All the things you'd want to do this Monday through Thursday. On the schedule this week: The Cranberries come to Shanghai, FINA Swimming features Phelps all week, and Sesame Street Live debuts! Read on for details, or check out our calendar for more! more ›

Human Fish sighting alert! 14-time Olympic Gold Medalist and confirmed party bro Michael Phelps arrived at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport yesterday. Phelps flew in from Australia, where he was training at the Gold Coast Aquatic Center in Queensland, in preparation for the royal ass-kicking he planned on doling out at the 14th FINA World Aquatics Championships now under way in Shanghai. more ›

With only three days left till the opening ceremony of the 14th bi-annual World Aquatic Championships in Shanghai, the event is already being tainted with controversy. more ›

Five Chinese swimmers received two year bans yesterday after testing positive for the anabolic steroid clenbuterol at a national competition last June. According to the AP the athletes' coaches also received one to two year bans. more ›

Is it just us or does he sound and look a little stoned here? more ›

DMG Entertainment has said it will not cancel its endorsement deal with Michael Phelps (菲尔普斯), notwithstanding the scandal over a published photo of him smoking a bong. The group said on Tuesday that it will be "standing by Michael." more ›

Michael Phelps (菲尔普斯) has signed the biggest ever endorsement contract for a Western celebrity in China, claims DMG Entertainment group, the agency that reportedly signed him to a seven-figure deal with Mazda. more ›

Oksana Chusovitina: A mother's love knows no bounds and this is fully exemplified in the life story of Oksana Chusovitina, only one of a handful of women to stay in competitive gymnastics after motherhood. She formerly represented the Soviet Union and her native Uzbekistan and has competed for Germany since 2006. When her son Alisher was diagnosed in 2002 with leukemia and doctors in Moscow could not guarantee quality care, Chusovitina accepted an offer of help from the head coaches of the Toyota Cologne club and moved to Germany. With her competition prize money and funds raised by members of the international gymnastics community, she was able to secure treatment for her son at the University of Cologne's hospital while training with the German team. Chusovitina is the only female gymnast ever to compete in five Olympic Games, and won a silver in the vault final at the Beijing Games. more ›

While we aren't able to provide you with any spoilers like we did for the opening ceremony, executive vice president of NBC Olympics David Neal made his way to a college campus 90 minutes west of Beijing where secret rehearsals were being conducted and exclaimed, "It's just unlike any other closing ceremony I've ever seen." While Olympic closing ceremonies in the past are usually "a simple vehicle for extinguishing the Olympic flame and setting the stage for the next games", China under the charge of creative director Zhang Yimou has pulled out all the stops to "dazzle" the world with glittery shows and a "great deal of entertainment". more ›

For those of you that saw the 100M Butterfly final, you'll know Michael Phelps was off to a really bad start in the first lap, but he made a miraculous comeback in the second to finish first by just 0.01 second in what's been dubbed his "fingernail victory". And now the heretofore unseen camera angle from the perspective of silver medallist Milorad Čavić of Serbia. (h/t Towleroad) more ›

In honor of the Beijing Olympics, Shanghai’s #1 fag hag scoured the city for info on gay sports. Everyone knows a large gay contingent can be found daily at our most popular gyms. However, did you realize Shanghai also hosts gay swimming (we’re sure Michael Phelps or Zhang Lin are welcome), badminton, table tennis, volleyball and even kungfu! more ›

Has Shrek always borne a striking resemblance to Yao Ming? Or is it the other way around? These movie posters of Olympic athletes, (well, the Chinese team and Michael Phelps) were posted on Chinese web site Mop.com and brought to our attention by Chinasmack. more ›

MSNBC: Brian Williams visits CCTV more ›

Swimmer Michael Phelps is doing his best to make sure that Chinese fans have access to information about him. He had his personal Web site, Michaelphelps.com, built in just two languages—English and simplified Chinese. more ›

Have you ever heard of Henrik Stenson? He's a very good golfer, but not exactly a household name (unless, of course, you are from Sweden). He is, however, the highest ranked golfer participating in this week's BMW Asian Open in Shanghai. Ernie Els, Luke Donald and David Howell all pulled out of the tournament, citing one ailment or another. It's leading some to wonder: Are the world's top athletes allergic to Shanghai? You may remember the mass exodus of top names at the ATP Tennis Masters Cup last fall. And more recently, many of the big guns did not make the trip to the World Short Course Swimming Championships. The South China Morning Post has taken to calling this the "Shanghai Sickness" -- we always thought that was food poisoning. Anyway, here's a list of athletes that don't seem to be current on their Shanghai shots: more ›