Kimberly Rhode's unlucky road

Kimberly Rhode won the gold medal in women's skeet shooting Sunday, making her the first American to take an individual-sport medal.

However, despite her amazing achievements, Kimberly Rhode's years-long journey to the Olympic skeet shooting final at the Royal Artillery Barracks was not easy.

Rhode has dealt with her share of issues from a cancer scare to her gun being stolen after the Beijing Games (an anonymous donor provided a new one worth about $20,000, and police eventually recovered the first one). Others weren't so daunting, like having her poodle eating her air ticket to London.

"It's just been an incredible journey," said Rhode. "And ultimately, I couldn't be happier for bringing home the gold for the United States."

Gold medallist Kimberly Rhode of the US blows kisses to the crowd at the victory ceremony for the women's skeet competition at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the Royal Artillery Barracks at Woolwich in London July 29, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Rising dispute of China and ROK flag

Sun Yang came joint?second with Park at 1:44.93 in the men's 200m freestyle at the London Olympics on Monday. But?the Republic of?Korea’s flag was raised above China's flag during the victory ceremony, infuriating many Chinese fans. Many demanded the London Olympic Organizing Committee offer an explanation and apology.

According to international practice, the flags should be placed side by side if the two countries have the same result. However, the national flags of the two countries were placed vertically this time. So it was no wonder the Chinese were angry and a heated discussion followed.

[Photo/Sina weibo]

IOC defends Ye Shiwen against doping accusations

The IOC's anti-doping chief played down suspicions over Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen’s dominating performance during the London Olympics.

Ye Shiwen,16, took the gold medal and set a new world record with a time of 4 minutes 28.43 seconds in the women's 400m individual medley on Saturday.

"I think it is very sad that an unexpected performance be surrounded by suspicions," said Arne Ljungqvist at a news conference Monday, "I think that is very bad for the sport itself. I think we should applaud until we have a reason to do it. I don't like suspicions."

Ye appeared confident in her performance, “The Chinese team has always had a firm policy about anti-doping," Ye said.

China's Ye Shiwen poses with her gold medal on the podium during the women's 400m individual medley victory ceremony at the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Center in this July 28, 2012 file photograph. Ye said on Monday that her "results come from hard work and training" and that she "would never use any banned drugs". All medal winners at the Olympics are drug tested, according to media reports.[Photo/Agencies]

Ping-pang Venus inspires the globe

Polish table tennis player Natalia Partyka became one of only two athletes scheduled to compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics this year, along with South African blade runner Oscar Pistorius.

Born without a right hand and forearm, Natalia serves her opponent by balancing the ball in the folds of skin at the end of her elbow before dropping it on to her swishing bat. Therefore, she is nicknamed "Ping-pang Venus."

The 23-year-old, lost 4-2 in her third round Olympic singles match to Li Jie of the Netherlands after beating Denmark's Mie Skov 4-3 on July 29, however, is happy if her achievements act as an inspiration to others.

"For me, it (disability) is nothing." she told reporters. "Maybe someone will see me and realise that their own disability is not the end of the world," she said.

Poland's Natalia Partyka hits a return to Denmark's Mie Skov during their women's singles second round table tennis match in the ExCel venue at the London 2012 Olympic Games July 28, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]