Weekend primer: London on the brain

Pan Pacific Championships: Pool party. Ryan Lochte does not demand that you take his outside-the-pool behavior seriously (on the contrary, he prefers that you laugh at it), but there's absolutely nothing funny about how well he's swimming right now - unless you find formidable results humorous. In just two days of competition in Irvine, a "dominant" Lochte has already won the 200m free, the 400m IM and another gold in the 4x200m relay, adding kerosene to a Lochte-Michael Phelps debate and fueling talk that the poolside jester is the best swimmer in the world right now.

Women's Rugby World Cup: No homework necessary. New Zealand is attempting to win its fourth consecutive World Cup beginning this weekend in London. And if it has crossed your mind that they might be over-thinking things or putting too much pressure on themselves, you can cut short that line of thinking right there. New Zealand is in fact going with the reverse tactic: under-preparation. The three-time defending champion enters the 2010 World Cup as the only one of 12 teams in the field that hasn't played this year, and they have played just six times since their victorious run in 2006. And here we thought all these years that hard work was the key to success. Turns out that sometimes, all you need is a whole bunch of talent.

FIVB Tour Aland: Phil and Todd's curtain call (and the chase for No. 9). This is not the last FIVB event on the calendar this season, but it is the final tournament of the season for Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser, who compete in pursuit of another record to close out a truly memorable 2010 campaign. A win this weekend would give them neuf FIVB crowns, a single-season record. And yes, we did just use the French word for "nine" (neuf) in the preceding sentence. Why? Because with the season they've had, Rogers and Dalhausser can state their accomplishments in pretty much whatever language they please.