Olympics blog

There's no such thing as a new idea in journalism or a new quote, so this is the first of our daily attempts to tell a few more of the 10,000 stories in the Olympic city.

These tales will be stories we (Tom, Claire or I) saw, heard or narrowly missed and then read about in the press release.

So they won't tell the whole picture - it's a pretty big picture with lots of fences - but they will hopefully give a sense of the view from "the gods" at the greatest show on earth.

So without further ado...

The lad's got game: The best performance I saw on day one was the first performance I saw on day one - Russian middleweight Matvei Korobov's boxing demonstration against unlucky Swede Naim Terbunja. Unlucky because he got the world champ first up. The bad news for Britain is that Korobov stands in James DeGale's way of reaching the medal rounds.

The lad's got chat: The good news for Britain is DeGale fancies his chances. The Londoner's fine opening win and even better post-fight banter helped dispell some of the Frankie Gavin-related gloom around the British camp.

Go girl: It might not pull up any trees back home, or make any "Team GB in Beijing" highlights reel, but Tracey Hallam's win in the first-round of the women's badminton singles was a fine effort. Her opponent Yip Pui Yin, the world number 12 from Hong Kong, was given full-throated support by the crowd (which makes me wonder what the racket will be like when a Beijing native is in action at the University of Technology Gym) but Hallam got in front and stayed there. She's got a Czech in the next round so will be able to play her game to a ripple of polite applause.

Team bonding: One of my favourite sights when watching an Olympics on TV is when the cameras pan to the crowd to pick out a competitor's team-mates going berko in stands. The Aussies and Scandies do this particularly well but nobody does it quite as coolly as the members of America's "Redeem Team" did yesterday whilst watching their female counterparts thrash the Czechs in the basketball. I believe what they were doing is referred to as "chillin' out, maxin', relaxin', watchin' some b-ball", and it made me want to do the same with George W at their game versus China ce soir.

Lesson learned: There is Olympic sport being played at the University of Technology Gym and there is a Olympic sport being played at the Science and Technology University Gym. They are very different sports and at opposite ends of Beijing. Never jump onto a bus that is pulling away from a stop without getting your academic institutions completely sorted out first.

Spare a thought for: I couldn't help feeling incredibly sorry for the likes of Korobov's opponent Terbunja and the man DeGale vanquished, Mohamed Hikal. Beijing is a long way to come for 15 minutes of "red button" fame. But then I found out the first-round losers in the judo get an even briefer Olympic experience. Maksym Korotin of the Ukraine fought in the first bout of the men's 60kg category - three minutes 40 seconds later his Games were over. I just hope he's got some decent tickets in the team ballot.

British blues: More Olympic-sized disappointment for Craig Fallon in the judo. Teed up to provide Team GB with its Jason Queally moment, his second-round defeat summed up a poor start for our boys and girls across the board. To be fair, he did get it going for a while in the repechage and those good vibes seemed to travel throughout the team, leading to a far better performance after tea than there had been in the early sessions.

Rule Britannia: Fallon, William Fox-Pitt, Daisy Dick, Ben Ainslie...Ben Ainslie! It was all going pear-shaped early doors but then the winds of fortune shifted a tad, our rowers chipped in with a few wins up at the lake, Ainslie did his thing in the second race, DeGale won his bout, Andrew Smith and Hallam got it going in the badminton, Louis Smith started to bait a partisan crowd at the gymnastics and suddenly all was rosy in the Team GB garden again. Still waiting for that big British breakthrough in the swimming, though.

That's enough for one day, weather here, wish you were hot and all that.

Matt