(AP)

The 30th Summer Olympics will kick off with an appearance from 007.

After a special invitation from Queen Elizabeth II, James Bond star Daniel Craig reportedly filmed scenes this week at Buckingham Palace that will be used during the opening ceremony of the London Games. Craig and the ceremony's creative director, Danny Boyle, were given unprecedented access to the Queen's private quarters to shoot the scenes.

The Sun reports that the Bond character will play a large role during the July 27 extravaganza. Details are sparse, but the fictional MI6 agent will receive orders from the Queen to open the Games and will parachute into Olympic Stadium by helicopter in the short film, which is being known as, "The Arrival."

"They wanted the most iconic British film character inside the building most associated with London and with the monarch – and they got it," a source told the British newspaper. "It will be a magical scene for all watching at home and inside the stadium on July 27."

If it

(Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com via Swim Swam)

A split bathing suit couldn't hold back Nathan Adrian at the Indianapolis Grand Prix. The 2008 relay gold medalist overcame a tear in his bathing suit to win the 100-meter freestyle over a stacked field that included Olympic legend Michael Phelps.

While crouching on the block before the start of Thursday night's final, Adrian felt a tear down the middle of his rear. His tight-fitting Speedo FS3 had split, leaving him with an exposed backside and considerably more drag than he'd have liked.

Adrian dove in anyway -- "what could I do?" he said. The rip didn't have an effect on the result. He touched the wall in 48.62, more than one-tenth of a second ahead of a hard-charging Phelps. That time was good enough to be the 11th-fastest time in the world this year, but likely would have been considerably faster had the suit not split.

[NCAA tourney video: Which team will win the national championship?]

The Swim Pictures and Swim Swam were able to capture pictures and reaction (site server has

Johanna Quass is an 86-year-old woman who once played for the East German handball team. At the Cottbus World Cup, held in Germany over the weekend, she also did this parallel bars routine:

Yes, she's 86 years old. Though we won't see her compete in London with that routine, as women don't compete on the parallel bars, she did pull out some impressive strength and flexibility moves.

[ NCAA tourney video: Which team will win the national championship?]

Quass' exhibition was part of an event that did feature two Americans who are potential Olympians in 2012. Paul Ruggeri and John Orozco won silver and bronze medals for their work on the high bar. But there is no question who walked away from the event the biggest star: Joanna Quass and her inspiring routine.

Thank you, Daily House.

Other popular content on the Yahoo! network:
• Jamie Moyer's Rockies comeback at 49 certifies him as 'freak' worth savoring
• Dan Wetzel: Should Augusta National purposely not invite a woman?
• Shine: Seven

(TFL)

Riders of the London Underground will be able to catch a train to "Kobe Bryant" to transfer trains to "Carl Lewis" thanks to a new map that changes the city's 361 Tube stations to names of famous Olympic athletes.

The map, designed by Alex Trickett and David Brooks, is being sold on Transport for London's website prior to the 2012 Summer Games.

Each line was named for athletes in respective sports or disciplines. Swimmers make up the central line,  tennis stars and basketball players dominate the interior black line, and boxers and wrestlers make up most of the southeast corner of London.

[Related: Female beach volleyball players not obligated to wear bikinis at Olympics]

Two Americans received prime placement on the map. The names of Michael Phelps and Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) were bestowed upon the two Stratford stations that will welcome passengers to London's Olympic Stadium.

Olympic medalists are featured on the map, but creators also included the names of infamous medal losers, like Mary Decker and Zola Budd, who collided on the track in Los Angeles in 1984.

(Getty Images)

Women beach volleyball players won't have to wear bikinis at the 2012 London Olympics. A new rule announced Tuesday says that participants in this summer's beach volleyball competition can wear shorts and sleeved tops.

Athletes in the event have exclusively worn bikinis since the sport was introduced at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Competitors could also wear bodysuits in cold-weather events.

[Related: 'Keeping Up With the Kardashians' showing up to Eugene for Olympic Trials]

The change was made to reflect cultural conventions of various participating countries.

"Shorts of a maximum length of [1.18 inches] above the knee, and sleeved or sleeveless tops," will now be allowed, according to the new IOC ruling.

Since the Beijing Olympics, most beach volleyball competitions have changed rules to allow for more modest uniforms. It's an attempt to broaden the diversity in the sport, which tends to be dominated by athletes from Europe, Brazil and the United States. Allowing shorts and

A gold-medal winning athlete from Kazakhstan was forced to stand through a national anthem that insulted other countries and boasted of her nation's "clean prostitutes" when organizers at a shooting competition accidentally played a fake anthem from the comedy film "Borat."

Gold medalist Maria Dmitrienko never lets on that there's a problem and graciously poses for photos with the other medalists following the ceremony.

Dmitrienko won the 75 target event at the 10th Arab Shooting Championship in Kuwait on Thursday. She stood on the podium with the event's other medal winners and expected to hear "My Kazakhstan." Instead, she was greeted with Sacha Baron Cohen's mock anthem from his 2006 film.

Organizers apparently downloaded the anthem from the Internet by mistake. The song was filled with references to potassium (Kazakhstan's top export), dirty swimming pools and insults of other countries and religions.

Dmitrienko's Kazakh teammates were reportedly incensed with the mistake. They

British fashion designer Stella McCartney was on hand at a ceremony this week to reveal the uniforms she created for the 2012 British Olympic team. McCartney, the daughter of Paul McCartney, is in the middle of the picture above. People had about as good a reaction to the uniforms as you're likely having to Stella's paisley jumpsuit.

The kit will dress the 500 athletes who will compete in this summer's Olympics and Paralympics in London. McCartney said she was inspired by the union flag, but wanted to make the design "untraditional."

"Something that was very important to me was to try and use that very iconic image but to dismantle it and try to soften it, break it down and make it more fashionable in a sense," she told reporters at this week's launch at the Tower of London.

Many Brits wished the design had stayed behind lock and key at the infamous 17th century prison. Most of the criticism had to do with the lack of red in McCartney's design. Others thought there was too much

(Getty Images)

The Thorpedo was a dud.

Ian Thorpe's Olympic comeback bid fell woefully short on Friday when the former gold medalist failed to qualify for the finals of his signature event at the Australian Swimming Championships. The nine-time Olympic medalist finished 12th in his signature event, the 200-meter freestyle.

"The fairytale has turned into a nightmare," he said after.

Thorpe still has a chance to make the Australian Olympic team in the 100m free, but his poor performance in the 200 suggests the result will be the same.

He returned to the sport in November after a five-year layoff and set his sights on London. Thorpe's announcement was big news in Australia, where he remains rock-star-famous thanks to his previous athletic exploits. He won three golds at the Sydney Games in 2000, including anchoring the historic defeat of the United States in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay. Then 17, Thorpe famously strummed an air guitar after the race, mocking the pre-race boasts of American sprinter