Facial hair fad

HERE WIGGO! 

Thousands of fans, men and women, boys and girls, taped fake hair to their cheeks in hopes of creating a winning karma for Wiggins, the Tour de France champ renowned for his scraggly sideburns.

"We all love Wiggo," said Wayne Coxon, a 39-year-old fan near Wednesday's finish line who had taped his own custom-made fur to his face for the occasion. "People have come from all over the country to be here."

Two rival British tabloids, the right-wing Sun and left-wing Daily Mirror, both sought to capture the British zeitgeist by turning their front pages into populist cut-outs of Wiggins' facial hair.

"HERE WIGGO! Help Bradley triumph by wearing his lucky sideburns with pride," the Mirror declared on its front page featuring a lifesize cutout of Wiggins' hair and ears.

The Sun offered readers a pair of "24-carat" sideburns coloured gold for the occasion. Its "furry simple" instructions advised readers to "Be a Hair-o" by cutting along the dotted lines and using tape - not glue - to affix gently to one's cheeks.

LEYVA'S TOWEL

What's the deal with that Danell Leyva and his ever-present towel? Call it superstition.

The US gymnast likes to pull the greyish-blue towel with stars on it over his head between events so he can maintain his focus and not get distracted by everything else going on around him. He used to have two, but one ripped so now he carries the same one everywhere he goes (yes, he does wash it).

Any doubts about the power of the towel were erased earlier this year at Winter Cup, a ranking meet for the US men.

Leyva forgot to pack the towel and had one of his worst meets in a long time, falling on parallel bars, where he's the reigning world champion, during qualifying, and high bar, his other best event. He wound up a distant fourth.

The towel has become so "famous" it now even has its own Twitter account: http://twitter.com/leyvastowel.

NEW KIND OF UNITARD

Ghada Hassine of Tunisia is now the first Olympic weightlifter to compete in a newly approved "unitard" that covers most of her body.

Rules requiring lifters to wear a costume that doesn't cover the arms and lower legs were changed last year. The US had petitioned for a change on behalf of a Muslim lifter.

Hassine, 19, wore the unitard on Wednesday under the traditional weightlifting outfit and a hijab covering her hair as she participated in the "B'' group of lower-ranked lifters in the women's 69kg category.

She cleared 102kg in the snatch and 120kg in the clean and jerk for a 220kg total, putting her in second place before the top medal contenders had competed in the "A'' group.

It had to happen.

After a week of being asked about bikinis, Dutch beach volleyballer Reinder Nummerdor snapped at a reporter asking about the traditional women's uniform.

"I don't want to talk about that," he said with a dismissive wave of the hand. "It has nothing to do with our sport."

There has been a lot of attention on the women's outfits, especially in light of a new FIVB rule that allows shorts and T-shirts for those whose cultural beliefs would prevent them from wearing bikinis. (It is unrelated to the longtime rule that allows them to cover up in cold weather.)

The players have been largely tolerant of the questions.

American Kerri Walsh Jennings says people might come for the scantily-clad women, but once they see the sport they understand they are looking at world-class athletes.

But Nummerdor had enough, pointing out that the beach volleyball uniforms are not really any different than what sprinters wear and - as far as the men are concerned - much less revealing than the swimmers' suits.

PRESIDENTIAL PROPS

"Just talked to the President on the phone! Pretty much the coolest thing ever!!"

THE PHOTO OF BORIS

And here's the photo of London Mayor Boris Johnson dangling from the zip wire.

"Can you get me a rope? Get me a rope, okay?" he said.

And the crowds responded with laughter.

PLAYING IT SAFE

Over at the gymnastics, the public announcer wanted to make absolutely sure he'd got this one right. You know, there's been enough confusion already about North and South Korean flags.

As he introduced Kim Soo-myun, he hesitated, almost got it wrong - and then everything went silent.

The crowd started to laugh and applaud.

Then, in an assured tone, the nationality was finally given: South Korea!

"I am sure you would appreciate that i want to be absolutely sure," said the announcer, to much amusement.

He didn't know, presumably, that the North Koreans aren't even taking part in the gymnastics here. They were banned as punishment for a case of age falsification.

LOOSEN UP!

"Don't be robotic!" That was the advice coming from Chinese basketball coach Bob Donewald to his players during practice Wednesday.

China has lost the first two games of the Olympics and Donewald is trying to get his players to loosen up and improvise as the game goes along.

They play Australia on Thursday, and desperately need a win to start validating all the changes Donewald has made since taking over the programme three years ago.

"We need results," he says.

BADMINTON: APPEAL DENIED

An unwanted outcome for the South Korean female badminton players disqualified by their sport's federation - their appeal has been rejected. And Indonesia, meanwhile, has withdrawn its appeal.

QUICKQUOTE: 'TRUE BRITISH HERO'

"A true British hero. First the Tour [de France] and now Olympic Gold" - Prime Minister David Cameron hailing cyclist Bradley Wiggins on Twitter after he won gold on Wednesday.

HELP FROM A FOLKLORE LEGEND?

Did Britain's first Olympic gold medal come with a little help from Finn MacCool?

Just before rowers Helen Glover and Heather Stanning won the final of the women's pair, Prime Minister David Cameron wished for success at a famed spot at Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway, a dramatic natural stairway of tens of thousands of basalt rocks that run into the Atlantic.

Legend has it that the causeway was built by MacCool, a mythical Irish warrior, who fashioned a seat-like section of rock called the Wishing Chair. Visitors who recline in the alcove are reputed to have their wishes granted.

"I'm not allowed to tell anyone what it was, but as soon as I got back and turned on my mobile phone I heard the good news," Cameron said, after he visited the site early Wednesday.

Maybe the stencils got slightly mixed up. Or perhaps the person who stenciled "London 2102" on an umpire stand at Wimbledon, the Olympics venue for tennis, was guessing when a British man would finally take the Grand Slam title.

Whatever the case, the transposing of numbers at the All England Club was realised on Tuesday and has been corrected.

Earlier this month, Andy Murray of Scotland became the first British man to reach the Wimbledon final since 1938. He lost in four sets to Roger Federer for the Swiss player's 17th Grand Slam title.

The last British champion was Fred Perry in 1936.

STAYING HOME

Before Dawn Harper got famous for winning an Olympic gold medal and Lolo Jones got even more famous for losing it, Michelle Perry was supposed to become the Next Big Thing in hurdling.

It never happened.

The best in the world in 2005, 2006 and 2007 tore her hamstring early in 2008 and couldn't recover in time to make it to Beijing.

She watched the Olympics on TV, and her story became another reminder that for every Jones and Harper who get their chance, there are dozens of athletes who put in all the hard work and never see the ultimate payoff.

"I remember them announcing the Olympic hurdlers on TV," Perry told me the other day. "The final sentence they said was, 'And Michelle Perry won't be making the Olympic team.' Had you told me I'd hear those words, you never could've convinced me it would've been true."

Perry does have her special Olympic moment of sorts: It was her shoes that crossed the finish line first in Beijing — albeit on Harper's feet.

Without a sponsor and unable to afford new spikes, Harper bummed a pair off Perry and wore them to her upset victory over Jones, who was leading when she tripped on the second-to-last hurdle.

Perry learned that while training under the direction of the renowned coach Bobby Kersee: "The motto with Bobby has always been, 'Help pull the next person up.'"

One group of Gamesmakers - the official name of those giving up their time for Olympic roles - stood in the Olympic Park on Wednesday morning declaring they were the official 'Volunteer Rhythmic Gymnastics Team.'

They then pulled some ribbons out of their bags and proceeded to prance around, twirling them.

HOPE SOLO, UK-BOUND?

Imagine it: Hope Solo, British sports star. The tabloids would love her. Outspoken. Charismatic. Photogenic. Reality-TV star. Unapologetic tweeter.

It just might happen. With prospects uncertain for a major US women's soccer league, members of the Olympic team will be considering whether to play overseas.

The leagues in Sweden, Germany, Japan and France are more developed, but Solo could see herself back in the UK.

"It's not necessarily about the play, it's about bringing the game to a whole different level globally, the women's game," she said.

"So I would think about staying right here in England and helping build the sport here, the beautiful game where the game has such a rich history, yet the women's game is lacking."