Meanwhile, the eight-gold quest by a certain American swimmer is generating a new Stateside disorder called Phelps Phatigue, but the most decorated Olympic champion ever is generating little interest in China. There were 500 empty seats at yesterday's morning session, and his world records was only good for page 30 mentions in the local press. Chinese fans are more interested in hoops.

“The N.B.A. is best,” said Yang Xiu, 23, who works at a newspaper kiosk in the main press center at the Olympics. “We watch almost every game. We know almost every detail, how tall a player is, who can shoot, who can pass. I know Phelps’s race, but I am more familiar with the N.B.A. I can’t swim, but I can play basketball.”

GYMNASTICS: Yang Wei's gold in the men's all-around was the first for China since Li Xiaoshuang at Los Angeles 1984. Li once famously said that a true all-around champion must master all apparatuses, and Yang has a historic weakness -- the high bar. This might have been his second consecutive all-around gold if not for a disaster with a slipped grip at Athens 2004 (he repeated the mistake at last year's World Championship)... but as the Chinese fans held their collective breath, Yang registered the passable, B-plus score of 14.775. He scored 16's in vault, rings and parallel bars, and won the title by three overall points -- a greater distance than separated silver and 22nd.

BADMINTON: Lin "Super" Dan has been a favorite topic of this blog for several months, and the world's No. 1 shuttler will play a men's singles quarterfinal tonight against considerably overmatched Peter Hoeeg Gade of Denmark. It might be hard to understand in countries that require sports celebrities to be easily-cubbyholed cartoon sketches, but Lin is all things to all people in his native China.

Lin has been compared to John McEnroe for his temper, to Jimmy Connors for his relationship with the badminton beauty Xie Xingfang, even to Latrell Sprewell after he allegedly punched his coach.

“He’s more like Kobe Bryant,” said Bob Malaythong, a badminton doubles player for the United States. “He’s pretty cocky, pretty arrogant, but he thrives on that, he needs that.”

SHOOTING: Guo Wenjun, who won the women's air pistol competition, revealed that she was abandoned by her father at an early age. She was so sad about it that she quit her sport on two different occasions, and once sat outside her home for a week when a man resembling him was seen in the area. Her coach, who received a note from Guo's father upon his disappearance in 1999, told her that winning a gold medal would perhaps attract his attention and lead to a return. Spurred on by that idealistic idea, she set a world record in her event on Sunday.

Now the story has captured the nation's attention, and there are an estimated 10,000 Chinese helping her in her search online. Combined with the legendary status granted to anonymous torch protector Second Brother on the Right, it's becoming clear that there's a real poetic, quixotic nature to the Chinese national character. Never judge a country by its government.