Gold
NBC
Ratings are off to a rocking start for the network. It scored a 18.6/33 final Nielsen rating on Friday night and didn¹t suffer at all from its decision to delay the broadcast of the Opening Ceremony by 12 hours. It followed that with a 13.9/27 on Saturday in prime time. Web traffic is rolling along, as well. Through two days, NBCOlympics.com had 132.6 million page views, a 614 percent increase from Athens.

Silver
The NBA and AEG

The USA's Kobe Bryant

The world's most-watched basketball game in history between China and the U.S. on Sunday morning was a big win for the NBA and AEG. The two partnered in January to market, program and operate the Beijing Olympic basketball arena after the Games. The sold-out game bolstered their efforts to sell naming rights, founding partnerships and suites by showing the true potential of the Beijing market.

Bronze
Katie Hoff and the U.S. women's swimming team
Billed as the female version of Michael Phelps, Hoff (and her U.S. women¹s swimming team counterparts) have gotten off to a shaky start. Hoff finished a somewhat shocking third in the 400 individual medley, one of her signature events, and then faded to a silver medal after holding a huge lead late in the 400 freestyle. On the heels of those swims, the U.S. women's team did not have a gold-medal swim through the first three days of swimming competition.

Tin
Foot traffic in the Olympic sponsor village
Most BOCOG and TOP sponsors who expected anywhere from 6,000 to 15,000 visitors a day at their showcases on the Olympic Green were disappointed after the first weekend. BOCOG is only allowing people with tickets to events on the Olympic Green (fencing, swimming, field hockey, archery, tennis, diving, water polo and gymnastics) so fewer people were getting access to the village than expected. Some sponsors had only 3,000 visitors their first days of the Games, and that¹s for facilities that cost more than $1 million to construct.

Few had more riding on yesterday’s USA-China game than AEG and the NBA.

The game, arguably the biggest basketball game in Chinese history, attracted a global audience of more than 1 billion viewers. Everyone who tuned in not only got their first glimpse of NBA stars LeBron James and Yao Ming going head-to-head for their respective countries, but also their first exposure to Beijing’s new basketball arena.    Read More  >

In response to ever rising frustration voiced by sponsors about the lack of foot traffic in the Olympic sponsor village, the IOC will meet with the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee (BOCOG) tomorrow and ask it to allow the public to enter the Olympic Green.

Currently, access to the Green — where sponsors have spent millions of dollars building showcases that are 14,000- to 20,000-square-foot freestanding buildings — is restricted to ticket holders for events in that area. As a result, some sponsors expected 10,000 to 15,000 visitors a day but saw only 3,000 to 5,000 over the weekend.    Read More  >

The first gold medal for the United States proved to be especially golden for U.S. Olympic Team sponsor Nike.

Fencing gold medalist Mariel Zagunis worked with the apparel company to design the shoes that she wore to defeat fellow American Sada Jacobson. Nike took full advantage of it, inviting media to the company’s hospitality center in Beijing for interview availability with Zagunis.    Read More  >