Lovin’ London

Missy Franklin can be very persuasive — she’s already persuaded her parents to stay and attend the Olympics closing ceremony with her.

“I get these guys to go with me everywhere,” she said, nuzzling her head into her father’s chest on Monday. “I have the parental units close by.”

Extending her stay means the winner of four swimming gold medals will now have to sprint directly to school when she returns.

The family returns to Colorado late on Aug. 13, class registration is the next morning and her senior year of high school begins on the 16th.

“I think it will be exactly the same,” the 17-year-old said. “Even though a few more people may know me, I’m still going to go to the same school I’ve been going to for three years and I’m really excited for my senior year.”

Her mother, D.A. Franklin, said the family is determined to give her a normal senior year.

“I’m probably extremely naive, people say things are going to change, but right now our goal is to get her back into school,” she said.

Franklin will still have a curfew and still have to do her homework, her mother said.

“She’s got the most wonderful friends and hopefully she can go to the football games she wants to and the movies and the dances that she wants to,” her mother said. “We hope it’s a normal year.”

— Jenna Fryer — Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer

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Soaking it in

Matt Grevers is soaking up his time in the Olympic spotlight.

Winner of the gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke and a member of the winning U.S. 4×100 meter medley relay, Grevers was one of many swimmers on a whirlwind media tour Monday.

He stood at the edge of the “Today” show set signing autographs and posing for pictures for at least half an hour.

“Swimming is not in the spotlight very often, so when it is, I enjoy it for sure,” he said.

— Jenna Fryer — Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer

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Quickquote: London riots one year later

“The world saw a very different London a year ago. … It saw a London I didn’t recognize. What I am seeing at the moment is a London that I do recognize.” — London organizing committee chief Sebastian Coe on the one-year anniversary of the start of England’s worst riots for decades.

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Lebron on the train

SPOTTED: Lebron James is getting to see a little of London. AP’s Sam Petrequin was sitting next to him on the Javelin train that connects the Olympic Park with the city center on Sunday night. Asked if he’d been given permission to leave the village, Lebron, hooded and wearing glasses, said: “They kicked us out!”

Here’s the picture: pic.twitter.com/5exAg32m

— Samuel Petrequin — Twitter http://www.twitter.com/sampetrequin

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Bottle Thrower

Olympic officials say there will be zero tolerance for any more incidents such as the throwing of a plastic bottle onto the track before Sunday’s 100-meter final.

“Throwing a bottle on to the field of play is unacceptable, it’s not just unacceptable at an Olympics Games but at any sporting event and anybody who does that will be removed,” says Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London organizing committee.

London police say they have arrested the man, who has not been identified or charged. He was being held Monday morning at a police station in east London.

The suspect was reportedly hit by a Dutch judo champion after he threw the bottle on the track moments before the start of the 100-meter final.

— Gregory Katz — Twitter http://twitter.com/Gregory_P_Katz

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Rare mistake

The Jamaicans had a rare mistake at Olympic Stadium on Monday.

Brigitte Foster-Hylton, who had the second-fastest time in the world in women’s 100-meter hurdles this season, failed to advance to the semifinals. She hit the fifth hurdle in her heat, veered toward the inside lane, got off stride and never recovered. She threw herself to the ground after crossing the finish line, slapped the track surface, screamed and started crying as she brushed aside American Lolo Jones’ attempt to console her.

This was Foster-Hylton’s fourth Olympics, and the best female hurdler in Jamaica was hoping to end up on the podium for the first time. She finished eighth in Sydney, well back in and sixth in Beijing.

Until Foster-Hylton’s mistake, Jamaican sprinters had done little wrong in London. Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake swept the top two spots in the men’s 100-meter final Sunday night. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce took gold in the women’s 100, while Veronica Campbell-Brown got bronze.

— Mark Long — Twitter http:www.twitter.com/APMarkLong

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Synchronized swimming factoids

Monday is the second day of synchronized swimming at London 2012.

— Synchronized swimming was introduced to the Olympics at the Los Angeles games in 1984

— In the 2012 competition there are two events — teams and duets

— The competition comprises of 104 competitors across both events

— It is one of only two Olympic sports at London 2012 that is only contested by women (the other being rhythmic gymnastics)

— Fergus Bell — Twitter http://twitter.com/fergb

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Headed to the games

IndyCar driver Scott Dixon is learning a lot about the Olympics from his wife, a former middle distance runner for Britain.

The couple is now headed to London, a day after Dixon won Sunday’s IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio.

“To go to an event like that and see what it’s all about, and have somebody that I’m so close to sort of fill me in on what’s going on behind the scenes … I’m excited,” he said.

He said, though, he has “pretty crappy seats” and may need some binoculars to get a piece of the action.

Emma Davies-Dixon ran the 800 and 1,500 meters on a national level, but scaled back her career when her father, who was also her coach, became terminally ill. She’s been expressing some regret about walking away from her sport at a young age.

With the games now in her home country, she’s been planning her visit for more than a year and has been excitedly tweeting about getting to Olympic Stadium to watch athletics.

Also headed to the games is fellow IndyCar driver Alex Tagliani and his wife, Bronte.

— Jenna Fryer — Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer

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Quickquote: ‘Respect’

“The most uplifting thing for me is that every competitor is given the respect that British sporting fans are giving them.” — London organizing committee chief Sebastian Coe talking about how British fans have not been “jingoistic.”

— Fergus Bell — Twitter http://twitter.com/fergb

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More gold for Gabby?

With two gold medals in her pocket already, Gabby Douglas is back for more.

The dynamic gymnast who helped the Americans to their first team gold since 1996 and then won the all-around competition returns to action on the uneven bars on Monday.

Douglas also competes on the balance beam on Tuesday, giving her a chance for four golds in these London Games. She’s also hoping to avoid disappointment after McKayla Maroney, the overwhelming favorite in the vault, wound up with a silver on Sunday.

— Jon Krawczynski — Twitter http://www.twitter.com/APKrawczynski

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Streak is over

For the first time since 1980, the Olympics will feature a men’s 400-meter gold medalist who is not from the United States.

The gold medal has stayed in the United States for seven straight Olympics, dating back to Alonzo C. Babers’ win in 1984. The U.S. boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games, meaning they haven’t lost an Olympic 400 in which they participated since 1972.

But defending champion LaShawn Merritt has a hamstring injury that knocked him out, and the Americans did not get a qualifier out of the semifinals on Sunday.

That opens the door for Kirani James of Trinidad and Tobago to break the streak.

— Jon Krawczynski — Twitter http://www.twitter.com/APKrawczynski

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To end a jinx

It’s been 11 years since Canada beat the United States in women’s soccer, and the Canadians know it. They’re 0-22-4 in the last 26 matches, and will get another crack at the mighty Americans on Monday in Manchester.

The Canadians have only three victories in their history against the United States, and coach John Herdman thinks the one-sided rivalry is in his players’ heads.

“They know there’s something there. There’s a little fear there that we’ve not done it for a while,” Herdman says.

A win over the U.S. would guarantee Canada its first top-three finish at an Olympics or World Cup. It would also be the country’s first Summer Games team medal since 1936.

— Joseph White — Twitter http:www.twitter.com/JGWhiteAP

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Editor’s note — “Eyes on London” shows you the Olympics through the eyes of Associated Press journalists across the 2012 Olympic city and around the world. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item, and get even more AP updates from the Games here: http://twitter.com/AP_Sports