g3 － day 6.

Oh. My. God.

The competition for the women's gymnastics individual all-around last night kept me glued, wide-eyed, to NBC's live tv coverage into the wee hours, but who could turn away with Team USA's top two women gymnasts vying for the gold, and it all coming down to the last two performances of the very last event??

Nastia Liukin [above, right], 18, of Parker, TX, was the manifestation of grace under pressure, and it paid off. Liukin became the third American woman to win the Olympic all-around event, inheriting the mantle from Carly Patterson, who won the gold in Athens in 2004, and following in the the giant footsteps of Mary Lou Retton, who won in 1984.

Shawn Johnson [above, left], 16, of West Des Moines, IA － reigning world champion － followed her friend, rival and Olympic Village roommate with the silver. China's Yang Yilin earned the bronze.

Following the first rotation on the vault, Johnson was in second place behind Romania's Steliana Nistor, while Liukin was way back in ninth position (the vault is her weakest event). The second rotation on the uneven bars was where Liukin jockeyed into medaling position; her strongest event, the uneven bars left Liukin in second place behind Yang, with Johnson pushed back to fifth position. At the balance beam, Liukin shone again, taking over the top spot, with Yang just 0.15 behind her and Johnson in third place, 0.60 behind the leader. So the gold medal was determined by the fourth and final rotation － floor exercise. Yang, Liukin and Johnson were the last three to compete. The pressure was palpable. The Americans were awesome.

Liukin is the only child of a double gold medalist and a former rhythmic gymnastics world champion. Valeri Liukin, her father and coach, won two golds for the Soviet Union 20 years ago, but was beat out in the individual all-around by a teammate － so his daughter's victory in an eerily similar situation sent him soaring with much more than just fatherly pride.

If you missed her amazing performance last night, then you can still see Liukin compete in the individual uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise events.

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Meanwhile, a swimming stunner over at the WaterCube . . . American Rebecca Soni, 21, of Plainsboro, NJ, won the gold in the 200-meter breaststroke, setting a new world record at 2 minutes, 20.22 seconds, and upsetting the favorite Leisel Jones of Australia.

Jones earned the silver at 2:22:05, and Norway's Sara Nordenstam got the bronze at 2:23:02. Jones had won the gold in the 100-meter breaststroke earlier in the week, with Soni coming in second.

Soni, the daughter of Hungarian immigrants, will swim the breaststroke leg in the 400 medley relay final late Saturday night.

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Team USA swimmer Natalie Coughlin, 25, of Vallejo, CA, had another big day, earning her fifth Beijing Olympic medal by winning the bronze in the 100-meter freestyle competition. Germany's Britta Steffen won the gold and Australia's Libby Trickett earned the silver. Coughlin had already won gold in the 100m backstroke, silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay, and bronze in the 4x200m freestyle relay and in the 200m individual medley.

Coughlin also won five medals in 2004 in Athens, becoming the third American woman swimmer to do so. She's got one more event left to go, offering her the opportunity to exceed the five-medal mark she currently shares with Dara Torres and Shirley Babashoff. Along with the U.S. 4x100m medley relay team, Coughlin will compete today for a spot in the finals on Sunday.

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It was shoot-off at the Beijing corral, producing Italy's Chiara Cainero as the winner of the gold in women's skeet shooting, with American Kim Rhode earning the silver and Germany's Christine Brinker getting the bronze.

The trio tied for the finish at 93 targets, and the shoot-off was on. Cainero hit the first two targets, while Rhode and Brinker both missed one. The shoot-off continued, with Rhode, 29, of El Monte, CA, eventually besting Brinker for the second-place spot.

Rhode won gold in double trap shooting in 1996 and in 2004, but the event was eliminated for women before the Beijing games － so skeeting for silver it was.

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Remember what I said about women and weaponry . . . The Ukrainian women's saber team stunned fencing followers by winning the gold over China and over the top-seeded U.S. team featuring all three individual medalists. The Americans －Mariel Zagunis, Becca Ward and Sada Jacobson － got usurped by the Ukrainians during the semifinals, and so fought the French for third place. Ultimately, China settled for the silver, while Team USA got the bronze.