Get them while they glitter

American gymnast Aly Raisman won a bronze medal for the balance beam last night, but only because her coaches filed a protest.  Her original scores put her in fourth place, but the American coaching contingent claimed she was scored too low.  All gymnasts could say that, but in this case they thought she was not given enough credit for what she did, not how. The judges eventually agreed and amended her score, knocking Catalina Podor of Romania down to fourth.

I like it when Americans win medals, but it takes a little of the shine off them when they do it like that.  Nevertheless, Raisman showed them all what she's made of by winning the floor exercise with a nearly flawless routine that left no doubt in anybody's mind as to who was best.

We have fielded some really good teams in the team sports.  In basketball, both the men and women are undefeated, both the men's and women's water polo and volleyball squads are into the quarterfinals, and in soccer, the American women will play Japan tomorrow night for the gold.

Oh, yeah -- it can be safely predicted that the U.S. will win the gold medal for women's beach volleyball since the two two-person teams in the finals are both from the United States.

Day 11 Quote of the Day (Aly Raisman, with arms raised above her head in the standard salute to the judges at the conclusion of her spectacular floor exercise):  "Wow."

Yes, it was.