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Let's Catch Up: Olympics Set Record Ratings; Venus Rolls To Third Round

Venus Williams of the United States returns a shot to Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada in their Olympic singles tennis match, played at Wimbledon. Williams won, 6-1, 6-3.
Clive Brunskill
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Venus Williams of the United States returns a shot to Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada in their Olympic singles tennis match, played at Wimbledon. Williams won, 6-1, 6-3.

Good morning. Today will be another big one in London — we'll have a preview of the action in a jiffy. For now, here are some stories that caught our eye:

- The London Olympics are a ratings hit, as NBC's coverage has broken records. "Through the weekend NBC averaged 35.8 million viewers in London, five million more than Beijing, and over a million more than the previous record-holder, Atlanta," says the TVNewser blog.

- Venus Williams has advanced to the third round in the tennis singles competition. She beat Aleksandra Wozniak 6-1, 6-3. Williams has won three Olympic gold medals — one in the singles and two in the doubles event.

- The Olympics' opening ceremony inspired BBC to present the first live Super Hi-Vision broadcast, along with Japanese broadcaster NHK. They used " the world's only three 8K Ultra HDTV cameras" to do that. Endgadget has a review of the 33-megapixel footage — and a question: Why?

- World champion gymnast Jordyn Wieber was excluded from Thursday's all-around finals under a rule that limits each nation to two participants — a situation her coach is calling an "injustice." In Sunday's qualifying rounds, Wieber finished fourth overall — which is something to be proud of. But teammates Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas did even better, and they'll compete.

- Zara Phillips won a silver medal in equestrian team eventing Tuesday, riding before her royal cousins Princes Harry and William, who watched with his wife, Kate, in London. That's right. Phillips is the queen's granddaughter.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Bill Chappell is a writer and editor on the News Desk in the heart of NPR's newsroom in Washington, D.C.