Merrill Moses may have won silver as the goalkeeper for the U.S. men's water polo team, but he has no medal to show for it after thieves broke into his parents' California home. Moses and his parents were in Jamaica celebrating his engagement, and while they were there, his medal, a ring and watch from the U.S. Olympic Committee and several other items were stolen. From Recordnet.com:

"It was really a pretty glorious event before I heard about my house being robbed," Marlene Moses [Merrill's mother] said. "They took an enormous amount of stuff, but I'm focusing on the watch, the ring and that medal, because it can't be replaced."

The stupidity of a criminal is rarely in doubt, but these ones just may take the cake. They stole a rare, easily identifiable item. As seen in the picture, the medal is silver, hangs from a red ribbon and has a circle of jade on one side. They also made several trips between the Moses house and their van, and were scared away by a neighbor opening their

Two-time Olympian Johnny Weir's new book will hit bookstores on Tuesday, and in it he says that he is gay. Previously, the figure skater has avoided questions on sexuality, but says now that he's coming out to support other members of the gay community who are afraid to come out.

"With people killing themselves and being scared into the closet, I hope that even just one person can gain strength from my story," Weir told People.

He said that he never felt that he was "in the closet," and he has often questioned the importance of labels.

[Related: Hollywood star to play gay rugby player]

Weir has always marched to the beat of his own drum, whether he was wearing a costume with "man cleavage," judging a fashion reality show, giving make-up tips, or finding inspiration in Lady Gaga. At times, his actions have brought criticism, like when he wore fur on his costume to the U.S. Figure Skating National Championships. (After pressure from animal rights groups, he changed his costume for

After two days, 10 runners and 216.9 kilometers, all that was left between Natsuki Terada and a victory for his university team in the final stage of the Tokyo-Hakone relay marathon was one city block of pavement.

But then the college freshman took a wrong turn:

Terada and his Kokugakuin University ultra-marathon team were in eighth place at the time of his error. Remarkably, he recovered from the error and still finished ahead of one other runner in the pack, which ensured that the team finished in 10th place and earned the final automatic qualification for next year's race.

[See also: Three Los Angeles Lakers oversleep due to faulty iPhones]

It's easy to sit on our computers and laugh at Terada's error (clearly the television truck couldn't go the final block; was he expecting it to cross the finish line?), but after running 23 kilometers in front of thousands of cheering fans on national television, it's easy to understand how the young runner made the mistake.

[Video: NBA star

When he won a gold medal at the 2000 Olympics, American wrestler Rulon Gardner weighed 286 pounds. A few months ago, he tipped the scales at 474. He knew something had to be done.

Gardner hopes to accomplish his weight-loss goals while competing on the hit NBC reality show "The Biggest Loser." The 11th season of the program began on Tuesday night, with Gardner competing to lose the most weight and earn a $250,000 prize.

[Photos: See the rest of the 'Biggest Loser' Season 11 cast]

At the Sydney Games in 2000, Gardner pulled one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history when he earned a 1-0 victory over Russian wrestler Alexander Karelin in the Greco-Roman super-heavyweight division. Karelin hadn't lost an international match in 13 years and was 59-0 in Olympic competition. He hadn't so much as given up a single point in six years and was the three-time defending gold medalist. Gardner stunned him in overtime of their match, an upset on par with the Miracle on Ice.

Now he's hoping for

Organizers of the Rio Olympics are on the defensive after similarities between the logo for the 2016 Games and a Colorado-based charity foundation were discovered.

The logo, which was released on New Year's Eve at a massive celebration at Copacabana beach, depicts figures embracing in a circular motion. It was soon noticed that the design resembles the logo for The Telluride Foundation, a Colorado charity chaired by Norman Schwarzkopf.

Here's the Rio logo:

And the one for The Telluride Foundation:

Take away the legs and the red dancer from the Telluride logo and you have Rio's. It's undeniably similar. But is it plagiarism?

The director of the Brazilian agency that created the logo says no. Fred Gelli acknowledges that there are similarities between the two, but guaranteed that his design was original. "For some reason, we missed that one," he said.

[Photos: See London's 2012 Olympic venues]

I posed the plagiarism question to Dan Levy, a graphic designer who also hosts a popular

Last week on Fourth-Place Medal, we mentioned that Vancouver Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn would be appearing on the cover of ESPN The Magazine's film issue dressed as Sharon Stone from "Basic Instinct." This weekend, we caught our first glimpse of the cover. As far as re-creations go, this one is about as accurate as can be.

[Photos: Vonn poses for 'Sports Illustrated' swimsuit issue]

Vonn tried her hand at acting earlier this year when she appeared as a desk clerk during the final episode of "Law and Order." The two-time Olympic medalist had lobbied for a role on the program (her favorite) and creator Dick Wolf was happy to oblige.

After a seven-month break from competitive skiing, Vonn returned to the slopes late last month for her 2010-11 season debut in Austria, where she finished a distant 18th in the giant slalom. This weekend she'll appear in her hometown of Vail at the first North American World Cup meet of the season.

The

TooFab, a spin-off of TMZ, is refuting TMZ's report that Michael Phelps is dating socialite/reality star/aspiring jewelery designer Brittny Gastineau and that's he's still with his current girlfriend Miss California USA 2010 Nicole Johnson.

(How many days is it until London?)

If we're going to lilnk Phelps romantically with every person he's photographed with, it's only a matter of time before TMZ reports tgat he's "been seen" with Jared from Subway. Turns out Phelps was one of many athletes to help the formerly-overweight Jared train for the New York City Marathon earlier this month.

Athens silver-medalist and defending NY Marathon champion Meb Keflezighi was also part of the Subway promotion.

Already this year, Lindsey Vonn has been a Sports Illustrated cover girl, become America's Olympic sweetheart after winning Olympic gold and made a cameo on the longest running drama in television history. So what better way to end the greatest year of her life than dressing up like a sex-crazed, homicidal crime writer from an 18-year old movie on the cover of a magazine?

Vonn will appear on the cover of the upcoming issue of ESPN The Magazine dressed like Sharon Stone's character, Catherine Trammel, from the film "Basic Instinct." It's part of the mag's film issue, which hits newsstands on Friday.

You can watch a behind-the-scenes video of Vonn's transformation to a 1990s-era Sharon Stone here. The resemblence is uncanny, but there's one major difference between Stone in the film and Vonn in the photo shoot: Vonn isn't holding a cigarette. (What, you thought I was talking about something else?)