23:28 ABC in Hoot product recall shock - http://t.co/ENNlfeUk #
23:17 so we're currently equal 3rd with Germany on the silver medal count... #london2012 #Goaussies #
22:19 The steeplechase heats. I feel like the Olympics have truly begin now. #london2012 #
22:04 Fanny Durack, Snowy Baker, a gold medal in the rugby... Australasia at the 1908 and 1912 Olympics: http://t.co/OEnPAp7e #
21:56 There was a time when Australasia sent a combined team to the Olympics... #london1908 #stockholm1912 #
21:17 Silver! Silver! Silver! #london2012 #rowing #
21:13 "Yakov Toumarkin finishes in 7th place to become most successful Israeli Olympic swimmer" Israeli #london2012 roundup - http://t.co/BXNXiq0Z #
20:58 as long as we beat, as long as we beat, as long as we beat, New Zealand... #london2012 #
20:36 Bronze! Bronze! Bronze! #london2012 #rowing #
20:09 "You want everything in the palm of your hand." Stop talking to yourself, Tom Waterhouse #
20:05 Remember that ch9 bumped the #NRL to their digital channel for this. #
20:04 Everyone must be glued to the TV screens down at the Concordia Club. #gervger #beachvolleyball #london2012 #
20:00 They kept that cross to the fat Aussie shot putter as brief as possible. #london2012 #ch9 #
19:55 In what other sport would ch9 give us a live Germany v Germany preliminary in evening prime-time? #london2012 #
19:52 In the door. Turn the TV on. There's ch9 with Live Olympic Perving. #beachvolleyball #london2012 #
19:31 Japan 11 bronze, USA 10, Russia 8. Come on Australia you've only got 2! #london2012 #
19:17 Can I have a pie please? #
17:23 @CraigEmersonMP Geoff Starling. #emmoquiz #
16:31 I'll never buy an mX again. Oh hang on #naughtynicegate #
15:43 The Liberal Party running candidates in every ward in the #Marrickville Council elections. I suppose they can dream... http://t.co/dXubawLx #
15:34 I'd still rather have Bill Shorten as a Future Prime Minister than Boris Johnson. #piegate #flyingfoxgate #

Raelene Boyle. Frank Beaurepaire. Sam Riley. John Sumegi. Kevan Gosper. Ric Charlesworth. Lauren Jackson. And many more great Australian sportspeople whose greatest honour at the Olympic Games was the silver medal. Add James Magnussen to that list. For now at least.

23:24 Conservapedia's #london2012 page is satire, yes? - http://t.co/k0aEcJY5 #
23:10 @Kimbo_Ramplin not half as much as the women's doubles I bet. #london2012 #beachvolleyball #
23:07 So has ch9 shown any men's #beachvolleyball yet? #london2012 #
23:06 Dressage is not an event to put on television when you're struggling to stay awake. #london2012 #liveanimalexports #
22:46 My #london2012 blog day 6 early edition where I mention table tennis and baseball (sigh) http://t.co/pUA78pqZ #
22:07 Must say I'm enjoying all the live-tweeting of the #shooting coming from India :) #london2012 #
22:03 Boom Boomers! 81-61 over China. #london2012 #basketball #
21:22 English-speaking southern hemisphere countries have done damn well today... well some of them have. #london2012 #rowing #
21:16 South Africa! What a great race! #london2012 #rowing #
21:14 hmm. #london2012 #rowing #
20:52 Day Five of my #london2012 blog featuring badminton, Brad Wiggins, and Boris - http://t.co/0dgbH2TV #
18:56 I just noticed that I was retweeted by Miranda Devine this morning #
18:49 Oi! England! Keep your shop windows off our Olympians! #london2012 #
18:45 Surely it would be more cost-effective for ch9 to broadcast the test pattern for 30 mins than put #ACA to air. Probably get more viewers too #
18:38 #ACA follows that with a blatant and totally irrelevant cross-promotion for 2WS's breakfast show #
18:34 And while we wait for ch9 to return to the Olympics, #ACA breaks the shock news that banks charge fees for ATM withdrawals. #
18:06 Well I must say that Campsie Station is nice and peaceful at this hour. #
17:58 Oh. This isn't the train I was expecting to be on. #
08:08 And here is the full list of the critics' top 50 films of all time. Mulholland Drive (!) is the most recent. http://t.co/1X4ufjeU #
08:04 Hmm. No film made since 1968 on the Sight and Sound critics' top 10 list. http://t.co/E4ILRLb4 #
07:56 Just catching up with the BIG news from overnight: Vertigo has knocked off Citizen Kane to be @SightSoundmag's no.1 film of all time. #
07:28 That was a great win by Nathan Adrian. Bad luck to Magnussen. Didn't Phelps come 2nd in similar circumstances yesterday? #london2012 #
07:06 Trying to imagine Frank Sartor doing all the stuff Boris Johnson has been up to this week. #london2012 #sydney2000 #
06:54 Ben Fordham on ch9 just said Australia is 1 gold 5 silver 2 bronze. The #london2012 app tells me it's 1-6-2. Who do I trust? #
06:28 Australia leads the medal count for nations with one gold medal. #london2012 #

The news on the Olympic baseball is that there is none. I will never stop grumbling about this.

"Eight disqualified for underperforming at badminton" is one of those sentences that I had failed to predict that I would be using during the London Olympics.

22:58 I reckon I could play #badminton that well. And I would be trying. #london2012 #
22:29 just discovered that Yngling is no longer an Olympic event :( #london2012 #sailing #
21:39 Great race. Germany wins. If they ever slash the Olympic Games to ten events please keep the #rowing eights. #london2012 #
21:35 Yes it does help if I enable publishing before tweeting the link: http://t.co/O5xO0mAl #
21:28 Three Union Jacks at the medal ceremony. Two Southern Crosses. Australia, we really do need our own unique flag. #london2012 #rowing #
21:26 All rise for God Save Zara Phillips' Gran. #london2012 #rowing #
21:22 A blatant SEO-friendly guide to all my blog references to Michael Phelps over the past three Olympiads - http://t.co/O5xO0mAl #london2012 #
21:00 Did anyone come first?? RT @thetodayshow: Silver for Kate Hornsey & Sarah Tait in the women's pairs - fantastic finish! #london2012 #
20:57 Huge win to the Brits. Fantastic. #london2012 #rowing #
19:23 A Horse's Birthday edition of my daily #london2012 blog - http://t.co/CtZnuySL #
18:31 Twenty minutes of ACA? That sounds like a compromise fought out in the ch9 boardroom. (now watching SBS) #
18:25 From 2006, the transcript of @bobjcarr's interview for @ForeignOfficial with the late Gore Vidal. http://t.co/otG25DcF #
18:21 I really need to sort my digital TV setup #
18:19 Seven mins of Olympic news, some local stuff, today's Tony Abbott Says, a Youtube clip, then at 6.17 it's back to Kenny in London. #9newsat6 #
18:04 You'd think that when ch9 break away from the Olympics for News that they would show non-Olympic news #
12:41 Match-fixing controversy in Auckland #RugbyLeague after team guaranteed a semi-final spot loses game 102-0 http://t.co/VFgAvieu #
08:55 @JonnoDixon surely they'd need to rename the whole sport if they did that? #
07:42 No way. RT @sunriseon7 Michael Carr-Gregg believes there will be a total ban on social media at the next Olympic Games in Rio in 2016. #Sun7 #
07:15 @JonnoDixon that would be good then. But I was hoping for the wallavolleys #
06:50 Dave Zirin @EdgeofSports on the fracas surrounding Damien Hooper's T-shirt. #london2012 #
06:42 Majlinida Kelmendi, the judoka competing for Albania because the IOC doesn't recognise her native Kosovo - http://t.co/o79POXVa #london2012 #
06:32 Such a diverse continent of marsupials and Australia continues to mangle the word "kangaroo" for its sporting teams. #london2012 #
06:31 Some nicknames are best never invented. RT @ABCOlympics: The Volleyroos have defeated Great Britain in straight sets 25-15, 25-18, 25-20 #
06:15 Now this is where ch9 crosses to live and uniterrupted hockey, right? Right?? #
06:14 Learning the words to the Chinese national anthem is on my To Do list. Mind you, I struggle with the second verse of Advance Australia Fair. #
06:09 If Alicia Coutts was a nation she'd be level on the medal tally with Brazil and Hungary right now. #london2012 #

To coincide with Michael Phelps becoming the most-medalled Olympic athlete in history and with me using medal as a verb for the first and last time, here is an index to all my blog references to The Great Man over the past two Olympiads:

Happy birthday horses everywhere. And a special happy birthday to yesterday's gold medallists: Barny, King Artus, Opgun Luovo, Butts Abraxxus, and dual winner Sam.

22:16 And what military defeat will Alan Jones equate with Victoria Na's elimination from the badminton? #london2012 #
22:14 I really really don't like this idea of swimmers being interviewed straight from getting out of the pool. #london2012 #
22:11 So a descendant of our beloved monarch has won an Olympic medal. #london2012 #liveanimalexports #
19:17 Agnel and Roberts tie for 3rd but hey it's a heat. #london2012 #swimming #
19:16 Call it treason but I'm going for Yannick in this heat. #london2012 #m100free #
19:07 "excuse me while I call this race in case you have an interest" How noble of you Rabs even if there are no Aussies. #london2012 #swimming #
18:37 Oops. #london2012 RT @Aggerscricket: Fallen foul of branding regs...brolly confiscated because it has a golf name on it. #
18:34 @Jono yes well that's a bit nastier. Unfortunately journalism-by-twitter doesn't pick up stuff that's deleted #
18:25 @Jono I haven't seen a mention of death threats in the reports I've read #
18:18 Hmm. How long have offensive tweets been a criminal offence in the UK? #
17:28 Make em take it now. RT @UNSW: Foundation day prank - media fooled by UNSW monorail hoax http://t.co/a2dW3IMM #
13:11 I have been trying to watch the repeat of #qanda but, well, John Alexander... #
12:51 From @JeffJarvis on the economics of #NBCfail - http://t.co/fuMp4dQD via @HuffPostMedia #
12:48 So is Gary Zenkel the new Barbra Streisand? Anyone want to email him and ask? #nbcfail #
11:25 London Day Three: A message from our sponsor. I'm not here right now... http://t.co/tHmXhitO via @rickeyre #london2012 #
10:47 I'm eating a microwaved Four n Twenty spagbol meat pie. Desperate measures you know the drill... #
09:08 Ohn O. Controversy over the performances of Chinese swimmer Ye S. http://t.co/5OK90Sd2 #london2012 #
09:06 Personally, I think if you break your Olympic medal in the shower you should enter another event to get a replacement: http://t.co/TVZdykAm #
09:04 why does Mark Nicholas sound more like a jingoistic Aussie than any of the other ch9 #london2012 hosts? #
08:59 everybody's favourite Democratic People's Republic is currently 4th on the medal count! #
08:19 Austria beats Australia, or if you're following NBC, Australia beats Austria. #beachvolleyball #london2012 #
08:06 replugging my #London2012 Day 2 blog from yesterday now with added Coles commercial http://t.co/heBXuxNl #
07:39 at what point does a tied #beachvolleyball set go to penalty kicks? #
07:24 Boris will be horrified. Neither of the teams in the Australia v Austria game are near-naked! #beachvolleyball #london2012 #
07:23 Australia v Austria at the #beachvolleyball. Over at NBC someone's brain is exploding. #london2012 #

Freebies for corporate partners is nothing new in Big Sports. Corporate partners not using their freebies is nothing new either. But the sight of empty seats - and lots of them - has struck a collective raw nerve at the London Games.