Swimming Dominates Day Three; Vollmer Breaks Record In 100M Butterfly; Religion Versus Judo; Phelps On Representing The U.S.
COSTELLO: Swimming dominates the Olympics today with America's top swimmers back in the pool in London. Ryan Lochte will attempt the win his third medal when he swims the 200-meter freestyle. The Colorado high schooler, Missy Franklin, tries to win her first gold medal for the U.S. in the women's 100 backstroke, and the American men look to grab gold in the team gymnastics final. They are in the lead after the qualifying round. Day two is special for U.S. swimmer Dana Vollmer. She set a world record, becoming the first woman to swim the 100-meter butterfly in less than 56 seconds. Not bad for a woman who failed to qualify for the 2008 games in Beijing. On the range, American skeet shooter Kimberly Rhode won her fifth straight gold medal in the sport. She tied the world record with a score of 99 out of 100 giving her the gold. The huge surprise is American Jordyn Wieber fails to advance to the women's all-around gymnastics final. She was a favorite for the gold, but finished behind two of her teammates. And on Saturday, we learned Michael Phelps is human after all. He came in fourth in the 400-meter individual medley. The first time Phelps has failed to medal in an event since 2000. Ryan Lochte took home the gold. And the world continues to talk about the opening ceremony. The biggest shot Friday was when a mystery woman, see her there, starting walking with the Indian delegation. The London Organizing Committee says she was a volunteer performer. Obviously, she was not supposed to be there. India's Olympic officials are not happy. And Saudi Arabia is making history in London by bringing their first women athletes to the games, but one could be going home before she has a chance to compete. The reason, not doping or cheating or unsportsmanlike conduct, but because of her religious head scarf. Zain Verjee is in London to explain. Morning, Zain.</s>ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. A lot of jabs and punches already being kicked around here in London, but this is over a woman who is supposed to compete in judo on Friday. Now, she really, really wants to do it, but here are the problems. Saudi Arabia is saying that the only reason they allowed her in the first place to come to London and compete was so that she could continue wearing the hijab, the head scarf, in accordance with Sharia law and the Islamic traditional and cultural customs. The International Olympic Committee has said please Saudi Arabia let these female athletes come, and yes, they can absolutely wear the hijab. But the Judo Federation is saying, no. It's too dangerous if she competes wearing a head scarf because that could create a problem and an injury situation for her. Her dad has weighed in on this, too, saying her daughter will not compete in the judo games on August 3rd if the committee insists that she removes her hijab. So this is a situation of sports meets miscommunication meets culture meets Islamic law here in London.</s>COSTELLO: But other Olympic sports, they allow participants to wear head scarves, don't they?</s>VERJEE: So far, it's only soccer that allows participants to do that. Saudi athletes, females, haven't been able to compete in an Olympics before. So they're really dealing with this situation as it's arising. So I think really it's because in judo, you have certain positions and you attack the other person. And a strangle hold and choke hold, and if you have a scarf, it could be some kind of a strangling type of, you know, situation in the competing. So they just want to avoid it totally, but they have to save face coming out of this. We'll see what they decide. No one has made a decision yet.</s>COSTELLO: Zain Verjee live in London for us this morning. Right now, Michael Phelps is one medal away from tying the all-time Olympic record. He sat down with CNN's Piers Morgan about representing his country in his fourth Olympics.</s>PIERS MORGAN, HOST, CNN'S "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT": London is my home town. Everyone is very excited about you coming. What is extraordinary is every American athlete I have interviewed when I ask them to cite a role model, 90 percent say you. You have become this weird, God-like figure to them. With that comes responsibility. Are you aware of the status you have amongst your peer group. What do you feel about that responsibility?</s>MICHAEL PHELPS, U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMER: I mean, sometimes I feel it, but I like to just think of myself as a normal person who just has a passion, has a goal and a dream and goes out and does it. That's really how I have always lived my life.</s>MORGAN: I see you say that. Come on, Michael, you're not a normal person.</s>PHELPS: I consider myself normal. I spent 20 years in the pool. I consider that something that's normal.</s>MORGAN: That's not normal?</s>PHELPS: What do you consider normal?</s>MORGAN: Well, not 20 years in a pool. I spent about 20 minutes in a pool a day.</s>PHELPS: Well, that's not normal.</s>MORGAN: What I was struck by with you was there a great athletes and great gymnasts and a great swimmer and so on, I don't think I have seen anybody who did what you did, and confirm the statistics on this. That you trained for five years, literally every single day, 365 days each of those five years, consecutively. That is incredible dedication to your sport. Do you know anybody else who has done that?</s>PHELPS: No. I have never heard of anybody else who does that.</s>MORGAN: So what is the motivation at the end of the day for that kind of extreme dedication?</s>PHELPS: I mean, if you want to be the best, you have to do things that other people aren't willing to do. At that point, you know, we thought that for every year, we get 52 other days of more training than anybody else gets every single year. And also, in swimming, if you miss one day of swimming, it takes you twice as long to get back. So, you know, for example, for me, after 2008, I took six months off. It took me probably took me really about a year and a half to get back to where I was, like, really need to be and should be.</s>COSTELLO: Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps in a candid interview with Piers Morgan about life, love, and going for more gold. Watch "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT" at 9:00 Eastern. Now is your chance to talk back on one of the stories of the day. The question for you this morning, should the Olympic broadcast be tape delayed? Let's face it, there's no such thing as a news blackout these days. Hello, Twitter verse, but was I the only one watching last night who knew that Jordyn Wieber had already lost her chance for an individual all around gold medal. She was so good. I even checked online to see if the final results were accurate before they were announced on television. It's a habit, what can I say? And how many of you were surprised when you saw Ryan Lochte beat Michael Phelps in the individual medley, maybe the five people on earth who didn't logon that day. Some fans are so angry about NBC's tape delay, they created the Twitter hash tag nbcfail and nbcsucks where complaining has become kind of an Olympic sport. This from Luke Adams, "My fellow Olympic fans in the USA, just a reminder that you are watching sports from the past. It's like ESPN classic with a shorter delay." And this tweet, sort of annoying and pretty terrible that NBC airs some Olympic events, Lochte/Phelps, on tape delay. We have live TV for a reason. To be fair, for years, Olympic broadcasters have been tape delaying events, but that was before the internet explosion. For those who want to watch the Olympics live, NBC is streaming the events online, all be it with technical glitches. No glitch in the ratings, however. According to entertainmentweekly.com, the tape delay strategy may be paying off, 28.7 million viewers watched on Saturday. Making it the most watched first full day of events on record for the summer Olympics. So the talkback question today, should the Olympic broadcast be tape delayed? Facebook.com/carolcnn, I'll read your responses later on this hour.