Gold
Team USA merchandise
The USA House in Beijing sold more Team USA merchandise in two days here than it did during the entire Athens Games. Nike's red hoody T-shirt and Ralph Lauren's T-shirts are flying off the shelves. While the numbers represent only a fraction of total licensing revenue, the strong sales bode well for the USOC's bottom line.

Silver
U.S. table tennis program
Three Chinese-American table tennis players could win the first Olympic medals ever in that sport for the U.S. Consider it a lovely historic full-circle journey that started here 36 years ago with the Ping-Pong Diplomacy of Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong. And now, Chinese-Americans are among the world's best players.

Bronze
Amanda Beard
One of the faces of U.S. swimming, Beard has never met a camera or media outlet that she didn't adore (or that didn't adore her). But on Wednesday, after the four-time Olympian failed to get out of the first round of the 200-meter breaststroke (the only American swimmer thus far to not make the semifinals), she angrily blew off post-race interviews. Funny how Beard begged for media attention earlier in Beijing when she disrobed for a PETA photo shoot. Perhaps she should have kept her clothes on and continued to work in the pool.

Tin
MSNBC's "Olympic Update"
No one is questioning the amount of coverage that the NBC Universal family has across its various networks, but we doubt anyone would care if this program disappeared from the schedule. The show, which comes on MSNBC at 5 p.m. ET, is designed to be a casual "Access Hollywood"-style offering, but it's a little too casual. For instance, studio host Tamron Hall wondered why the "elite U.S. league" did not shut down for the Olympic baseball competition and joked that Australian boxer Brad Pitt is not attractive enough to be confused with the award-winning actor. If only they would show multiple slow-motion replays of a Hungarian weightlifter dislocating his elbow. Oh yeah, they already have.