Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, right, speaks with Britain's gymnast Kristian Thomas, left, during the artistic gymnastics apparatus finals at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012, in London. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, right, speaks with Britain's gymnast Kristian Thomas, left, during the artistic gymnastics apparatus finals at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012, in London. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
China's Liu Xiangrong takes a thrown a women's shot put qualification round during the athletics in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012 Summer Olympics, London, Monday, Aug. 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
Ryo Miyake of Japan competes against Andrea Baldini of Italy, right, compete in the gold medal match during the men's foil team fencing competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012, in London. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
Switzerland's Marcel Buerge prepares to shoot, during qualifiers for the men's 50-meter rifle 3 positions, at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Monday, Aug. 6, 2012, in London. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Jamaica's Usain Bolt holds up one finger after finishing first in the men's 100-meter final during the athletics in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012 Summer Olympics, London, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012.(AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
LONDON (AP) ? Around the 2012 Olympics and its host city with journalists from The Associated Press bringing the flavor and details of the games to you:
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HANGING OUT WITH KATE
What do you do when the Duchess of Cambridge sits down next to you at an Olympic event? If you're British gymnast Kristian Thomas, you sit up straight and try to remember all those manners your mother taught you.
Thomas was sitting in the second row of the O2 Arena on Sunday ready to watch teammates Louis Smith and Max Whitlock compete in the pommel horse finals when a security guard told him Kate Middleton wanted to hang out.
"It was fantastic," Thomas said. "She was really easy to talk to. We talked about the pommel final and some of the elements and what's good and what's bad. She was quite enthusiastic about it."
Thomas added the Duchess was "nervous" while Smith competed but was thrilled when he won silver and Whitlock earned bronze. When asked if he asked Kate for sister Pippa Middleton's phone number, Thomas just laughed and said, "I think my girlfriend would mind."
? Will Graves - twitter www.twitter.com/WillGravesAP
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HAPPY TWEDDLE
Beth Tweddle is Britain's gymnastic darling, even though she'd always come up empty in the Olympics.
Not anymore.
Tweddle picked up her first Olympic medal Monday when she took bronze on the bars, her signature event.
"It's the best feeling in the world. It's the one medal that was missing from my collection and I've always said I don't care what color it is," said Tweddle, a two-time world champion on bars.
"I tried to say it didn't matter if I didn't medal, but I've got every other title to my name. I can now say I would have been devastated walking away with no medal."
Tweddle, who is 27, is now headed into retirement. But she said she won't immediately stop training because walking away cold turkey would be too much for her to handle.
? Jenna Fryer ? Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer
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HIGHS AND LOWS
There were mixed emotions Monday for Russia's top two gymnasts.
Aliya Mustafina collected her first gold of the games by winning the bars. But teammate Victoria Komova was again in tears after failing to medal.
"100 percent disappointed," Komova, the reigning world champion on bars, said of her Olympic experience in London.
She said her routine had been good, but her feet twice hit the bar.
Mustafina didn't think her teammate was a threat for the gold. "She wasn't the strongest contender to start with, so I think the judges were already perceiving her in that way," Mustafina said.
It was Mustafina's third medal of the games. She got silver in team completion and bronze in all-around.
? Jenna Fryer ? Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer
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BOLT FLYING - ON TWITTER
All the years of hard work have paid off for Usain Bolt.
The Jamaican has joined an elite group in London, not just defending his 100-meter title, but passing one million Twitter followers the day after winning the showpiece race of the Olympics.
"Big up Twitter fans - one million and counting...," tweeted the sprinter who describes himself as "the most naturally gifted athlete the world has ever seen" on his profile.
? Rob Harris ? Twitter http://twitter.com/RobHarris
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BOTTLE THROWING CASE
The man arrested for throwing a bottle onto the track ahead of the men's 100-meter sprint on Sunday has pleaded not guilty to charges of using threatening words, disorderly behavior and harassment.
The suspect has been identified as Ashley Gill-Webb, 34, from Leeds, northern England.
He denies throwing the bottle; the prosecution has asked for him to be banned from any Olympic venue and Olympic Park.
? Masha Macpherson
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QUICKQUOTE: TENNIS BELONGS
"Tennis really belongs in the Olympics ... Many great tennis players deserve to have a medal around their necks, deserve to come and compete for the biggest prize for an athlete, which is a gold medal" ? Serena Williams, winner of two tennis gold medals at the London Olympics.
? Sheila Norman-Culp ? Twitter: http://twitter.com/snormanculp
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QUICKQUOTE: ADMIRING PHELPS
"Michael Phelps is the ultimate Olympian for me. To see what he has done in his career is unheard of, he's taken things to a whole new level" ? double gold-medal winner Serena Williams talking about Phelps' career haul of 18 gold medals.
? Sheila Norman-Culp ? Twitter: http://twitter.com/snormanculp
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QUICKQUOTE: GABBY DOUGLAS
"I think toward the end of the Olympics you get mentally and physically tired, just like drained. I try to fight through as much as I can," Gabby Douglas after finishing last in the bar finals.
? Jenna Fryer ? Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer
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BOLT TAPE-DELAY
The International Olympic Committe is refusing to get drawn into the debate about whether Americans should be seeing more action live on TV.
NBC chose not to show the men's 100 meters sprint final live on Sunday. It was aired hours later on tape delay.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams says "it's certainly not for us to tell them how to reach their audience."
NBC has exclusive American rights to broadcast the London Games. It struck a $2.2 billion deal with the IOC in 2003, which included rights to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
? Graham Dunbar ? Twitter: www.twitter.com/gdunbarap
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QUEUES, QUEUES EVERYWHERE
They are queuing for food. They are queuing for the merchandise stores. They are even queuing to get into the grassy areas in the hope of claiming a small patch of grass for a seat.
The Olympics Park is buzzing.
Organizers say that in the first week more than 1 million spectators visited Olympic Park with over 5 million people passing through the gates of all the official venues.
But it's not just venues that people are flooding.
On Saturday, when Britain achieved six gold medals in one day, LOCOG says its website drew 25 million visits. On the same day, there were about 300,000 people watching events on big screens in city centers around Britain.
? Fergus Bell ? Twitter http://twitter.com/fergb
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EVEN BOLT HAD TO QUEUE
About to run in the 100 meters? Doesn't matter ? get in line.
Usain Bolt was left baffled by London's rigid security rules on Sunday night as he made his way to the stadium for his race.
"I was in the line, we were waiting to run and the guy was telling me to line up straight," Bolt said. "I was like, 'Really? We're about to run and they are going to make me stand in a straight line?' There are just some weird rules here."
Such as not being allowed to get skipping ropes past security.
"They said I can't bring it in, and I asked, 'Why?'" Bolt recalled. "They just said it is the rules. So if I have a rubber band that I need to stretch, I can't take it in. And when I asked why, they say, 'It's just the rules.'
"It's just some weird small rules that don't make any sense to me, personally."
Games organizer Sebastian Coe says there will be an investigation, but joked Monday that the delay "didn't seem to slow him up too much."
? Rob Harris ? Twitter http://twitter.com/RobHarris
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JUST IN: The International Olympic Committee has expelled American judo player Nick Delpopolo from the games after testing positive for cannabis on July 30.
? Rob Harris ? Twitter http://twitter.com/RobHarris
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BOTTLE THROWER UPDATE
JUST IN: AP Television's Miles Edelsten reports that the man arrested for throwing a bottle onto the track just before the 100-meter race will soon be on his way to court. A van has arrived to take him from the police station where he's being held to Stratford Magistrates court.
? Miles Edelsten ? Twitter http://twitter.com/strewther
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PREPARE FOR A PARADE
Even once the Olympics are over, Britain will have one more spectacle to savor.
Prime Minister David Cameron's office is saying that Team GB's winning athletes ? who have so far claimed 37 medals ? will take part in a public victory parade.
"My understanding is there will be some kind of event," Prime Minister's David Cameron's spokesman Steve Field said Monday.
? David Stringer - Twitter http://twitter.com/david_stringer
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LOVIN' LONDON
Missy Franklin can be very persuasive ? she's already persuaded her parents to stay and attend the Olympics closing ceremony with her.
"I get these guys to go with me everywhere," she said, nuzzling her head into her father's chest on Monday. "I have the parental units close by."
Extending her stay means the winner of four swimming gold medals will now have to sprint directly to school when she returns.
The family returns to Colorado late on Aug. 13, class registration is the next morning and her senior year of high school begins on the 16th.
"I think it will be exactly the same," the 17-year-old said. "Even though a few more people may know me, I'm still going to go to the same school I've been going to for three years and I'm really excited for my senior year."
Her mother, D.A. Franklin, said the family is determined to give her a normal senior year.
"I'm probably extremely naive, people say things are going to change, but right now our goal is to get her back into school," she said.
Franklin will still have a curfew and still have to do her homework, her mother said.
"She's got the most wonderful friends and hopefully she can go to the football games she wants to and the movies and the dances that she wants to," her mother said. "We hope it's a normal year."
? Jenna Fryer ? Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer
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SOAKING IT IN
Matt Grevers is soaking up his time in the Olympic spotlight.
Winner of the gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke and a member of the winning U.S. 4x100 meter medley relay, Grevers was one of many swimmers on a whirlwind media tour Monday.
He stood at the edge of the "Today" show set signing autographs and posing for pictures for at least half an hour.
"Swimming is not in the spotlight very often, so when it is, I enjoy it for sure," he said.
? Jenna Fryer ? Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer
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QUICKQUOTE: LONDON RIOTS, A YEAR LATER
"The world saw a very different London a year ago. ... It saw a London I didn't recognize. What I am seeing at the moment is a London that I do recognize." ? London organizing committee chief Sebastian Coe on the one-year anniversary of the start of England's worst riots for decades.
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LEBRON ON THE TRAIN
SPOTTED: Lebron James is getting to see a little of London. AP's Sam Petrequin was sitting next to him on the Javelin train that connects the Olympic Park with the city center on Sunday night. Asked if he'd been given permission to leave the village, Lebron, hooded and wearing glasses, said: "They kicked us out!"
Here's the picture: pic.twitter.com/5exAg32m
? Samuel Petrequin ? Twitter http://www.twitter.com/sampetrequin
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EDITOR'S NOTE ? "Eyes on London" shows you the Olympics through the eyes of Associated Press journalists across the 2012 Olympic city and around the world. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item, and get even more AP updates from the Games here: http://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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