LONDON (AP) — Around the 2012 Olympics and its host city with journalists from The Associated Press bringing the flavor and details of the games to you:
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EXPLAINER: SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING
If synchronized swimming looks easy to you, then the team in the pool is doing its job.
One of the criteria used to judge routines is how easy the swimmers make it look. The harder the routine, and the easier it looks, the bigger the score on a 100-point scale.
The sport is a combination of swimming, ballet and acrobatics that requires complex and sometimes frenetic movements underwater to make what happens above the water look so graceful.
The teams perform elaborate routines using skills like sculling (using your hands under water to get your body moving), lifting (when swimmers band together to propel a teammate out of the water) and the essential eggbeater kick (to tread water).
Routines are scored on technical merit and artistry. Judges look both at the presentation above the water and the techniques used to under water to make it all happen.
— Jon Krawczynski — Twitter http://twitter.com/APKrawczynski
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RUSSIANS FALTER
Future NBA teammates Andrei Kirilenko and Alexey Shved helped the Russians steamroll into the men's basketball semifinals, using teamwork and synergy to spark the offense.
But they were nowhere to be found Friday in the semifinal against Spain. Kirilenko had 10 points and eight rebounds, but he missed 10 of his 12 shots and five free throws. He says he was bothered by a quadriceps injury in the quarterfinals.
"He wasn't the guy we've seen all tournament," Russian coach David Blatt says.
Shved also struggled, managing two points on 1-for-6 shooting, six rebounds and four assists.
Both will play for the Minnesota Timberwolves next season.
— Jon Krawczynski — Twitter http://twitter.com/APKrawczynski
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SURGING SPAIN
Early in his rookie NBA season, Ricky Rubio told Kobe Bryant that Spain was going to beat the U.S. in the Olympics.
Unfortunately Rubio was only watching Spain in London. The Minnesota Timberwolves guard is recovering from a torn ACL and is unavailable. So instead of wearing his white Spanish jersey in the semifinal against Russia, Rubio was wearing a green T-shirt and watching from the stands.
But he's on the right track thinking that Spain is not bad. Spain just beat Russia 67-59 and could face the U.S. in the gold-medal game if the Americans top Argentina later Friday. — Jon Krawczynski — Twitter http://twitter.com/APKrawczynski
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QUICKQUOTE: PAU ON DWIGHT
"It puts us in a position of trying to win the championship and going after it. There's going to be expectations of being a very strong and powerful team, and we like that." — Lakers forward Pau Gasol on the acquisition of Dwight Howard.
— Jon Krawczynski — Twitter http://twitter.com/APKrawczynski
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GORDON GOT HIS RUN
Track official Gordon Staines has two special words for Usain Bolt: Thank you!
Staines is the guy who fired the gun to start the men's 200 meter final, and he's downright thrilled that Bolt and his other competitors stayed "steady" at the start of the race and that no one had to be disqualified.
"You only get one false start," he said Friday. "I know I breathed a big, big sigh of relief when the gun went and they went and there was no recall."
Staines is one of the thousands of people who perform those anonymous tasks that make the Olympics happen. But who would want the job of potentially disqualifying Bolt?
He's been doing this for 25 years, though, and the nerves were steady. And to take part, in London no less, was "the icing on the cake."
"You can't get any higher than the Olympics," he said.
— Danica Kirka — Twitter http://twitter.com/danicakirka
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NO TEAM? COMPETE FOR US
If she had won a gold medal, which flag would Shara Proctor have draped around her shoulders?
The 23-year-old athlete lives in Florida and hails from Anguilla, a Caribbean island of around 15,500 people close to Puerto Rico.
But the long jumper competes for Britain, under rules linked to the U.K.'s colonial past.
While three of Britain's 14 overseas territories have their own Olympic teams in London — Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands — other ex-colonies don't have International Olympic Committees and so can't field a squad.
Proctor was handed a spot by the Great Britain team, placing 9th in the women's high jump.
"We are very proud to have her," British foreign minister Alistair Burt said Friday.
— David Stringer - Twitter http://twitter.com/david_stringer
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RAY'S RETURN
London has changed quite a bit since 89-year-old Ray Lumpp came to compete in the 1948 Olympics.
Lumpp recalled St. Paul's Cathedral as being a dome surrounded by rubble. He remembered the food rationing and the military barracks at Uxbridge where the U.S. basketball team slept.
But what impressed him the most was the warmth and resilience of the British people, who put on the games even though they were struggling themselves.
"Whatever the British people had, they shared with us," he said.
The gold medalist is back in the capital as a special guest of the U.S. men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski — a little special something to motivate the team.
— Danica Kirka — Twitter http://Twitter.com/danicakirka
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FANCY FOOTWORK
Running, jumping and swimming are all fine, but who will win Olympic gold for celebratory dancing?
These games have offered some shining examples, from boxer Claressa Shields' combination jig-and-fist bump to Serena Williams' "Crip Walk" on center court at Wimbledon.
My bronze dancing medal goes to Kenyan runner Ezekiel Kemboi, who celebrated steeplechase gold with a hip-swiveling, arm-shaking peacock dance.
Silver goes to German discus thrower Robert Harting. On winning gold, the behemoth roared, ripped his shirt to shreds like the Incredible Hulk, grabbed a German flag, ran a lap of the track over the hurdles and then tried to wrench one of the burning torches from the Olympic cauldron. Not so much a dance as a force of nature.
The gold medal is awarded to — who's surprised? — Usain Bolt, for his supremely confident response to winning the 200 meters on Thursday. The self-proclaimed living legend glided across the finish line, placed an index finger to his lips in a silent reproach to those who had doubted him, then dropped to the track and did some push-ups.
The crowd went wild.
— Jill Lawless http://Twitter.com/JillLawless
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PADDLE PARTY
For anyone who missed the U.S. women's eight rowing to a second straight Olympic gold medal last week, there was another chance. Sort of.
The women took to the water in paddleboats for an appearance Friday in London's Regents Park, dressed in USA gear and wearing the gold medals around their necks.
"You get to see us now!" Susan Francia said with a smile before getting into the boat.
— Janie McCauley — Twitter http://twitter.com/janiemccAP
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FLAT CHUCK
A television crew from NBC affiliate WTHR in Indianapolis has been toting around its meteorologist for the entire games. Or, at least, one version of its meteorologist.
The crew is trying to get as many athletes and celebrities as possible to pose with a cutout of Chuck Lofton. On Thursday, entertainer Ryan Seacrest went along with the gag.
Looking into the television camera as he held out the miniature picture of Lofton, the diminutive Seacrest told the meteorologist, "Chuck, you might be bigger than me."
Check out Flat Chuck with swimmer Allison Schmidt here: http://pic.twitter.com/A5T27mkU
— Jenna Fryer — Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer
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PARTY IN FLINT
Claressa Shields' hometown of Flint, Michigan, has been celebrating this week after the teen boxing sensation punched her way to an Olympic gold medal.
Mayor Dayne Walling and City Councilman Bryant Nolden invited city residents to a local bar to watch the 17-year-old's gold medal match against Nadezda Torlopova of Russia. Shields won the middleweight bout 19-12
Shields' father, Clarence, was among the about 200 people who attended the free viewing event in downtown Flint. He took to a knee to pray after watching his daughter receive her medal.
The mayor said "the atmosphere was electric" as people watched a young product of the struggling community's schools and youth sports programs reach the peak of her craft.
— David N. Goodman — Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidngoodman
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A YEAR'S TRANSFORMATION
One year ago, Woolwich was ablaze. The southeast London town was consumed by summer riots that destroyed shops, horrified locals and left Olympics organisers aghast.
Now the only flames burning in Woolwich are those of the Olympic cauldron, beamed from a giant TV screen across the tranquil town square.
It's a world away from last year's violence. Residents sit on clipped lawns, surrounded by floral borders, captivated by the live broadcast of games events in their back yard. Hundreds of spectators have gathered here to cheer Usain Bolt on.
On the face of it, multi-cultural Woolwich is a shining example of what organizers hope the Olympic Games will bring to London's most deprived areas.
But there's also fear that the economic cracks and despair have only been papered over.
When the inspiring Olympic athletes go home and the London 2012 banners come down, will there be enough hope left so the youths who felt compelled to smash windows and raid businesses don't do so again?
Stay tuned.
— Toby Goode — Twitter http://twitter.com/tobyjgoode
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GATOR PRIDE
If athletes from the University of Florida comprised their own country in the Olympics, they'd give many nations a run for their money.
Gator athletes had another big day Thursday, when triple jumpers Christian Taylor and Will Claye won gold and silver, soccer players Abby Wambach and Heather Mitts were part of the U.S. women's gold medal winning squad and Melanie Booth of Canada got bronze on her national team's effort.
The triple jumpers, Wambach and swimmers Ryan Lochte and Conor Dwyer reveled in the Gator success on Friday and posed for pictures together doing the trademark Gator chomp.
"Gator nation is the best," says Lochte, winner of five swimming medals in London. "We've worked hard. I've personally seen most of the athletes working out. We push our bodies to the limit and that's why we did so well."
He continued: "And you know what? We're like a big family so we always help each other out. No matter what sport it is, we come together and work toward the goal."
— Jenna Fryer — Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer
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EDITOR'S NOTE — "Eyes on London" shows you the Olympics through the eyes of Associated Press journalists across the 2012 Olympic city and around the world. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.