olympic sports

EDITORS: Paul Hamm's decision Monday to not compete in Beijing requires us to kill the OLY-MENGYM story that we sent out last week on the SHNS wire.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)

Having made history at the 2007 World Gymnastics Championships, the United States women now find themselves in the unusual position as the team to beat at the Beijing Olympics.

Pia Sundhage knew it was a pivotal moment. She didn't quite know how to express that.Sundhage had just been named as the coach of the U.S. women's national soccer team. Coming to a team that had a turbulent experience in the 2007 World Cup -- as the first foreign coach in charge -- she knew first impressions were important in her initial meeting with her players.

Mia Hamm and her friends are gone.Brandi Chastain, Kristine Lilly, Julie Foudy, Joy Fawcett and Hamm have hung up their sneakers after leading the United States to a World Cup title in 1999 and Olympic gold medals in 1996 and 2004.And Briana Scurry, a goalkeeper on all those teams, did not make the Olympic cut this year.

At the start of this decade, the phrase "U.S. distance running" was a sporting oxymoron on a par with "Brazilian ice hockey" or "Belgian surfing."No more.

An aging athlete stuns the swimming world by coming out of retirement after an eight-year sabbatical to become the oldest woman ever to qualify for the U.S. Olympic swimming team.Sounds familiar, right? That was Dara Torres -- eight years ago.At age 33, Torres won five medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, leaving competitors and observers shaking their heads in disbelief.

The U.S. women's softball team may have been too good for its own good. The truth is, it doesn't really know.What the team does know as it enters the Beijing Games is this could be its last chance to perform on the Olympic stage. And while it is determined to win a fourth gold medal, it also wants to do whatever it can to restore its sport to Olympic status.

Alicia Sacramone is the grizzled veteran of the U.S. women's gymnastics team, the voice of experience, the team leader."She's really like our mom," says teammate Bridget Sloan. "When our real moms aren't there, Alicia's my mom."Sacramone is all of 20 years old.

In August, 18-year-old Taylor Phinney will compete in the 4,000-meter individual pursuit in Beijing. His unlikely odyssey has taken him from China to England to Denmark in the past year but it all started last August, with his out-of-nowhere victory at the Junior Road World Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

When the Olympic swimming competition begins Aug. 9, Michael Phelps will enter the pool already recognized as the world's greatest swimmer.Eight days later, Phelps could leave the Beijing pool as the world's greatest Olympic champion.