Controversy again threatened to engulf the BBC team in Beijing yesterday, as Adrian Chiles revealed that he had attempted a forward roll in his hotel room and “executed it”. The Olympic Breakfast presenter is unquestionably a big man, and the assumption is bound to be made (correctly or otherwise) that, if there is room for him to do gymnastics in his lodgings, then he must be being housed in quarters of some luxury, possibly even in a suite.

Coming so soon after eyebrows were raised at the size of the BBC's travelling contingent for the Games (the broadcaster has more people in China than there are members of the Terracotta Army), Chiles's typically unguarded remark can only reignite unhelpful accusations about the corporation living high on the publicly funded hog. The BBC's team are so big that, technically, they should have marched in the opening ceremony under their own flag. Discontent will only swell if the perception takes hold that the licence payer is forking out for hotels in which there is room to swing not just a cat, but Chiles.

It should be made clear that the presenter was being amusing at the time, rather than flaunting his accommodation, or, for that matter, his gymnastic prowess. Nevertheless, the resulting fuss may not die down until Chiles confirms that his forward roll was at least obliged to begin on the bed and end in the shower cubicle, or until such time as the admirably natural front man can reveal the bruises sustained in an unavoidable collision with his wardrobe and/or mini-bar.

You could hardly blame him for being inspired by the gymnastics, though. It's Hazel Irvine's favourite event, too, and it might just be mine, at the time of writing. Certainly, when China's men's team hit the floor - not to mention the rings and the parallel bars, or as we viewers, following the example of our commentators, now casually refer to them, “the p-bars” - it gave us some of the most gobsmacking television we have seen since the opening ceremony. And yet no pulleys or film industry-derived illusions were used in the creation of these scenes. Incredible.

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Why didn't they ring me up before they decided to hold the Olympic Games in Beijing in August? Don't do it, I'd have said

Simon Barnes

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Those of us without the necessary space around the television set to have a go ourselves are having to be content with mastering the discipline's deeply arcane language, which is a fairly strenuous exercise in itself. When the commentator spotted some “great leg separation” on the pommel horse, it was easy enough to understand, but someone else was apparently experiencing “a full twist in the Kovacs”, which sounded as painful as it probably was. I may have been mistaken (it was all happening so fast), but I thought I also picked up references to “a half-Zhivago”, “a complete Cristiano Ronaldo” and “an American hot with extra anchovies”.

As the extraordinary Xiao Qin, of China, stepped up to the stage, Mitch Fenner had some wise counsel for Matt Baker, Fenner's partner in the commentary box. “When you write the book on pommel horse technique, Matt, the word you will use is ‘stretched body',” Fenner said. Encouragingly, that's two words, in fact, Mitch, leaving only 59,998 words or so before the book is a goer. Nevertheless, what a volume this will be - although you won't want to be staying in the hotel room under Chiles's when it gets published.

In news from elsewhere: at the showjumping, no horse has yet to be frightened by the presence, under a bush halfway around the course, of two plastic giant pandas (a risk, one would have thought, although, of course, those horses are nothing if not extremely well trained). Barry Davies, shockingly overlooked for the opening ceremony in favour of a mere newscaster, has been heard in resounding bounce-back action in the hockey. And Hazel Irvine has delivered the weakest link of the Games so far.

“After the news, we'll be doing a Rod Stewart on you. We'll be sailing.” Someone may yet match that for spectacular, twist-free limpness, followed by a dull ache in the Kovacs, but somehow one doubts it.