Leading Off

Best Toe Forward
With a judge closely watching her departure time, five-time Olympian Dara Torres—at 41 the oldest swimmer in U.S. history—dived in to anchor the women's 4 √ó 100 freestyle relay on Sunday. While her 52.44 leg closed the gap, the Americans finished second to the Dutch by .57 seconds at the Water Cube. Torres (inset, far right) then celebrated the 10th medal of her career with twentysomethings (from left) Natalie Coughlin, Kara-Lynn Joyce and Lacey NyMeyer.

Arrow Space
An Olympic volunteer only appeared to be in the line of fire last Saturday during the individual ranking round of women's archery on the Olympic Green. A field of 64 started the event (inset), an elimination tournament that lasts for six rounds, with the final scheduled for Thursday.

Beijing Bling
As fireworks exploded over the host city last Friday, the Olympic flame burned bright in the National Stadium, a.k.a. the Bird's Nest (center), at the conclusion of opening ceremonies for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Inside the stadium a crowd of 91,000 watched Zhu Qiaoyan hang above a human version of the Bird's Nest while Lang Lang and five-year-old Li Muzi played a piano duet (inset).

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Photograph by Simon Bruty

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HEINZ KLUETMEIER

TWO PHOTOS

Photographs by Simon Bruty

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Photograph by Gerfly/SI China

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JOHN W. MCDONOUGH