Athlete to watch

Swimmer Michael Phelps is seeking a record eight gold medals during these Games, which would surpass the mark of U.S. swimming icon Mark Spitz, who won seven in 1972 at Munich. But to win eight, Phelps has to win the first one. Live coverage of Phelps in the 400 individual medley -- and three other swimming finals -- highlights NBC's coverage from 8 p.m. to midnight today.

The 400 IM final is scheduled for 10 p.m. EDT today, which is early Sunday morning in China.

Phelps, 23, shattered his world record in this event in the Olympic Trials, so he's heavily favored in Beijing. If he wins gold in the 400 IM, he'd pull within two golds of tying the all-time record for most golds in the Olympics, nine, shared by four others: Paavo Nurmi, a Finnish distance runner; Larisa Latynina, a Soviet gymnast; Spitz; and Carl Lewis, a U.S. track star.

(MIKE PERSINGER)

OBSERVATIONS

I just don't see Michael Phelps winning eight gold medals here in Beijing. Going 8-for-8 against this caliber of competition will be too difficult. He might even lose in his very first event, the 400 individual medley against U.S. teammate Ryan Lochte.

Even if Phelps wins that one, he will stumble somewhere along the way (watch out for the 200 freestyle).

This is not to demean Phelps -- the best swimmer ever. It's just too hard to win eight in 2008 -- there are too many good swimmers. If Phelps can do what he did in Athens, win six gold medals, he should be very happy.

I did like the Fu Manchu mustache Phelps showed up wearing in Beijing. He said he was just "playing around with facial hair."

(SCOTT FOWLER)

QUOTABLE

'There's going to be a big battle. I know what I'm capable of doing, and I know what he is. '

- Ryan Lochte

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A BETTER 'PI'

Pi shows the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, much-needed information if you ever want to know the size of your own head.

Archimedes put ancient Greece on the map around 250 B.C., giving us the first rigorously computed approximation for pi at between 3.1408 and 3.1428. Ptolemy of Alexandria topped him a century later when he figured it to five decimal places (3.14166).

But it was China's father-and-son math team of Tsu Ch'ung-Chih and Tsu Keng-Chih, who roped that bad boy down to 10 digits (3.1415929203) in the 5th century, a feat not matched in Europe for 1,000 years.

(LUCIANA CHAVEZ)