VOLLEYBALL: For the first time ever, the United States men are kings of the FIVB World League. In a stirring gold medal victory yesterday, the U.S. dispatched Serbia in four games, 26-24, 23-25, 25-23, 25-22. Host nation Brazil, still stunned from its straight-sets loss to the Americans, lost the bronze match in four to Russia.

BADMINTON: The sport of the shuttlecock, examined in detail here over the weekend, will feature record diversity next month, in large part because eight of the 50 participating nations will be from Africa. Uganda, South Africa, Nigeria, Mauritius, Egypt, Seychelles, Zambia and Algeria will participate in 2008, up from just South Africa four years ago.

GYMNASTICS: China may have another scandal on its hands, as top women's competitors He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan may not be old enough to compete. The International Gymnastics Federation has set a minimum age of 16, but newspaper accounts and public statements have quoted the two gymnasts' ages as 13 and 14.

CYCLING: On the same day as the Tour de France closed with numerous doping violations and a top Danish cyclist tested positive for EPO, the BBC unleashed an investigation that seems to point to cash payments to cycling's governing body in regards to keirin. The high-speed velodrome sprint variant has been in the Olympics since 1996, but documents show that Japan's keirin association paid up to $3 million dollars to the Union Cycliste Internationale to get its sport on the program.

An aside and a clarification, dear readers: many see wholesale sporting corruption as an excuse to ignore the Olympics. While this blog does not endorse same, it is absolutely riveted and fascinated by stories like this. How far will people go to achieve their selfish ends on the world's biggest stage? Sports have the power to reflect and refract every single facet of human nature.

And in China...

Anyone who thinks cheating is a new Olympic phenomenon is cordially reminded of the 1960's, when Communist nations attempted to enter athletes of vague sexuality in women's competitions -- Tamara and Irina Press of the Soviet Union come to mind. So that doesn't happen again, the Peking Union Medical College Hospital will host a gender determination lab.

The odd-even license plate restriction and plant shutdowns resulted in a couple of clear days last week, but it's becoming readily apparent that Beijing's attempts to clear away its soupy smog are not working. James Reynolds' daily particulate matter readings are off the charts. To illustrate the problem, here are Reuters' photos taken from its offices over the past six days.

The local government guaranteed clean air for the Games, but is now considering banning 90 percent of cars in a last-ditch effort to increase breathability. Australia has given its athletes the option to pull out if the smog is too unbearable.

Journalists from all over the world are arriving at the press center to find that the Internet isn't working as well as promised.

Japanese reporters said click-through connections would not work. Connections drop out frequently and several organisations, including the Australian Olympic Committee, say the speed is up to 10 times slower than in Australia. One picture takes at least two minutes to send.

There are concerns that once the 22,000 media expected at the Games arrive, connections will become even slower.

Additionally, BOCOG admitted that police officers got out of hand while attempting to control crowds at last week's final ticket sale. The good news is that the Beijing Games are officially sold out, the first Summer Olympics to sell all available tickets.

After double-checking the IOC's rules about political protests, German athletes will wear t-shirts with slogans like "Free Tibet" and "Sport for Human Rights" at their federation's official residence.

(Photo © Icon SMI)