Next week, when the Olympics are over and NBC’s late night lineup returns, swimming fans will be greeted with a familiar face: that of Dara Torres.

She will be a guest on the Tonight Show w/ Jay Leno (again) on the night of August 25th. The following night, gymnast Nastia Liukin will be a guest.

The show airs weeknights at 11:35 PM (ET). Click here for the Tonight Show website.

Photo by Getty Images…please don’t come after us, kthnx

I saw this pic on the USA Swimming website and definitely let out a hearty laugh. Not just because Ricky dwarfs the US gymnasts, but also because of how hard he is cheesin’. Nice look, “Tricky Ricky”.

ETA: The video from the Today Show

Thought we forgot about this, didn’t ya?

Well the Lochtenator has been part of 2 World Record performances whilst over in Beijing. Individually, he rocked it in the 200 back tonight and earlier in the week, as the 2nd leg of the WR-setting men’s 800 Free Relay.

For his efforts, he’s earned himself 5 more cases and a 6-pack of Heineken from us today. That brings his grand total to 9 cases and two 6-packs, which we’ll convert into one 12er. Do we have a total for what we owe him? Nope. Let’s just leave it at “a lot”. I almost wish I hadn’t made that bet with him back in 2005. Who knew he was gonna blow up like this? I’m thinking he did and that was part of his plan alllll along. I’m onto you, Lochtenator! Congrats and call us when you want to redeem any of those cases.

And seriously….WHERE IS THE GRILL?!?! I’m going to be quite upset if I find out someone took (hid?) it from him or told him couldn’t wear it! It’s too classic and deliciously Lochte!

Previous days’ earnings:

I was watching gymnastics, but with the way the judges are hosing the Americans with the scoring, I’ve decided I can’t watch that bullshit anymore.

Shout out to Rebecca Soni for doing the damn thing in the 200 Breast! Holla!

Before I forget, here are some quick observations from watching NBC’s Olympic Coverage:

1. Why hasn’t the Lochtenator busted out his grillz? I hope they didn’t confiscate them! The world needs to see his grillz because “the whole top diamonds and da bottom row’s gold”.

2. Isn’t it refreshing to see the medals ceremony girls not looking like hoochies? That was one of my beefs from Trials.

3. It’s kind of stupid that NBC is tape-delaying coverage of the West Coast. Heard that the Al Jazeera feed has come to the rescue for some. May want to check it out!

4. Watching the Olympics, I’m doing a whole lot of thinking about who the next generation of “Swim Stars” are gonna be since I’m going to lose quite a few to retirement.

5. Speaking of Swim Stars, the sites are back online and functioning. It was a very stressful stretch when I couldn’t access any of them nor their control panels, but it all seems to be worked out. *knock on wood*

6. I love me some gymnastics, don’t get me wrong. Attempts at watching gymnastics back in Athens is what drew me into swimming. However, I’m not thrilled that we don’t get to see a lot of the semifinal races because of the gymnastics coverage.

7. Is it bad that I could still pick out Bob’s whistle while watching races?

8. My heart broke for The Hoff tonight.

9. I’m not going to lie. There were “man tears” for me when PVK won the bronze in the 200 Free. That’s my dawg. So proud of him.

10. GREEEEEVERRRRRSSSS

ETA: 11. Our Trials need to be in March, not early July. Period.

It’s no surprise that there are a ton of fans and curious individuals filtering through the Swim Aids website these days. This site is indexed very well with Google, so even the simplest of search terms pertaining to swimmers will bring visitors here.

The most amusing of the search terms leading to Swim Aids is the oh-so-predictable: “Who is Michael Phelps dating?” query.

When the Olympics roll around, the “once every 4 years fangirls” come out of the woodwork as well as new bandwagoners. They all begin obsessing over all things Phelpsi. First and foremost they want to know if he’s single. He’s not. Sorry, chicas. However, why not try to stick around and be a fan for the 4 years in between the Olympics? That’s what happened with us. We’ve been sucked in since Athens. It’s really gratifying and then you too can be in the know.

We’ve never been set out to be all up his business because frankly we don’t care. That, and it’s no one’s business. His personal life is just that, personal. Do we know things? You bet. But we’re not those type of fans and never will be.

So, where do all the dating searches go? Here. LOLZ. Way to go, kiwi.

Quick, name that tune! 10 keepin’ it real points if you know what it is! And don’t give me the cover. I want the original artist!

Anyway, as year-round swim fans, the excitement of last night’s relay is really gratifying. Not only because that was a badass finish, but because the entire rest of the sports world is talking about it too!

The Swim Aids know that I’m a big football fan. The gridiron boards that I frequent are even talking about it and how awesome it was!

The local news anchors are still talking about and are clearly as pumped up as I was, especially about the French talking trash.

That relay was so good for the sport and I hope there are even more performances like that to grab the attention of the rest of the sports community.

My local news showed an additional clip of Cullen Jones watching a replay of the race and he hears a commentator (my guess would be Rowdy…) pointing out that he had the slowest split. Cullen’s reply: “Oh, nice!”. Don’t worry, he was smiling as he said that! Time for a shameless plug. Visit cullenjones.com at your leisure. I finished building it at around 6AM Saturday. No sleep for the weary, yo.

Yeah!