Inside the Olympics: Twitter & viewer stats, prices, and weddings

LONDON - A look at interesting facts and stories from inside the 2012 Olympics in London.

TWITTER EXPLODES

Twitter says there was a worldwide total of 9.66 million mentions of the Opening Ceremony from the start of proceedings until the end of its broadcast in the US.

OPENING VIEWERSHIP

The Olympics opening ceremony dwarfed the Red Sox-Yankees game for viewership in the New York market. The Yankees' 10-3 win Friday night was seen by an average of 335,000 viewers on the YES Network while the Olympics were viewed by an average of 2,634,000 on WNBC, according to YES.

WRESTLING JOKESTER

U.S. freestyle wrestler Jake Herbert is the team's resident jokester and could barely keep a straight face during a press conference on Saturday. But when asked how he flips the switch just before a match, he gave great insight into the mental approach of athletes competing in one of the world's roughest sports.

"You start to look at that guy across the mat and you start to think of what he's trying to take away from you (and think) 'He didn't work as hard as me. I know for a fact he wasn't up at 6 a.m., he wasn't hitting the bike until he puked. He wasn't hitting the weights as hard as me. He wasn't as dedicated as I am. He doesn't want it as much as I do.' And it starts that excitement. It starts getting my blood pressure going. It starts getting the hairs standing on the back of my neck."

Upon hearing Herbert's rant, teammate Sam Hazewinkel responded "I ready to go, man. Whew!"

Herbert and Hazewinkel will have to calm down though. The freestyle wrestling competition doesn't start until Aug. 10.

OLYMPICS VS WEDDING

There is nothing more important than the Olympics, right? How about a wedding?

Croatian women's basketball player Marija Vrsaljko skipped last week's exhibition game against the United States to get married.

The Americans pounded Croatia by 54 points in the game.

Having the lanky center back in the lineup is making a difference in the opener. She has eight points early in the third quarter and Croatia trails by just four points.

MEMORABILIA PRICING

Day One in the Olympic Park and already visitors are feeling it in their wallets.

"Twenty-five pounds for a T-shirt!" exclaimed Catherine Goley of Birmingham, who was browsing through a London 2012 souvenir shop -- and made a hasty exit after finding nothing in her price range.

She had tickets for Saturday night's swim competition, but others without tickets came to the park just to check it out, paying 10 pounds ($15) to get in and another 15 pounds ($22) to go up the Orbit observation deck.

Colleen Whalen, of Cincinnati, Ohio, said she would have paid to go up since that's the only way to see inside the main stadium and the Olympic flame, but tickets were sold out.

Whalen, who won a ticket to the swim finals, said she briefly considered buying a ticket for the opening ceremony, but balked at the price for the remaining seats.

"The only tickets left were 1800 or 2300 pounds and yes, that's definitely out of my price range." (In dollars, that's a cool $2,800 to $3,570).