Artemev gets into the act

BEIJING - Last Wednesday, US gymnast Alexander Artemev seemed likely to be an Olympic spectator. Now, he could be a medalist. After being called in to replace the injured Morgan Hamm, the 22-year-old from Lakewood, Colo., earned spots in both the all-around and the pommel horse final yesterday as the Americans qualified sixth to reach Tuesday's team final.

"I was kind of nervous about not having podium training, but I figured I've been doing these routines for a long time," said the former US champion, who won a bronze on pommel horse at the 2006 World Championships. "What do I have to lose, right? Go big."

Also qualifying for the all-around, plus the horizontal bar final, was Jonathan Horton, who was fourth at last year's global meet.

As expected, a strong Chinese squad dominated. Yang Wei led the all-around, 1.45 points ahead of Fabian Hambuechen of Germany. Japan had three gymnasts in the top six.

The US women's gymnastics team isn't worried about reports that half of the Chinese squad may be underage and used doctored identification cards to meet the 16-year-old threshold to be eligible for the Games.

"We all heard some talk about that," said team coordinator Martha Karolyi, whose squad will compete in today's qualifying round.

"We're definitely not worrying about anything that is not under our control. We will be ready to face any team, overage or underage."

Unlike the Americans, who brought their entire women's team to last week's press conference, the Chinese are keeping theirs away from cameras, microphones, and notepads.

"They will feel stress if the journalists keep throwing questions like, 'Which medal do you think you can get?' " said Chinese coach Lu Shenzen. "They were trained in a closed environment. Even if we want to change, it takes time."

Gymnastics officials said the International Olympic Committee checked the passports of all competing gymnasts and said they're valid. Records are also consistent with those from previous competitions, said the federation's president, Bruno Grandi.

When it came time to compete, the Chinese team went about its business, sweeping all four apparatus and posting 248.275 points, far ahead of Romania's 238.425.

Away from the action, France's Cassy Vericel, the reigning bronze world medalist on floor exercise, will miss the Games after she reinjured her left ankle Thursday.

The US swimmers have been bowled over by the Water Cube natatorium, whose bubble-icious exterior (which lights up at night) makes it one of the most striking Olympic venues. "The pool is awesome," said Dara Torres, who competed in Los Angeles, Seoul, Barcelona, and Sydney. "It's very deep. Water pours out of the sides of the gutter. The blocks are great. Everything is fantastic. They did an awesome job building it." . . . How far have expectations dropped for the Croatian men's basketball team, which won silver behind the Dream Team in 1992? "Don't be last," said captain Nikola Prkacin, whose teammates didn't qualify for the last World Championships and are playing in the Olympics for the first time since 1996.

Opening-night festivities averaged 34.2 million viewers on NBC Friday, making it the biggest Olympic opening ceremony not held in the United States, Nielsen Media Research said. The Athens Games four years ago averaged 25.4 million viewers for its first night, Nielsen said, and Sydney in 2000 had 27.3 million viewers. According to IOC press officer Giselle Davis, the domestic viewing audience for the ceremonies was 840 million. It was shown on 30 national and regional networks. The audience share was 83.6 percent of all TVs in use . . . Nearly three dozen Olympic athletes from the Republic of Georgia are anxiously following the news of violence in a breakaway region of their country, following a bombardment by Russian tanks, planes, and artillery. The Georgian government decided to keep the 35-member team at the Olympics, team spokesman Giorgi Tchanishvili said . . . Ekaterina Thanou, the Greek sprinter banned for two years for missing a drug test on the eve of the 2004 Olympics, won't be allowed to compete at the Games, the IOC ruled . . . Russian steeplechase runner Roman Usov has been pulled from the Games amid reports he failed a drug test at the selection trials last month . . . Activists continued their pro-Tibet demonstrations with the boldest protest coming when five people - three Americans, a Canadian, and a German - breached heavy security in Tiananmen Square and urged Tibetan freedom before being confronted by angry Chinese onlookers.

Material from Bob Ryan of the Globe staff and Globe wire services was used in this report.