WEIRD DAY

Let me get this straight: The U.S. on Saturday swept the medals in women’s saber fencing but its heavily favored men’s beach volleyball team lost?

I suppose the latter is a bigger surprise. We have proven of late a nation capable of wielding some pretty skillful swords. Mariel Zagunis won the first fencing gold medal in 100 years for the U.S. at the Athens Olympics and repeated that accomplishment here.

But not getting it done on the sand?

It’s a good thing Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser aren’t from China, because when you are the defending world champions and the overwhelming pick to win gold here and you lose to a Latvian duo seeded 23rd out of 24 teams, well, let’s just say that level of shame doesn’t play well in these parts.

As it is, choking against nobodies such as Martins Plavins and Aleksandrs Samoilov means Rogers-Dalhausser must win their next two matches to assure a spot in the medal round.

Lose in beach volleyball. The next thing you’ll tell me is we might not medal in baseball.

Oops.