Olympics diary

Venus Williams has revealed how pin-collecting has become a craze among the US tennis squad.

The pin badges are handed out to competitors and members of the wider Olympic family, including officials and media.

Team-mate Mardy Fish is an avid collector, as are doubles brothers Bob and Mike Bryan, but Venus has scooped them all.

“I don’t tell them what I get, and when I do get pins – not all of them, but some of them – they’re like sharks,” she said.

“They come and they take the pins that I get because I’m smart enough to get more than one of each country so I can trade them off.

“But then if I get four, I have to give all of them one. So it’s like I’ve got to stay away from them when I’m trading.

"It’s so much fun for me!”

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Injury-troubled Denise Lewis might not repeat her Sydney heroics and land Olympic gold in the heptathlon, but she would probably win a popularity contest with all her rivals.

The Birmingham all-rounder has been praised by American Tiffany Lott-Hogan.

“I really like Denise,” said Lott-Hogan. “She’s really friendly. When you’re the new one competing in the heptathlon, it can be a bit difficult.

“But she was the one who came over and helped me through, so I’ve gotten to like her.”

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Greek crowds have received long-awaited praise, after days of criticism for staying away from the Olympics.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise to hear that they have been hailed by a Greek, the tennis player Eleni Daniilidou who battled into the third round of the women’s singles last night.

Daniilidou fell a set down to Bulgarian Magdalena Maleeva but was inspired by a raucous crowd to turn the match on its head.

“It was my honour to compete on the Centre Court with all that wonderful crowd, so I did not want to stop playing,” said Daniilidou.

“I believe that if I was playing in another country, and not in Greece, I would have probably lost this match.

“I thank the crowd so much.”

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The world held its breath as Ian Thorpe chased down Klete Keller in last night’s thrilling final of the 4x200metres butterfly – and gasped as Thorpe failed to touch first.

Now Australia knows that although Thorpe may be a super human, he is not superhuman. There is a fine line.

Team-mate Michael Klim, who swam the second leg, said: “I was just praying at the time. It was just a magic race.

“It was a fantastic spectacle of swimming.

“Klete swam so well and we gave Ian an unbelievable assignment and unfortunately and obviously he wasn’t up to the task.

“But we can’t expect Ian to be winning the relays for us all the time.”