RIO DE JANEIRO -- Skies and pools both darkened Wednesday as the sun-splashed Olympics in Rio de Janeiro gave way to gray clouds and murky green waters.The Rio Games were drenched in rain and continued questions about why the diving well and water polo pools look so much like neglected aquariums.The first American male basketball player to appear in four Olympics, Carmelo Anthony passed LeBron James as the most prolific scorer to ever wear a USA jersey. The U.S. mens basketball team needed every one of his 31 points as they got their first good test in fending off Australia 98-88.Katie Ledeckys strong final leg helped the U.S. women win the 4x200 freestyle relay over silver medalist Australia.Brazil finally found its scoring touch in the mens soccer tournament at the Olympics, the host country advancing to the quarterfinals by beating Denmark 4-0 and avoiding an embarrassing elimination in front of the home fans. Brazil plays Colombia in Sao Paulo on Saturday.The third day of the mens water polo tournament began in green-tinged water, though not nearly as dark as the neighboring diving pool at the aquatics center. It was crystal blue the day before.Water quality has been a major issue surrounding the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, but in the ocean and lagoons, not pools.A decrease in the alkaline level in the diving well Tuesday afternoon led to the green color, organizing committee spokesman Mario Andrada said. He added that the pool for water polo and synchronized swimming is being affected in the same way but we expect the color to be back to blue very shortly.Rio organizers insisted the athletes werent at risk in the green pools.They were on the waters and slippery roadways, though.Strong winds rattled palm trees along the coast and whipped up waves on the scenic lagoon where rowing was postponed for a full day for the second time this week. With winds too blustery, rowers packed up their oars for the day as cyclists hit slick roads on skinny time-trial bikes unsuited to harsh weather conditions.Under dark skies, the cyclists faced lashing rain and wind on the time-trial course along Rios southern coast. The conditions might have cost Ellen van Dijk of the Netherlands a medal. She slid off the road and got tangled in weeds before finishing fourth.American Kristin Armstrong won the race.With the cooler weather, away went the bare skin and out came the full leggings and long-sleeve shirts in beach volleyball as temperatures dipped into the lower 60s after sunset, the coldest night yet.Other highlights from Day 5 at the Rio Games:SWIMMING SHOCKER : Kazakhstan has its first Olympic swimming medal, and its golden. Dmitriy Balandin pulled off a stunning upset in the mens 200-meter breaststroke, winning from the eighth lane to put his central Asian country on the swimming medal stand for the first time. Yosuhiro Koseki of Japan went out fast and was more than a second under world-record pace at the final turn but faded to fifth. Josh Prenot of the United States claimed silver and Anton Chupkov of Russia landed the bronze.EBNER ELIMINATED : Nate Ebner, the safety for the New England Patriots who took a break from training camp to fulfill his Olympic dream, sprinted from almost halfway to score a try in the right corner against Fiji to make it 24-19, piling the pressure on Madison Hughes. But the U.S. captain and goal kicker missed the conversion from out wide, leaving the margin at five. Less than that and the Americans would have advanced.ROWING AT RISK : Twenty-two races, including the first two medal races, were postponed in the regatta but international rowing federation director Matt Smith said theres still room on the schedule without having to resort to drastic measures -- even if competition is also called off Thursday.LIFES A BEACH : The American beach volleyball team of Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson were eliminated from the Olympics on a tiebreaker. Thats the first U.S mens team to fail to advance out of pool play since the 2004 Athens Games. On the womens side, April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings defeated Switzerland and boisterously celebrated after the match. But the Americans lost a set -- something that has happened only once to Walsh Jennings in the last three Olympics.---AP Summer Games website: http://summergames.ap.org---Follow AP Sports Writer Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton Cheap NHL Jerseys Online . 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Power Five conference commissioners want to change NCAA rules to give athletes more time away from team activities, including no longer counting travel as an off day, a mandatory seven-day break after the season and an additional 14 off days from athletic activity during the academic year.The agreement in concept was announced Thursday by the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference. The leagues said they believed they had found the right balance to help tens of thousands of athletes with a proposal they are calling Flex 21. The extra 21 days off would be in addition to the current mandatory off days, and could be tailored to fit each teams schedule with input from coaches and athletes.Formal proposals still need to be submitted, but the conferences could vote to turn them into NCAA rules at the next convention in January.College sports leaders have been looking into changes to ease the time demands on athletes for several years. At the last NCAA convention, the issue was delayed so more research could be done, including a survey of athletes from all sports. Conference officials seem eager to provide more benefits to athletes at a time when college sports is under legal and public pressure to make changes, including a push to pay athletes. Led by the College Athletes Players Association, members of the Northwestern football team made an attempt to unionize that ultimately failed.NCAA members schools and conferences have in recent years agreed to raise the value of athletic scholarships to cover the federally determined true cost of attendance that goes beyond tuition, books, room and board, and fees. They have also guaranteed four-year scholarships for many athletes and given athletes more say in making rules.We heard from our students that they would like more certainty in their schedules in order to engage in other activities, the commissioners said in a joint statement.dddddddddddd We recognize there will need to be a level of flexibility and reasonableness in carrying out these changes, especially with regard to travel, but students deserve time off and we want athletic departments to work in a sensible and appropriate way to provide it. We want administrators to have some degree of flexibility in implementing these rules, but they must be mindful that rest is important to a students health, in addition to their athletic and academic performance.Currently, athletes are generally limited during the school year to 20 countable hours toward their sports per week, with one day off. Countable hours mostly cover practices, competition and conditioning, but does not count travel to and from events. The commissioners proposed expanding the definition of required athletic activities to include but not be limited to activities such as media requirements and mandatory community service.The proposal also includes a mandatory free-time block of eight hours overnight.The 14 extra off days will be on top of the current required two calendar days off per week outside the season. The additional 14 days can be used during the season if agreed to by coaches and athletes.We believe we have found the right balance between helping students participate in sports while also providing them with more down time, the commissioners said. Different sports have different demands and we think the concepts weve agreed to will help tens of thousands of students achieve more balance as they pursue their academic and athletic commitments. ' ' '