KEY POINTS:
Herald chief sports writer David Leggat picks eight moments that defined the first week of the Beijing Games, not including that man Phelps.
1
Four years ago, American shooter Matt Emmons had gold in his sights, but with his last shot he had a brain freeze and
fired at the wrong target. It was as if he'd four putted from two feet on the 18th green to blow a major.
Afterwards a Czech Republic shooter offered her commiserations. They fell in love, married and on the first day of Games competition, with her husband looking on, Katerina Emmons won the 10m air rifle gold with an Olympic record, making up for the one he had missed.
2
Chinese shooter Du Li had been expected to defend her Olympic title in that 10m air rifle event. But redemption came on Thursday.
She got her gold in the 50m rifle three position event, and did it with an Olympic final record.
She won in Athens on August 14, and repeated it on the same date this week. "Maybe August 14 is my lucky day," she quipped between sobs.
3
Benjamin Boukpeti became the first African Olympic canoeist at Athens. When he arrived in Beijing he had set his sights on being the first from his continent to win a medal.
And on Thursday, on the tricky Shunyi slalom course he did it, getting the bronze medal. It is Togo's first medal of any sort at the Olympics. "I don't really know yet what this represents for the country. I just tried my best and paddled very, very hard," he said. A total of 1,088 scholarships _ designed to help weaker, or poorer nations progress in sports they are not strong in _ were awarded to 166 national Olympic committees in 21 individual sports.
4
Chinese joy knew no bounds in the battle of the little bendy girls _ AKA the women's (?) artistic team gymastics final.
And with it, the hosts secured their first Olympic gold in the event. Questions have been asked about whether the girls are old enough, 16 being the required age. You'd ask them too if you took an up-close look.
There were tears of delight, where earlier tears of despair had trickled down Chen Fei's face after she fell off the beam, which could have opened the door to the United States team. Luckily for them the US had the wobbles too, notably Alicia Sacramone's double bungle on the beam and floor.
When it came to the final floor routine, the Chinese, with gold virtually in bag, pranced about looking just like kids having fun. Which they were.
5
India had never won an individual Olympic gold until Abinhav Bindra fired his final shot in the men's 10m air rifle event.
The 24-year-old from Chandigarh, who comes from a wealthy family, is so dedicated to his sport that he had built an air-conditioned range in his backyard, as you do.
In Sydney he was India's youngest ever Olympian at 15. And to cap it off he beat the defending champion Zhu Qinan to win gold.
6
The fencing is always dramatic, often spectacular. When Italian Maria Valentina Vezzali clinched her third successive Olympic individual foil gold _ the first woman to do so _ it was all too much. She was carried aloft round the stage by her coach before breaking into tears and dramatically falling to the floor. The winning touch against South Korean Nam Hyun-hee was registered just four seconds before the contest went into overtime.
7
Britain had not won a swimming gold since Adrian Moorhouse in 1988. And a woman at the top of the dais? Go back to Rome, 1960 and Anita Lonsborough. But 19-year-old Rebecca Adlington put that statistic to bed in the 400m freestyle. Cue tears as God Save The Queen rang round the Water Cube. What's more Joanne Jackson took the bronze to make it a double British celebration.
8
And, finally, the worst sight of the Games so far? It's hard to top Hungarian weightlifter Janos Baranyai, in the 77kg division. He tore his right elbow trying to hoist 148kg. His arm buckled and the weight crashed down back on his arm. The elbow finished up at a 90 degree angle _ pointing the wrong way. He cried out in pain and was stretchered off.
