Getty ImagesLONDON — For only the second time in the event's Olympic history, the U.S. men's beach volleyball teams won't win a medal in the tournament.

Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal were eliminated in the London Olympics beach volleyball quarterfinals on Monday night, 2-1, to Latvia's Janis Smedins and Martins Plavins. The Americans won the first set (21-19), but lost the second (18-21) and third (11-15) to the Latvians at Horse Guards Parade.

The second set marked the first time the American duo had dropped one in the London Games. The last gasp for Gibb and Rosenthal was down 12-8 in the third set, where they rallied for two points. But Latvia won the next three points to effectively put the match away.

From Boxscore Sportswire:

"To play these guys and beat them on centre court in front of 15,000 people is amazing," Plavins added. "We have to play like that again and not be scared and be confident."

For Gibb and Rosenthal their quarterfinal exit matches their result from Beijing 2008, but they were disappointed with how they had gone out.

"I didn't see their defence and usually I'm better at picking up on it," Gibb said. "We nearly came back and we had a few opportunities. I thought we would come back the whole way through, but I'm not sure what went wrong."

Gibb and Rosenthal were one of the most inspiring Team USA stories in any sport heading into London.

(AP)

Here's a photo of Katie Ledecky, America's youngest gold medalist in London, as a toddler sitting with Michael Jordan at a Washington Wizards game.

It comes via our pal Dan Steinberg at the DC Sports Bog. The picture shows the now-15-year-old swimming star sitting with Jordan and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis at a game sometime prior to Jordan's comeback in 2001.

"Who knew the biggest star in the photo would be the young girl, aged two," Leonsis wrote Monday morning on his blog.

Well, that seems to be a little bit of hyperbole -- Leonsis is pretty famous -- but talking big is a common side effect of Olympic fever.

Ledecky won the 800 freestyle on Friday night and figures to be a key component on U.S. swimming teams for the foreseeable future.

[ Video: Katie Ledecky is the youngest U.S. Olympian at London Games ]

Her uncle Jon (behind her in the photo) is a former partner of Leonsis.

During a Monday interview with Katie on "Today," host Matt Lauer said revealed that Jon was a high school

Iran's Omid Haji Noroozi won a gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling on Monday. His coach was so proud of him, he jumped up on the mat and gave his wrestler a big bear hug.

(Getty)"Oh, hey coach! I'm really happy about this gold, too. I promise, I am not clenching may hands in the perfect grip for throwing you."

The Great Britain men's national basketball team made history on Monday. (Getty Images)

Despite boasting a roster featuring only one established NBA star and no real point guard to speak of, Great Britain entered the final day of pool play in the men's basketball tournament at the 2012 Summer Olympics having come close to tasting victory a couple of times. While the British team did suffer blowout losses in its opener against Russia and on Saturday against Australia, coach Chris Finch's crew competed fiercely in its middle two contests, only to see late-game cold snaps and miscues lead to a five-point defeat by Brazil and a heartbreaking one-point loss to heavily favored Spain. Behind leading scorers Luol Deng, Joel Freeland and Pops Mensah-Bonsu, the British team had fought hard and drawn near, but had yet to score a W.

Already eliminated from knockout-stage contention, Great Britain took the only prize left for it on Monday afternoon, scoring a 90-58 victory over China that not only allowed the Brits to avoid a winless turn as the host nation of the 2012 Summer Games, but also marked the British men's national team's first victory at the Olympics since Aug. 12, 1948, when they beat Ireland, 46-21. (I think we all remember where we were when that contest went final.)

[ Video: Team USA knows it faces steep challenge vs. Argentina ]

And even that win came only in the so-called "classification round" — essentially, a slew of non-tournament consolation games played just to determine the final order of the 23 nations that competed. So when the Agence France-Presse notes that "Britain won a basketball game for the first time in Olympic history" on Monday, they're technically on the money.

Andy Murray didn't get to enjoy his gold and silver medals for long. One day after the Scotsman defeated Roger Federer for the Olympic singles gold medal, then earned a silver with fellow Brit Laura Robson in the mixed doubles, he had his medals "stolen" by his two border terriers, Maggie May and Rusty. The dogs proudly wore their owner's medals in a picture posted to Maggie May's Twitter page. (Yes, Andy Murray's dog has her own account with nearly 10,000 followers.)

"Here we go folks," it said, "just checking to make sure Rusty definitely has the silver, obviously."

[ Photos: Murray routs Federer to take Olympic gold ]

(@maggiemay_hem)

The account was started last year and is reportedly ghostwritten by Murray's girlfriend, Kim Sears. She handles the posting because Maggie May and Rusty are more into Facebook.

[ Photos: Andy Murray thrashes Roger Federer ]

I'm only slightly a dog person and completely against any animals wearing things meant for humans. But, man alive, that picture is cuter than the

This is a little grubby, even for Nike.

The Oregon-based apparel company is never shy about plastering its trademarked swoosh all over athletes, from sneakers to headbands to shirts to shorts to bandanas to kneebands to dresses. Sometimes I think they create (or promote) pieces of apparel solely for more swoosh coverage (see: bicep bands).

[ Inspirational moments: Oscar Pistorius in the best picture you'll see ]

Or, in this case, they stick a swoosh on the miraculous carbon fiber feet belonging to one of the most inspirational Olympians in the history of the Games. Check out the Nike logo stenciled on the base of Oscar Pistorius' right blade.

Synchronized swimming started Sunday and gave us an idea of its awesomeness with Russia's not-so-subtle tribute to Michael Jackson. But with Monday's duets performing a free routine in qualification, these women were truly allowed to show off their creative side.

And let's get this out of the way now -- synchronized swimming is a difficult, difficult sport. It requires stamina and strength and the ability to hold your breath for a long, long time. It requires the ability to do this:

And spin in a circle while holding a perfect toe point.

(Getty Images)

Kate Middleton has been an immaculate representative of British royalty during the first 10 days of the Olympics. She's cheered on Rebecca Adlington at the swimming pool, did the wave at the Velodrome, looked radiant at Wimbledon, spent some quality time with her brother-in-law at equestrian and did a remarkable job of feigning interest in handball. They called her husband's mother, Princess Diana, "the people's princess." Kate seems to be striving for the same adoration.

So even when she accidentally sits in front of an upside-down British flag, as she did on Sunday, it's bound to cause nary a ripple. Kate was at the gymnastics venue and appeared to unknowingly be sitting above an improperly hung Union Jack.

[ Related: Kate and William cheer from the cheap seats ]

A flag hanging upside down is a signal of distress or an intentional insult. Unless this flag happened to be placed there by a subtle anti-royal or a wayward sea captain who thought the gymnastics venue was the Atlantic, we