New Jersey's Rebecca Soni Takes Gold Medal, World Record in 200m Breaststroke

OK, we here at Coffee is for Closers have to throw in a little Jersey pride here: our local gal Rebecca Soni has pulled another great performance out of the hat and taken another Olympic medal... and this one's gold.

The 21 year old from Plainsboro, New Jersey beat Australia's "Lethal" Leisel Jones in the women's 200m breaststroke in world record time, pulling further away from the favorite Jones as the race neared its end.

Soni was the surprise silver medalist in the 100m breaststroke, coming in second to Jones. Rebecca Soni was not even originally scheduled to swim the 100m breaststroke, having finished fourth in the U.S. trials in the event. But she was inserted into the race after a teammate withdrew after having a positive drug test.

In true American melting-pot fashion, Rebecca Soni is the daughter of Hungarian and Romanian immigrants to the U.S.

You can read more about Rebecca Soni's bio silver medal victory and find a Rebecca Soni bio and profile at USA Swimming.

Congrats, Rebecca! I've got a number of friends from the Princeton/Plainsboro area, and I'm sure everyone down there in Central Jersey is very proud of their local girl.

What's Mandarin Chinese for "Rah Rah, Sis Boom Bah!"

The Chinese are leaving nothing to chance in their quest to have a good Olympics, and that goes beyond preparing its athletes. First we heard about its plans to seed clouds so that rain does not fall on the opening ceremonies on August 8th.

Now, to rev up its army of athletes in the Beijing Olympics, China is training people to become cheerleaders for its sports teams. So they've created classes to instruct people in cheerleading, according to a recent story that aired on the radio in the U.S. The classes run a total of 10 hours, and some workers are taking time off without pay to get the cheer training.

"The students in one cheerleading class are not leggy athletic girls with pompoms, but rather desk-bound, middle-aged government employees brandishing balloons," the article notes.

Imagine Michael from "The Office" training his employees in cheers, waving balloons...

This article says that at least 300,000 people will be on China's Olympic cheering squads.

One cheer goes, "Smile, Beijing, a smile shows Beijing's best tomorrow." It doesn't sound all that rousing to me, but I guess it might be more dramatic sung by a middle-aged office worker furiously waving his balloon-holding arms around as if he was trying to land a jumbo jet.

Or maybe not.

Dara Torres - Profile of the Five-Time Olympic Swimmer

U.S. swimmer Dara Torres has made history by becoming the first American swimmer to make the Olympics on five different occasions. And she's 41 years old! Oddly, the Internet seems to be abuzz with people searching for "Dara Torres husband" -- apparently folks are more concerned with her marital status than her swimming accomplishments? Or maybe it's a trivia question in a drinking game.

The New York Times has a good profile of her, which tells of the extensive training regimen she uses to stay in top competitive shape. (The Times also did a profile of her late last year, which you can find here.) Torres has her own Web site, www.daratorres.com, but it has been very busy and not loading the last few days.

In any case, "Dara Torres husband" is kind of a trick question: though Torres has a partner (a doctor named David Hoffman), they are not married. Dara Torres has been married (and divorced) twice, so maybe she feels having another husband is not the best idea right now.

So while there is no Dara Torres husband, the swimmer and her not-husband Hoffman do have a daughter, a two year old named Tessa Grace.