Tony Purnell, former principal of Formula One motor racing teams Jaguar and Red Bull, is the latest boss of British Cycling's Research and Innovation department - or to give it its more informal title 'Head of Stuff'.
He will not be taking all the credit though if things go well over the next five days - confessing he has tapped into the grey matter of some of Cambridge University's finest students who he lectures once a week. According to some reports the £10,000 ($13,013.00) Cervelo bikes the likes of Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish and Laura Trott will ride in Rio, have been coated in top-secret aerodynamic paint to shave fractions of seconds off times.
Pressure lovers
? Other rugby sevens teams at Rio talk about staying relaxed, of trying not to put too much pressure on themselves. Not Fiji. In the tiny Pacific island nation, where mornings start with a run along the beach, lunch is washed down with fresh coconut water and afternoons can be spent snoozing in a hammock, staying relaxed is not a goal. It's a trap.
"We need pressure," says Fiji's red-headed British coach, Ben Ryan. "The island life is a nice, chilled, laid-back one and if we are too easy-going, then the boys just drop off... We are embracing that pressure at the moment - the more the better."
Cleaned up
? Thousands of vitriolic comments left on Australian swimmer Mack Horton's Instagram account have been deleted by the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC). Netizens, many of them Chinese, bombarded Horton's social media accounts after he called Chinese swimming rival Sun Yang a "drug cheat" before they competed in Saturday's men's 400 metres freestyle final, demanding that he apologise. By Wednesday, all comments - which numbered at least 200,000 on one photo post alone - had disappeared from Horton's page.
? Some beach volleyball players have sneaked out of the Olympic circuit to hit Rio's beaches and play the game just like any other sun-loving Brazilian.
The day before their first match on Saturday, Dutch pair Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen hopped in a taxi with their coaches and started playing volleyball on a beach in Barra da Tijuca, a well-heeled coastal neighbourhood that is home to most Olympic venues.
Venturing outside the 12,000-person, purpose-built arena allows athletes to get a feel for Brazil beyond the sometimes sterile Olympic venues or multi-cultural Olympic village.
Second bullet
? A second bullet inside the Olympic equestrian centre was found close to the stable area on Wednesday, the second time a stray shot has been picked up at the venue over the past week, police said. No one was injured and the first day of the dressage competition finished as normal.
On Saturday, a stray bullet tore through the roof of the equestrian press centre, passing over the head of the New Zealand press attache and landing at the feet of a photographer. The defence minister said it may have been fired by a gang member trying to shoot down a police blimp.
Boxer released
? A Brazilian judge released on Wednesday a Moroccan boxer accused of sexually assaulting two maids in the Olympic Village but said he cannot approach the Village or leave Rio without authorisation. Hassan Saada, 22, missed out on the Olympics after failing to appear for his August 6 preliminary fight in the men's light heavyweight division (81kg), having been arrested a day earlier. Agencies
