Usain Bolt completed his sprint double Wednesday with a gold medal in the men's 200m.
Once again, the Jamaican blew away the field, but this time he ran through the finish and with a 19.32 broke Michael Johnson's world record.
Bolt was an astonishing 0.52 seconds ahead of Churandy Martina of Netherlands Antilles, who was second across the finish line but later was disqualified after a U.S. team protest that he had run out of his lane. The third man across the line, Wallace Spearmon of the United States, also was disqualified for leaving his lane.
Those rulings meant Shawn Crawford of the United States, the defending Olympic champion, wound up with the silver medal, and another American, Walter Dix, ended up with the bronze medal despite being the fifth man across the finish line.
On Saturday night, Bolt won the 100m with a world record of 9.69 seconds. He began his celebration with 20 meters to go, throwing his arms in the air and pounding his chest as he crossed the finish.
Also at the Bird’s Nest on Wednesday:
—The Jamaican flag also waved proudly for Melaine Walker, who won the women’s 400-meter hurdles. American Sheena Tosta got silver.
—Aksana Miankova of Belarus set an Olympic record in winning the women’s hammer throw.
—Bernard Lagat advanced to the 5,000-meter final, moving on the Saturday night’s medal race.
—Three Jamaicans and three Americans were among those advancing to the women’s 200 finals, which will be Thursday night.
Men's Basketball
Don't doubt this U.S. men's basketball team — and sure don't challenge them, either.
Especially if it's going to make Kobe Bryant flash his NBA MVP form.
Bryant scored 25 points in his best game in Beijing, and the men's U.S. Olympic team advanced to the semifinals by beating Australia 116-85 on Wednesday night.
The United States will play defending champion Argentina or Greece on Friday night for a spot in Sunday's gold medal game.
Locked in what looked like another tough game in Australia, the Americans sent the Aussies' upset hopes down under with a 14-0 burst to open the second half, featuring nine points from Bryant.
LeBron James added 16 points for the Americans, who are guaranteed a chance to play for a medal. They need two more wins for their first gold medal in a major international competition since the 2000 Sydney Games.
Volleyball
The U.S. men’s volleyball team came from behind to defeat Serbia in five sets and remain undefeated in Beijing.
The 20-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-18, 15-12 victory Wednesday night propels the United States into the semifinal round against Russia.
The U.S. team overcame tragedy to win all five of its matches in preliminary pool play. Serbia went 2-3 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Softball
Both the U.S. women's softball and men's beach volleyball teams are moving on to the finals to play for gold medals this week.
Crystl Bustos of the U.S. blasted a three-run homer in the top of the ninth inning — which followed a Caitlin Lowe RBI single — as the Americans powered over Japan, 4-1. Pitcher Monica Abbott, who pitched eight shut-out innings, picked up the win.
The teams were knotted in a scoreless tie, forcing the game into extra innings, until Lowe singled in Natasha Watley from second in the ninth. Two at-bats later, Bustos sent the ball flying into the left-field bleachers.
Team USA plays the loser of Australia-Canada in Thursday's gold-medal game.
Beach volleyball
The stunning loss in the tournament opener seems like ancient history for Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers, especially now that the Americans are playing for the gold medal.
The guys needed only 41 minutes to eliminate Georgia in straight sets in the semifinals, then watched Brazil’s No. 2 team beat its best, the Athens gold medalists.
On the women's side, Jill Kintner of the U.S. ranked seventh in the seeding with a best time of 37.913. Anne-Caroline Chausson of France came in first with a best time of 36.660.
Baseball
Brian Barden singled in the go-ahead run to break a scoreless tie in the 11th inning as the U.S. baseball team beat Japan 4-2 on Wednesday to earn the third seed into Friday's medal round. The Japanese will be No. 4.
Barden's single off Hitoki Iwase scored Jason Donald from second. International baseball's new extra-innings rule calls for, beginning in the 11th inning, runners to start on first and second with teams able to start at any point in their batting order.
Nate Schierholtz and Matt Brown followed with RBI singles of their own. Casey Weathers allowed consecutive two-out RBI singles to Atsunori Inaba and Hiroyuki Nakajima, then walked Shuichi Murata before getting pinch-hitter Shinnosuke Abe to pop up to end it with the winning run on first.
Boxing
British middleweight James Degale beat former Olympic champion Bakhtiyar Artayev of Kazakhstan to clinch Britain’s third boxing medal in Beijing, while Vijender Kumar clinched the first boxing medal in India’s history.
Cuba’s last two fighters also reached the semifinals with one-sided victories, guaranteeing a whopping eight medals for the sport’s now-unquestioned power. Flyweight Andris Laffita earned a marquee meeting with Russia’s Georgy Balakshin, while middleweight Emilio Correa emulated his medal-winning father with a win over Uzbekistan’s Elshod Rasulov.
Italy’s Vincenzo Picardi left the arena on his coach’s shoulders after beating Tunisia’s Walid Cherif to clinch a medal. Italy already clinched medals for its two heaviest fighters, world champions Roberto Cammarelle and Clemente Russo, but rarely does well in the lighter classes.
Dzhakhon Kurbanov, the light heavyweight from Tajikistan who bit his opponent on the shoulder in a quarterfinal bout, won't face additional sanctions or suspension by the International Boxing Association (AIBA).
A light heavyweight boxer from Tajikistan was disqualified for biting his opponent. Spokesman Richard Baker said Wednesday that Kurbanov's disqualification from the Olympic boxing tournament will be his only punishment for the bizarre infraction, which occurred with 17 seconds left in the third round of his bout with Kazakhstan's Yerkebulan Shynaliyev.
Kurbanov, who was trailing 12-6 at the time, apparently bit Shynaliyev during a clinch, leading the referee to stop the bout. Baker said doctors believe Kurbanov didn't draw blood, and that the blood seen on Shynaliyev's shoulder might have been from a cut on Kurbanov's face.
Kurbanov still had his mouthpiece in his mouth when he bit Shynaliyev, who clinched a medal with the victory and advanced to Friday's semifinals.
Water Polo
The U.S. squad knows who it will be playing in the semifinals: Serbia. The other semi will pit reigning European champs Montenegro against two-time defending Olympic gold medalist Hungary.
Serbia beat Spain to advance. Montenegro moved on by upsetting Croatia, which came in as the world’s No. 1 team.
Cycling
The stands were filled with fans, cheering for both every jump and crash. The theme from "Rocky" and AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" blared from speakers as Chinese cheerleaders and breakdancers gyrated along. Outside, plenty of people without tickets tried desperately to talk their way in, just to be part of it all.
The BMX world had never seen this before. The sport finally had reached the Olympic stage.
"You can't get much more rad than this," American star Donny Robinson said.
Not in the Summer Games, anyway.
And in the biggest competition of their lives, the four American riders didn't disappoint - but didn't escape unscathed, either. All advanced, but three-time world champion Kyle Bennett dislocated his left shoulder in his third and final heat. Doctors popped it back into place, and Bennett plans to race Thursday.
U.S. Olympic trials champion Mike Day had the fastest time in the men's seeding time trial and easily won all three of his qualifying races, suggesting he's in gold-medal form. The lone American woman, Jill Kintner, moved into Thursday's semifinals seeded seventh in her field of 16.
"I had a great day," Day said. "Not to sound cocky, but everything's kind of coming naturally. Everything feels good, so hopefully tomorrow will be the same. I felt good and hopefully I made a statement today."
The Associated Press and NBCOlympics.com contributed to this report.