Top 10 Upcoming Olympic Events

So now that the swimming and team gymnastics are over, they might as well extinguish the torch and tell the athletes to go home, right? Well, if you watched the endless interviews with Michael Phelps and Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson, you might think that. (Not to take anything away from their accomplishments, which were historic). But if the first week was any indication, there's still plenty of drama to come in the last half of the Games.

These events might be especially interesting:

10) Men's Football/Soccer:

Brazil vs. Argentina should be fun to watch, no matter who's playing for the two sides. Belgium and Nigeria? Maybe not as much.

9) Women's Football/Soccer:

U.S. women try to get revenge on Brazil in a rematch of the Women's World Cup match . . . just like in the commercial.

8) Men's Marathon:

The ultimate endurance test, often featuring athletes in their mid-thirties, a rarity in the Olympics. America's best hope in the women's event was forced to abandon; how will the men fare?

7) Open-water Marathons:

A new sport for both men and women is usually interesting (unless it's rhythmic gymnastics), especially if it's an outdoor long-distance swimming event. Will competitors in London 2012 have to swim the Channel?

6) Men's Boxing:

Can the U.S. team produce a single medal? What would Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Oscar De La Hoya say?

5) Women's Gymnastics Event Finals:

No matter what you think about the events themselves, gymnastics is the one sport where the rivalry with the Chinese is actually fairly bitter.

4) Women's Beach Volleyball:

Can May and Walsh keep their 100+ match streak alive?

3) Men's 400-meter hurdles:

The world-record holder Kerron Clement predicts an American sweep. It looks likely to most observers of the sport, but statements like this can backfire. Either way, it should be a great race.

2) Men's Basketball:

Unless there are major upsets in store, the U.S. should have to play Argentina and/or Lithuania to claim gold.

1) Men's 200-meter:

Even after Usain Bolt's super-human run in the 100, he still insists that his best event is the 200.What can he possibly do to top his performance in the 100? Break the world record in similar fashion?

Honorable mentions (These events already happened, of course, but they were still in the second-half of the Games):

Men's 10,000 Meters:

As usual, East African nations dominated, lapping several runners, which is entertaining in itself. The sixth-place finisher, Haile Gebrselassie, already a legend in the sport with world records in the 5000 and 10000, ran in front of his countryman and eventual winner Kenenisa Bekele for most of the race. This made the much older Gebrselassie's bid much more difficult (he probably could have medaled if he would've slipped to the back more to allow other Ethiopian runners to share the workload), but it enabled Bekele to break the Olympic record and win his first gold. A great example of Olympic sportsmanship.

Men's 110 Meter Hurdle Heat:

Not long after Tyson Gay missed the 100M final, his injury clearly bothering him, Liu Xiang, the defending Olympic champion in the 110 hurdles, withdrew due to injury after a false start by another hurdler.

For China, this is like Jesse Owens or Carl Lewis injuring himself in the middle of a race. It's a reminder that while many legends are made at the Olympics, disaster is not far away either.