Olympic gold medal swimmer and NC State grad Cullen Jones appears in one of the segments on tonight's (10 p.m.) September premiere of HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel."

"The Swim Gap" explores the relationship between race and swimming in the U.S., and Jones' mission to bring down the number of African-Americans who don't know how to swim.

That gap is significant -- black children drown at a rate more than three times greater than whites and as many as 75 percent of African-Americans don't know how to swim.

Mike Krzyzewski's announcement Tuesday that he will coach the U.S. national team for three more years will be unpopular with some Duke fans.

Some blame Duke's recent decline on Krzyzewski's involvement with Team USA, which he coached to the Olympic gold medal last summer in Beijing.

Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski has agreed to a second three-year commitment as coach of the U.S. men’s senior national team.

Krzyzewski will coach Team USA in the 2010 world championships, and in the 2012 Olympics in London. USA Basketball, the national team’s governing body, made the announcement this evening on its web site.

CBS and Time Warner executives have discussed joining forces to bid on rights to televise the Olympics in 2014 and 2016, which could create quite a competition of media companies, The Associated Press reports.

Incumbent NBC, Fox and ABC/ESPN have all said they expect to bid on the U.S. rights to the Games. The International Olympic Committee has postponed its bid selection until after the host city is named next October for the 2016 Summer Games, AP reports.

If CBS works with Time Warner, competition could be televised on CBS, TBS and TNT.

BC Universal has spread Games coverage across its properties, including CNBC, MSNBC, USA, Telemundo and a Web site. NBC has televised every Summer Olympics since 1988

Some readers were scratching their heads over Monday's "At the Water Cooler" feature on the front page.

The short feature runs in the "This Week" column every Monday. This week, it took a swipe at the Olympics just ended - "Gone are the fake fireworks, the flags that fluttered with the aid of air jets and the little girl lyp-synching during the opening ceremonies."

And there was this comment on Joe Biden, Barack Obama's choice for vice president: "No word on the date of Biden's next gaffe."

The readers:

"What exactly is the news content of your 'At the Water Cooler' blurb on the front page today?" - Lee Kirby, Raleigh, who took exception to the Biden snipe. "And why the reference (on the heels of your recent headline that Biden is the "attack-dog") to 'No word on whether the odds have been posted on the date of Biden's next gaffe?'  Biden is a long-time substantial senator who has some of the most well thought-out positions on policy, particularly foreign policy, of any of our leaders."

"Those comments were totally uncalled for, reflecting the all too typical ‘Ugly  American’ attitude.  I for one much prefer those Chinese Olympics to the ‘real’ political theater that will be on display the next two weeks.” - Bob Stalder.

Weekend Editor Ned Barnett says "At the Water Cooler" is intended to be a light Monday-morning gloss on the weekend buzz. It's supposed to be breezy and conversational, Barnett says. This week's version verged into the political and opinionated, which confused readers.

Green Hope High has its first Olympian.

Hector Cotto is a 2003 graduate of Green Hope and holds the school record in the 110-meters hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles.

He ran at East Carolina.

He is on the Puerto Rican Olympic squad.

Learn more about Tar Heel Olympians competing in the Beijing Olympics and get event schedules.

Just our way of reminding you that Opening Ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics are Friday, with competition commencing Saturday in road cycling, fencing, judo, shooting (shooting?) and weightlifting. No word on when the rodent rowing competition begins.

For the official Web site (which isn't blocked, btw), click here.

For Olympic news, click right 'chere.

For TV coverage, click on me! No, click on me! No, no, me, click on me!

Everything gets so competitive around the Olympics.

If you're looking at the U.S. men's basketball roster, Michael Redd sticks out. The Milwaukee Buck is the shooter on a team of versatile athletes that will try to win gold at the Beijing Games beginning Aug. 10.

Redd says the team was able to rebuild some chemistry during a short trip to Las Vegas at the end of June. He also believes the Americans have enough size, though it features just three true big men, and enough of a plan on defense to handle whatever opponents throw at them.

Sarah Henry had another solid showing at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials yesterday, the 16-year old finished 26th in the 200-meter individual medley competition. Her time was 2:17.45.

Henry still has the 200-meter breaststroke to go, her final event of the Trials.