Digital media and dazzling sport have won unprecedented ratings, Olympics bosses said today as they debuted two events aimed at the young and adventurous.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said a huge leap in online broadcast viewership in key markets and an avid TV audience in the host China, the world's most populous country, would make the 2008 Games the most watched in history.
The figures were a boost to the Olympic movement which is embracing online distribution and admitting edgier sports to attract younger audiences less inclined to watch mainstream television or to follow the traditional medal events.
In the first Olympic 10km open water swim, Russia's Larisa Ilchenko won by less than two seconds from Britain's Keri-Anne Payne and Cassie Patten, sprinting past the pair in the last 100 metres of the jostling, rough-and-tumble contest.
Swimmers kicked and tussled for position in the Olympic rowing lake whose flat water, unlike the ocean waves often faced in the marathon swimming contest, allowed a fast time. Ms Ilchenko, 19, has dominated the gruelling event since the age of 16.
South Africa amputee Natalie du Toit won admiration for her pluck in swimming the 10km but there was no medal for the 24-year-old, who lost her left leg in a motorcycle accident in 2001. She finished 16th, around a minute behind Ms Ilchenko.
Less edifying on Day 11 of the Games was news that Ukraine's heptathlon silver medallist tested positive for steroids. Lyudmila Blonska could be kicked out when IOC officials meet tomorrow to review the latest doping case. As well as the water race, TV-friendly BMX biking got its first start, bringing some counter culture attitude and extreme sports buzz to the Summer Games.
To the sound of thumping music, eight bikers race each other down a three-storey start ramp, fly over rolling dirt bumps in helmets and protective padding, and crash their tiny bikes recklessly in action-packed races that last less than 40 seconds.
"Being a fast, intense spectator sport, it suits young people's expectations," said France's Anne-Caroline Chausson, who crashed but made it into the semi-finals.
A record 1.2 billion people are thought to have watched the opening ceremony and 40 million people in the United States alone saw American swimmer Michael Phelps win his eighth gold medal, an 18-year high for the NBC network's Saturday evening viewing.
The American broadcaster, which paid nearly $900 million for exclusive US rights, was drawing 30 times more video views online than for Athens when internet broadcast was young.
More than 22 million clips were viewed so far.
"In China alone more than 102 million people watched the Games live online," said Timo Lumme, IOC director of TV and marketing services, and many more watched recorded segments.
Ratings were also strong in Britain, which has its biggest medal haul in a century and hosts the next Summer Games, and India which won its first individual gold in Beijing.
Various conflict areas like Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories have struggled to send athletes to China, and some have been preparing in appalling circumstances.
Rohullah Nikpai did his homeland proud with Afghanistan's first Olympic medal -- bronze in flyweight taekwondo.
"I'm very happy," said Mr Nipai, who fell to his knees, hugged coaches and wept after beating world champion Juan Antonio Ramos.
The hosts' 45 golds give them a seemingly insurmountable lead over the Americans with 26, allowing China's rulers to boast sporting glory to match their economic might.
Windsurfer Yin Jian pumped and glided her way to a first sailing gold for China.
Then Wu Jingyu notched another gold in women's taekwondo.
But Lithuania ended the hosts' outside hopes of a men's basketball medal by overpowering them 95-68 in the quarter-finals. That was the last showing in the Games for national hero Yao Ming, who plays in the NBA.
More drama, and likely disappointment for a struggling US track and field team, should come in the men's 200 metres.
Jamaica's Usain "Lightning" Bolt hopes to become the first man since Carl Lewis in 1984 to win an Olympic sprint double, carrying on in style from his dazzling, world record 100m win.
Victory again for Bolt in the Bird's Nest at 4.20 p.m. (Malta time) would make him as much a face of this Games as Phelps, whose eight golds give him a place of his own in the record books.
Away from the sports, rights groups said Chinese police had detained another half dozen foreigners for protests in favour of Tibetan independence. Police have been acting quickly to quell small demonstrations such as unfurling flags and waving banners.
Most of the foreigners involved have been held briefly then deported, activists say.