rogge. If this interview were a sport, Rogge would be on the stand accepting a gold medal, while Costas would already be back at the Olympic village playing video games.

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.

The 2008 Olympics’ only openly gay male athlete will make his Olympic debut Monday in diving’s 3m springboard preliminaries. Matthew Mitcham, of Australia, is expected to advance beyond the prelims, though his better event is the 10m platform which will take place later this week. You can follow results live at 7am Eastern / 4am Pacific here. The semifinal round will take place at 10pm EST (Mon), and one can only hope NBC will show it live. NBC is likely to delay coverage of the final until the primetime broadcast Tuesday night (though the event will happen at 8:30am EST), and they will focus heavily on American’s Troy Dumais and Chris Colwell. It will be interesting to see whether Mitcham’s sexual orientation is mentioned. For pics, videos and more, check out Matt’s web site.

Tyson Gay, the United States’ best hope in the 100m sprint, is out of the races’ finals after finishing fourth in his heat, missing the third spot by .02 seconds. Because of the U.S.’s stupid way of determining their track & field team, Gay, one of the world’s fastest men, will not compete in the 200m; you could argue that his injury in trying to qualify for the 200m has now cost him his shot at 100m gold, too.

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.

What is it with Spanish athletes pretending they have slanted eyes? First the basketball team, and now this shot of Spanish tennis players from the spring getting ready for China. Let me guess the excuse again — they meant no offense.

Despite beating Roger Federer for the first time in the Olympic men’s singles quarterfinals, James Blake isn’t one-bit happy. He followed up that win with a loss in the semifinals to 12th-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, 4-6, 7-5, 11-9. Blake claims, and TV replay confirms, that one of his shots was called long on the first point of the 18th game of the final set, but that the ball actually hit the racquet of Gonzalez.

“Playing in the Olympics, in what’s supposed to be considered a gentleman’s sport, that’s a time to call it on yourself,” Blake said. “Fernando looked me square in the eye and didn’t call it.”

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.

Every day during the Games, we will search the Net for the best 12 (or more if we feel like!) Olympic photos. If you see any you like, send us the URL. Among today’s crop is this gold medal judo athlete. Links after the jump.

So what makes tennis players such scrotums, and beach volleyball players such studs?

And before you look for your lost balls, by scrotum I mean what advice columnist Dan Savage does after being challenged on calling somone a pussy:

We’re bringing over something we started over on our Jock Talk blog: Would you sleep with? Every day we’ll give you some pics of an Olympian, and a little about them, and you decide if you’d sleep with them. Up today is South African rower Shaun Rubenstein.He’s 5-foot-9, 176 lbs., 23 years old. He has a girlfriend, but it’s not about whether he’d sleep with you, but would you sleep with him?

He’s blogging from Beijing here. More pics after the jump.

One of the possible breakout stars of these Games is British diver Tom Daley and for one simple reason — he’s 14 and the youngest Olympian.

He is tailed by autograph-hunters, makes groups of girls collapse into red-faced giggles and has the world’s media hanging on his every word. He was even picked out by television cameras during last night’s opening ceremony - for someone unknown in Britain until this year, Tom Daley is rapidly becoming a global star.

Before a single medal has been won within its walls, the stunning Bird’s Nest stadium, host to Track & Field events as well as the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, is stealing attention in Beijing. The New York Times offers an architecture review, and the NYTimes.com “Rings” blog has posted a not-sticking-to-the-talking-points interview with the stadium’s designer, who is skipping the Opening Ceremony and calls these Olympics China’s “pretend smile.” I wonder if the interview is accessible by computer within China’s borders…

The Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee announced today on its web site that “Tickets to watch competitive events of the 2008 Games in Olympic venues in Beijing are now sold out,” which is a very long way of saying that tickets are sold out (who do they have writing these press releases?). This comes days after an estimated 30,000 would-be ticket buyers stampeded a ticket center hoping to snatch the last available tickets. Police were seen kicking and pushing people as they pressed through metal barriers and at least one journalist was detained breifly in that altercation. Earlier this week the United States Olympic Committee claimed that American ticket buyers had been defrauded by two web sites that had sold bogus Olympic tickets, charging credit cards for tickets that were never mailed.