Sports

Good morning. Only five days remain in the Summer Games, and China leads the United States in the medal count, with a total of 73 (34 gold) to America's 71 (30 gold). Here's other news that caught our eye this morning:

The Olympics' twelfth day features an all-USA showdown in beach volleyball for the gold medal. In all, there are medals up for grabs in 16 events Wednesday. Here are some of the highlights of the action. All times refer to the Eastern time zone:

Athletics

• 3:05p Women's Long Jump Final
• 3:10p Men's 200m Semifinals
• 3:45p Women's 400m Hurdles Final
• 4:00p Women's 200m Final
• 4:15p Men's 110m Hurdles Final

Beach Volleyball

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.

The Fierce Five have finished their run at the London Summer Olympics. Fierce Five is the nickname given to America's whiz-kid female gymnasts - average age just a bit over 16. They started the Games by winning the most important gold medal, in the team event. They finished yesterday with their team captain finally getting a break that seemed elusive. From London, here's NPR's Tom Goldman.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

The Olympic Games in London have already brought a lot of drama and made some history, as well. And today and tomorrow could bring more memorable moments.

NPR's Howard Berkes is covering his eighth Olympics and he joins us now to tell us about what we can look forward to. Good morning.

HOWARD BERKES, BYLINE: Good morning.

MONTAGNE: I see the decathlon is on your list of events to pay attention to today. Outside of the Olympics, of course, most of us don't pay a lot of attention to that particular sport. Why today?

Tom Goldman shares the latest Olympics news with Audie Cornish. In gymnastics, American Aly Raisman won two medals on Tuesday. Two British brothers also won the triathlon.

Audie Cornish speaks with former weightlifter Melanie Roach about the critical elements that go into a successful lift.

The American women's water polo team will again chase an elusive gold medal, this time at the London Olympics. The team qualified for the gold medal match by defeating longtime Olympic rival Australia.

Tied after regular time expired, the Americans scored two goals in overtime to beat the Australian water polo women, 11-9. Now the U.S. team moves on to the gold medal match Thursday.

Will the London 2012 Games be remembered as the last Olympics of the pre-clone era? The answer is maybe — because the group that oversees equestrian events has given its OK to allowing cloned horses to compete in the Summer Olympics.

U.S. gymnast Aly Raisman has won the gold medal in the women's floor exercise at the London 2012 Games. Her powerful routine garnered a score of 15.600 — enough to beat the 15.200 of Romania's Catalina Ponor, who turned in a technically strong performance.

Russia's Aliya Mustafina took bronze, with 14.900. American Jordyn Wieber finished seventh, with a 14.500 score.