(Getty Images)

Look closely at the picture above (click here for a bigger version). What do you notice? Better yet, what don't you notice?

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings are sprawled out in the sand, a position they find themselves in more than a dozen times per match. They're surrounded by their sport's playing surface and it's kicked up all around them. But look at Kerri's legs. Check out Misty's arms and take special notice of her feet. There's no sand anywhere.

[ Photos: Decoding beach volleyball hand signals ]

I go to the beach, carefully sit down on a chair and somehow manage to get sand on my arms, behind my knees and on my neck. It manages to find its way into every opening of my iPhone and in between pages of books I haven't even opened. I can spend three minutes washing my feet and ankles at those outdoor showers and I still look like Lawrence of Arabia. I got back from the shore three weeks ago and still think I have some sand on my car keys. And heaven forbid you perspire on

Ouch.

Join us at 5 p.m. ET for a Fourth-Place Medal live chat during Team USA's Wednesday's quarterfinal matchup with Australia. We'll be cracking jokes, sharing observations, taking questions and talking about the game with fans like you.

France forward Nicolas Batum punched Spain guard Juan Carlos Navarro in the groin with 23 seconds left in Spain's 66-59 win during quarterfinal play in the men's basketball tournament at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

[ Related: After low blow, U.S. blows by Argentina ]

Moments earlier, with Spain leading by five, less than 30 seconds left on the clock and France needing to foul to extend the game, France center Ronny Turiaf delivered a hard foul to Spain swingman Rudy Fernandez, knocking him out of bounds. While the contact was solid, Fernandez did appear to accentuate its effects a bit, writhing in agony on the sideline until well after Turiaf, who fouled out on the play, exited the floor. The officials deemed Turiaf's hit an "unsportsmanlike foul," granting Spain two free throws — as Fernandez laid on the ground with an ice pack on his lower back, teammate Jose Calderon hit one of two from the line — and possession of the ball.

After the free throws and a Spanish timeout, France once again needed to foul, and this time, there was no question about Batum's intent, as he raced toward Navarro, cocked back his right fist and hauled off. Charitable sorts might have given Batum the benefit of the doubt by suggesting that he was trying to dislodge the basketball, which Navarro held below his waist, but the closed fist and the look on Batum's face told a different tale — one he backed up when asked about the play after the game.

"I wanted to give him a good reason to flop," Batum told Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski.

A day after defending Olympic gold-medal champion race walker Alex Schwazer was kicked out of the London Games for blood doping, the Italian gave a lengthy, tear-filled press conference proclaiming that he was actually happy he had been caught using illegal substances.

Former gold medal winning race walker Alex Schwazer — Getty Images

"When you wait for your girlfriend to go to train so that you can lock yourself in the bathroom and inject EPO in your veins so that no one will know, it's not nice," Schwazer said in an emotional press conference on Wednesday.

[ Related: Dismissed runner returns to win gold ]

"I'm not made to take drugs or to deceive people, and I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't wait for the whole thing to end."

A blood sample taken from Schwazer just before the opening of the Olympics tested positive for the substance erythropoietin, more commonly referred to as EPO, a substance which can increase the blood's oxygenation. EPO has been the synthetic drug of choice for endurance athletes, with the world-record-holding race walker's positive test just the latest EPO scandal to plague competitive race walking, let alone more popular and lucrative sports like competitive cycling.

[ Related: Diplomatic ruckus erupts over nationality of Kazakhstan gold medalists ]

In his comments on Wednesday, Schwazer swore he only took the drug in the month leading up to the London Games out of a desperate desire to defend his gold medal. According to Reuters, Schwazer obtained the drug in Turkey in September, after which he stored the drug in the refrigerator he shares with his girlfriend, world-champion figure skater Carolina Kostner.

Carolina Kostner

After telling Kostner that his EPO stores were actually vitamins for months, Schwazer said that he was relieved when he could finally own up to the duplicity he had used with both Kostner, his parents, teammates and the rest of the Italian public.

As Aly Raisman's parents have demonstrated during their daughter's triumphant U.S. trials and Olympics, you can be a loving, supportive parent and still be super obnoxious. These things aren't mutually exclusive.

But even folks who were put off by the spectacle Raisman's parents put on during the daughter's routines couldn't fault them for wildly cheering when Aly won a gold medal in the floor exercise on Tuesday night. A second gold medal and another bronze for a teenager who was an afterthought on Team USA behind her more decorated teammates Jordyn Wieber and Gabby Douglas? Go crazy, Raisman parents. Your daughter has earned it.

[ Related: Aly Raisman's surprising Olympic medal haul ]

One gentleman at the Greenwich Arena disagreed. An older fellow sitting behind Aly Raisman's parents was hilariously annoyed by their standing and cheering after Aly's routine. When the camera first cut to him, he stared at Rick Raisman and shook his head in disgust. A few seconds later, he shouted at

FPMLONDON — While I've been in the London Olympic Park before, I hadn't traveled from one end to the other until Wednesday. And now I need an IV drip for dehydration, and it'd be cool if they tossed in some pain meds...

I don't want to say that walking from the Greenway Gate to the BMX Stadium is an arduous journey, but the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy had slightly less walking. The Park is 2.5-square kilometers, but that's once you get inside the gates. Arrive via the West Ham tube stop — labeled as a primary entry point on official transit maps — and it's a nearly 30-minute walk to the the venue followed by another 30-minute walk to get across the venue.

[ Photos: London's best and worst Olympic venues ]

And "walk" is deceiving — it's more like, walk, stop, walk, wait for the family to take a photo, walk, uh-oh fat guy, walk, oh-crap-we're-stuck-in-the-beer-line, walk, "What do you mean the turn was back there?", stop, sneer, walk…

Luckily, the Olympic Park is filled with awesomeness when it's not simply being the Sidewalk From Hell. Among the things I observed in the last year (or hour that felt like a year).

Team USA enjoys a brief moment of elation when they thought they had beaten the Soviets (AP)LostLettermen.com is a college football and basketball website. Today it looks at the quest of one lawyer to get the 1972 Team USA men's basketball team duplicate gold medals.

It looks like a mere formality that the 2012 USA men's basketball team will be clutching gold medals after this Sunday's gold medal game in London. And if one Illinois lawyer has his way, the 1972 U.S. men's team will also soon be receiving their gold medals that many believe are 40 years overdue.

It was September 1972. Donald "Taps" Gallagher was about to start his freshman year at St. John's, where he would study law administration. After watching Team USA lose the controversial men's basketball gold medal match to the USSR, he found his first (pro bono) client.

"That was the only time I ever wanted to kick the TV in," Gallagher said. "I said that day, 'If I ever become a lawyer, I'm going to try and get them the gold medal.'"

Now 40 years later, Gallagher has a JD from Loyola University Chicago and he has kept his word.

The personal injury lawyer from Clarendon Hills, Ill. has written a book entirely devoted to the now-infamous game: Stolen Glory, co-authored with Mike Brewster. He also has petitioned the International Olympic Committee to get duplicate gold medals for Team USA because he believes the USSR was unfairly given two extra inbounds plays to pull out the 51-50 victory at the buzzer.

[Related: VIDEO: Gymnast strikes Heisman Trophy pose during routine]

(AP)

The New York Times has a fascinating write-up on the massive quadriceps belonging to track cycling stars. As Greg Bishop notes in the piece, the velodrome is a place where getting called "thunder thighs" isn't an insult. The whole thigh phenomenon was started when two Olympians had a "thigh off" and an insane picture of massive legs went viral.
We found the article so interesting that we had to list four of the most startling facts:

1. One cyclist, nicknamed Mr. Thigh (cyclists are a literal bunch), aka Robert Förstemann, has thighs that are 34 inches. Each. That's a women's size 14. The average male human head is around 24 inches around.

[ Photos: Most thunderous thighs in London ]

2. Chris Hoy, Great Britain's six-time gold-medal winner, has thighs measuring 27 inches. He has to buy pants that are two sizes too big so his thighs will fit.

3 U.S. champion Beth Newell says having big thighs is advantageous beyond the track. She advises would-be cyclists: "Your friends love to hear

The U.S. women's gymnastics team became the first group in 16 years to win team gold and featured the first all-around champ from a team that won gold. They are also the first U.S. gymnastics team to go viral.

Yes, the Internet has gone crazy for this team, particularly McKayla Maroney and her medal-stand scowl after she won silver on vault. Our friends from With Leather pointed us to "McKayla Is Not Impressed," a site devoted to photoshopping that lovely scowl into famous moments in history.

(McKayla Is Not Impressed)

McKayla is not impressed by the U.S. men's basketball team's record-breaking win.

[ Photo: Synchronized swimmers share kiss after routine ]