Wei golden at last

BEIJING -- Yang Wei clapped as he walked past the vault judges, pumped his fists at the crowd and flashed a thumbs-up for the cameras. He even exchanged high-fives with the competition. Denied in Sydney and disappointed in Athens, he is finally an Olympic champion after winning the men's all-around today. It wasn't close, either. Yang finished with 94.575 points, nearly three points ahead of Japan's Kohei Uchimura. Benoit Caranobe of France won the bronze.

With each day bringing another gold medal, gymnastics is fast becoming China's domain at the Beijing Olympics. And no one is a bigger star than Yang.

After eight years of waiting, he's certainly earned it.

"Today was perfect," he said. "I felt tired before the competition, but after it I feel relaxed."

He didn't even bother waiting for his marks on high bar, his final event, before taking a curtain call, leaping onto the podium and thrusting his fists in the air while the crowd went crazy. His coach gave him a Chinese flag, and he held it out with pride. Judges took what seemed like forever to post his marks, but that only gave Yang more time to soak it all in.

"I thought a month ago if I would get this medal, I would be every emotional," Yang said. "But I'm really not because we won the team gold medal."

As the adoring crowd chanted "Yang Wei! Yang Wei" he pounded his chest with his fist. When his final mark finally did go up, the crowd went wild and Yang wanted more, cupping his hands to his ears and asking for them to pump up the volume. They did, of course, cheering lustily for the two-time world champion, who just might join Yao Ming and Liu Xiang as China's biggest names in these games.

The only difference? Yang's already got two gold medals. The other two are still waiting.

There could be more to come for Yang, who qualified for the pommel horse and still rings event finals.

"Yang was very uneasy going into his third Olympics," said Chen Yibing, Yang's teammate on the China squad that won the team gold two days ago. "But he handled it like a champion and I respect him very much."

The Americans couldn't add to their bronze medal from the team competition. Jonathan Horton finished ninth and Sasha Artemev was 12th.

Yang appeared moved during the medals ceremony, looking down often at the piece of gold he cradled in his hands, but he hammed it up afterward. With the medal now in his hands, he held it up to one group of Chinese fans and pretended he was going to throw it at them.

He didn't, of course, laughing and walking over to show it off to another cheering crowd.

Swimming

Shocking news from the pool: Michael Phelps finished second in something today, but it was merely in qualifying for the 200 medley finals.

Phelps actually won his heat, but teammate and top foe Ryan Lochte was 0.01 faster in his, which means he gets the coveted middle lane for their Friday showdown in which Phelps will be looking for his sixth medal in Beijing and 12th of his Olympic career.

Perhaps the bigger shocker was that neither set a world record because they sure were falling during the morning session at the Water Cube.

France's Alain Bernard moved back atop the 100-meter freestyle list, Liu Zige broke the 200-meter butterfly mark in winning China's first swimming medal of these games and Stephanie Rice and Australia smashed the standard by nearly 6 seconds in the 800-meter freestyle relay.

Japan's Kosuke Kitajima set an Olympics record in winning the 200-meter breaststroke, but he also got into the record books by becoming the first swimmer to sweep the two breaststroke events at consecutive Olympics.

American Jason Lezak, the anchor-leg star of Phelps' dramatic 400 free relay gold, added a bronze to his collection in the 100 free. Katie Hoff, Natalie Coughlin and their U.S. teammates took bronze in the 800 free relay.

Men's Soccer

Promise Isaac and Victor Obinna scored to lead Nigeria over a short-handed United States team 2-1, earning a place in the quarterfinals and eliminating the Americans. The United States played a man short from the third minute when defender Michael Orozco was ejected for swinging his elbow into Solomon Okoronkwo's chest while the players wrestled for the ball. Also advancing to the quarterfinals were the Netherlands, Cameroon, Belgium and Ivory Coast.

Boxing

Zou Shiming became a national hero for winning China's first boxing medal with a bronze in Athens in 2004. The Chinese light flyweight began his effort for China's first boxing gold medal in style with an 11-2 victory over Eduard Bermudez of Venezuela.

American Deontay Wilder won his first-round match in heavyweight boxing competition with a 10-4 decision over Abdeoaziz Touiobini of Algeria. Tied after three rounds, Wilder outpointed his opponent 6-0 in the fourth and final round. He next fights Mohammed Arjaoui of Morocco. And light flyweight Luis Yanez won his opening bout with a 12-9 win over Jose Kelvin de la Nieve of Spain. His next opponent is Serdamba Purevdorj of Mongolia.

Tennis

Roger Federer, who wept after losing to Thomas Berdych of the Czech Republic four years ago in Athens, avenged the loss with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory to reach the quarterfinals.

It was Federer's biggest victory since he lost to Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon last month, and the two could meet in the Olympics final Sunday after Nadal beat Igor Andreev of Russia, 6-4, 6-2.

Venus Williams, playing her first tournament since winning Wimbledon for the fifth time, also reached the final eight by defeating No. 12 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-3, 6-2.

Baseball

The U.S. baseball team lost to Korea, 8-7, in the opening game for both teams.

The Americans scored three times in the ninth to go up 7-6, but Korea scored twice in the bottom half.

Diving

The Chinese made it 4-for-4 when Wang Feng and Qin Kai won the 3-meter springboard.

The Americans are in danger of a second straight medal shutout after Chris Colwill and Jevon Tarantino finished fourth. The pair was in third headed into the final round, but Tarantino botched his entry.

Cycling

Kristin Armstrong became the second American female cyclist to win an Olympic gold, beating Britain's Emma Pooley in the road time trial. Armstrong joined only Connie Carpenter-Phinney, who won the road race at Los Angeles 24 years ago, as U.S. women's cycling gold medalists.

Levi Leipheimer won the bronze in the men's time trial to move USA Cycling within one medal of tying its haul from the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Wrestling

Eighteen-year-old Jake Deitchler, the youngest U.S. Olympic wrestler in 32 years, dropped his opening-round match, then lost again in the repechage round of the Greco-Roman 66-kilogram competition to exit the Olympics with an 0-2 record.

The United States, last year's world Greco champion, hasn't gotten a medal yet in two days in Beijing with three wrestlers to go today.

Manuchar Kvirkelia gave Georgia its first Olympic wrestling gold medal by winning the Greco-Roman 74-kilogram weight class, and Steeve Guenot won France's first gold medal in 84 years by taking the Greco-Roman 66-kilogram weight.

Water Polo

The U.S. played to a 9-9 tie with Italy after Elisa Casanova scored a power-play goal with 22 seconds left for the Italians. American Kami Craig got a final shot at victory with 2 seconds to play, but it came up short of the goal.

Women's Basketball

Lisa Leslie set a U.S. Olympic record going 7-for-7 from the field as the women's team continued its unblemished run through the Beijing Games with a 97-41 victory against Mali. The Americans won their 28th straight Olympic contest; the last loss was against the Unified Team in the semifinals of the 1992 Barcelona Games.

In other games, Latvia rallied to beat Brazil 79-78, Russia held off Belarus 71-65, China routed New Zealand 80-63, Australia topped South Korea 90-62, and Spain beat the Czech Republic 74-55.

Women's Volleyball

The U.S. women's volleyball team scored a 3-1 victory over Venezuela to improve to 2-1 in preliminary pool play.

The team played with "Wiz" written on their arms and shoulders in marker in honor of 2004 teammate Elisabeth "Wiz" Bachman McCutcheon. Her father was killed and her mother seriously injured in a stabbing attack last week in Beijing.

Beach volleyball

Americans Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers advanced to the beach volleyball medal round with a straight-sets victory over Argentina.

(Aug. 14, 2008)