London Olympics

LONDON -- For the Olympic Summer of Love, the IOC insists on an official form of protection. Kidding aside, you know the Games are creeping to an end when these stories start to pop up in the second week. News gets a little slower, a little sillier. For instance, there was a TV crew doing a piece on the chair massage station in the Main Press Center. But back to the controversy. The Guardian newspaper detailed the story of unofficial condoms ending up in the Olympic Village.

LONDON -- If Michael Phelps has positioned himself as the retiring elder statesman of U.S. swimming, on the receiving end of a tweet and a call from President Obama, Ryan Lochte might be edging toward the role of swimming's bad boy. Lochte proclaimed these Olympics "my time" for months in advance, then won two gold medals in six events. He swam his last event on Thursday night and promptly embarked on a media blitz, including appearances on NBC, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Eurosport, E!

There are a few things presidential candidates shouldn't do when they travel abroad: Don't bash the president, don't apologize for America, and don't insult the host country. Mitt Romney certainly knows not to do the first two. But his international jaunt, which began Wednesday in London, got off to an awkward start when Romney questioned the city's preparedness for the 2012 Olympic Games. Shortly after he landed in London on Wednesday, Romney remarked on reports that the city had struggled with its preparation for the Games.

Join the Team USA-Spain chat below!  

Watching the five-hour opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics was a fun game of "Spot The Song. " Mute the volume, and you were likely to miss selections from the Sex Pistols. Or the Jam. Or Adele. Or music from "Monty Python's Flying Circus. "  As directed by celebrated filmmaker Danny Boyle, these Olympics got a tuneful kickoff that traveled at the speed of sound across this history of British pop. Boyle is known for his inventive uses of music in films: "Trainspotting" turned a whole generation on to the music of Iggy Pop (among other legends)

LONDON -- David Beckham, the world's commuting global icon, materialized at the Olympic Games' BMX venue with his sons on Friday. He is everywhere, always, it seems. (Hey, the London Olympics trump those run-of-the-mill Galaxy training sessions at Home Depot Center in Carson.) He showed up at the beach volleyball venue to watch the all-American women's final on Wednesday night, which was won by Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings. There should be a Beckham Alert at every venue.

  LONDON -- So far, India has three medals at the Olympics, one silver and two bronze, as of early Monday evening. But this isn't about the medal count. Before the games, an Indian branch of the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency put together a tribute film, saying it wanted to capture "the blood, sweat, tears" that the Olympic athletes from India put into their work. Did the film accomplish that goal? In a word, yes. ALSO: U.S. women advance in 100 hurdles Marlen Esparza assures herself of a medal in women's boxing U.S. women advance in 1,500, but men's discus throwers are out