Day 3 is underway, but here are a few storylines from the end of Day 2.

What are the Olympics? To Verizon TV subscribers, the answer comes in an impressive run-on sentence. "Athletically gifted individuals from all over the globe make their way to Beijing to compete in the world's most celebrated sporting event that occurs every four years as they compete for glory, honor, respect and the coveted gold medal."

BASKETBALL: The United States "Redeem Team," looking to regain an Olympic championship that eluded the country in 2004, opened play with an acrobatic and dominant 101-70 win in front of a packed, noisy crowd late last night. Kobe Bryant (above) had 13 points for the Americans. It was a Yao Ming hit a 3-pointer in the opening seconds, and Dwayne Wade of the U.S. had five dunks (not an official statistic).

Late night in Beijing, as Day 2 draws to a close. Here's a small taste of what's going on around the Games of the 29th Olympiad. And the BBC blog has picked up the empty seats story, BTW.

HANDBALL: One of this blog's official teams is the Denmark men's handballers, which have not been to the Olympics since 1984 and seem to be a good-natured, hard-drinking bunch. They earned the right to be here by winning the 2008 European championship against Athens 2004 champions Croatia. The team is coached by Ulrik Wilbek, responsible for leading Denmark's women to the Olympics for the first time back in 1996. (They won three straight golds, but have something of a faded legacy.)

As afternoon turns to evening on a rainy Beijing day, here's the latest from the various venues. A side note: the Chinese pop music played during breaks and timeouts is of the highest quality.

CYCLING: Through pouring rain and mechanical problems in the final lap, Nicole Cooke (above) edged out the field in the women's road race, earning Great Britain its first gold medal of 2008. Cooke recovered from a chain slip and finished milliseconds ahead of Emma Johansson (SWE) and Tatiana Guderzo (ITA), who took silver and bronze respectively. Cooke covered the 78-mile distance in 3:32:24, and will probably put a new front-page picture on her website soon.

This blog is watching the wet scenery slosh by at the women's cycling road race, and trying to figure out how all those tennis matches are going to be rescheduled. As the rain falls in Beijing, let's check in on events.

One thing we heard in the run-up to the Games was that every single ducat was sold out... there were even riots over the final distribution. Which leads to this question: why are there so many empty seats? Above is a shot from the field hockey venue during China-Spain women's game. Other wide shots from BOB show people disguised as seats at other venues, even the indoor ones. What's the deal?

SHOOTING: Georgia's air pistol bronze medalist Nino Salukvadze hugged Russian silver winner Natalia Paderina rival on the podium, and later called for peace.

"We live in the 21st Century, after all," said Salukvadze, who wiped tears from her eyes when she put her pistol down after her final shot and the crowd applauded. "We shouldn't really stoop so low to wage wars against each other."

It's raining in Beijing this early afternoon, and it's having an effect on tennis and beach volleyball, especially. The women's cycling road race starts in a few hours, we'll see if it's postponed or goes on as planned.

SHOOTING: Wenjun Guo of China won the 10m air pistol for women with an Olympic record performance. But just hours after Russian newspaper Pravda reported that Georgia was pulling out of the Games, Georgian shooter Nino Salukvadze earned a bronze medal. Salukvadze once competed for the Soviet Union and won two medals: gold in the sporting pistol and silver in this event back at Seoul 1988. It was the 13th medal since Georgia became independent, and will hopefully mean that the athletes are staying despite the state of war in their home country.