Whether you call outdoor volleyball "beach" (as the international community does) or "sand" (the preferred term of the American collegiate governing body), it's become big-time since its addition to the Olympic program for Atlanta 1996. The draw for the Games was revealed yesterday, and despite American dominance in the qualifying points, the men's and women's top spots will be taken by Xu Linyin/Wu Penggen and Tian Jia/Wang Jie, respectively. It's because of a FIVB rule that places a host-nation pair at the top if it's in the top six.

That won't likely faze the Olympic champion U.S. women's team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, who continued a record streak yesterday in Long Beach with their 99th consecutive match win.

ATHLETICS: A day after he lost the 100m to his countryman and rival Asafa Powell at the London Grand Prix, Jamaican WFM Usain Bolt dropped the hammer with a stunning 19.76-second performance in the 200m. It's well-known in track circles that Bolt favors the "two," but his coach is downplaying talk of a double.

DIVING: The Olympic teams had already been chosen, but the U.S. diving championships were held yesterday. At a boiling Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in California, Beijing-bound David Boudia and Thomas Finchum won the national synchronized 10m platform title with 464.04 points. The gold medal at Athens 2004 was won with 383.88.

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IOC President Jacques Rogge expects 40 drug busts next month at the Olympics, citing increased testing and unprecedented technology in the endless cat-and-mouse game of doping. There were 26 positive cases in Athens four years ago, and zero at Tokyo 1964. Doesn't mean nobody was doing it, though.

And in China...

The first full national delegation to set up shop in Beijing? Poland!

An important part of any Olympics, the posters, are now for sale. A total of 100,000 were printed and available for 10 yuan (US $1.46) each. None have shown up on eBay as of press time -- but at that price, certain visitors to Beijing will be surely using them to subsidize travel expenses.

A lot's been made about Olympic-related crackdowns in and around Beijing -- on smog, fun, and targeted undesirables, among other things. According to a local columnist, these tough policies don't extend to motorists who openly flout the restricted lane for Olympics-only travel.

When I drove on the Fourth Ring Road, I saw some cars without special passes issued by the organizing committee running in the "Olympic lane" right under the watchful look of some policemen, who, however, made no attempt to stop it. I felt somewhat resentful and believed that most other drivers who stuck to the legal lanes felt the same, for it so happened - despite the seemingly unreal coincidence - that the radio was broadcasting instant comments from some listeners on the same topic.

(Photo via FIVB)