Keepingitreal

D.C. clinic’s HIV case numbers surge

The Whitman-Walker Clinic has revealed the number of its clients testing positive for HIV jumped from 80 in the first half of 2007 to266 in the first half of 2008 — an unprecedented increase of 232 percent.Clinic officials said the new findings are especially troubling because the total number of people it tested for HIV so far in 2008, about 6,500, is roughly the same number it tested during the first half of 2007, meaning the spike in cases was not a result of testing of more people.“These are troubling statistics that warrant more aggressive education, prevention, and testing initiatives,” said Dr. Raymond Martins, Whitman-Walker’s chief medical officer.Martins said the clinic is reviewing demographic and other background information of the clients that were diagnosed this year with HIV to determine a possible cause for the increase in positive cases.He also said one-third of the clinic’s clients diagnosed with HIV this year were found to have AIDS. Many had no obvious symptoms of illness but a measurement of their body’s immune system was found to be past the benchmark for an AIDS diagnosis, Martins said.Martins said that similar to findings in recent years, gay men and African Americans comprised most of the clients diagnosed with HIV during the first half of 2008.News of the increase in HIV diagnoses for Whitman-Walker’s clients comes less than a week after the CDC released new data showing that the number of new HIV cases in the U.S. each year has been about 56,500 since the early 2000s. The CDC had previously estimated the number of new cases each year to be about 40,000.CDC officials have said the increase stems from better techniques for counting and identifying new infections rather than an actual increase in new infections.Whitman-Walker’s new data, however, appear to show a clear increase in the actual number of new HIV infections among its client base, according to Martins.He and Justin Goforth, director of Whitman-Walker’s Medical Adherence Unit, said young males make up a large percentage of the new cases in the D.C. area.“At each of our testing sites, we are seeing an increasing number of young gay men, particularly African American men, coming to us newly infected,” Goforth said. “These are young men who don’t remember the first wave of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and came of age when effective treatments were available. As a result, they have never seen HIV as a major problem.”In an effort to determine why the infection rate is rising among certain groups, Whitman-Walker recently conducted a series of “focus group” interviews with people in the D.C. area who are considered at risk to contract HIV. According to a clinic statement, among the groups represented in the focus groups were African American heterosexual men and women, young gay men and gay men of color.“One surprising theme emerged—even though everyone recognized HIV was a serious issue, every group identified HIV as really being a problem for another demographic group,” the statement says. “This is of great concern because the highest risk groups do not identify themselves as being high risk and thus increase their susceptibility to HIV through unsafe behavior and a lack of knowledge.”SOURCE:SOUTHERN VOICE.COM

iPhone Olympic News 08.11.08

• Spanish cyclist kicked out of Olympics for doping 12:26 am EDT (AP)
• American hurt in Beijing knife attack now stable 12:24 am EDT (AP)
• Ni Howdy! Beijing's ancient art of haggling 12:22 am EDT (AP)
• Thrilling swimming wins push Americans atop medal count 12:18 am EDT (PA SportsTicker)
• Olympic Roundup: Phelps, volleyball, gymnastics 12:18 am EDT (AP)
• Japanese duo upset defending champs in badminton 12:18 am EDT (AP)
• Argentina bests Latvia in beach volleyball 12:17 am EDT (PA SportsTicker)
• Hansen misses medal in Olympic 100 breaststroke 12:15 am EDT (AP)
• U.S. swimmers keep Phelps' dream alive 12:14 am EDT (Reuters)
• Phelps, U.S. relay team shut up France, snag gold 12:14 am EDT (PA SportsTicker)
• Highlights from Olympic coverage, and what's ahead 12:07 am EDT (AP)
• US relay thriller keeps Phelps's eight-gold dream alive 12:07 am EDT (AFP)
• What a race! Lezak keeps Phelps' hopes alive 12:05 am EDT (AP)

Olympic Roundup: Phelps, volleyball, gymnastics

BEIJING (AP)—If Michael Phelps indeed wins seven (or eight) gold medals and gets his $1 million bonus from Speedo, he’ll need to spend a chunk of it on his buddy Jason Lezak.Lezak dove in for the last lap of the 400-meter freestyle relay second to world-record holder Alain Bernard of France. He was still trailing with about 20 meters to go, but somehow zoomed to the wall first—0.08 ahead of Bernard. That makes Phelps 2-for-2 in his pursuit of Mark Spitz’s record medal collection.Phelps threw his arms up and began hollering with the joy of a lottery winner. He sort of is, considering the odds the Americans faced throughout the race, from Phelps finishing his leadoff lap in second place to Lezak trailing Bernard after the final turn and considering the history—and big bucks—on the line.The Americans finished in 3:08.24, lowering by more than 4 seconds the world record set the night before by their qualifying crew.Katie Hoff knows exactly how bummed the French are.She built a big lead in the 400 freestyle, but touched 0.07 after Britain’s Rebecca Adlington. After two of her five individual races, Hoff has a silver and a bronze—the amount she expected, but not necessarily the right color.With Christine Magnuson taking silver in the 100-meter butterfly, the United States regained the lead and some breathing room over China in the overall medals race.Tied at eight when Day 3 began Monday morning in Beijing, the U.S. tally is up to 11. China is still leading in golds, 6-3.Something amazing seems to happen every time Phelps dives in: an Olympic record in his first swim, a world record in his first final and, now, Lezak’s big kick.Well, Phelps also has finished fourth in two 200 freestyle heats. But don’t judge him by those. They were merely time he had to put in to get to the finals Tuesday morning. And now, that’ll be his bid for his third gold medal of these games. It also would be the ninth gold of his career, tying the record held by Spitz and Carl Lewis.In other action at the Water Cube on Monday morning, Magnuson finished behind Australia’s Libby Trickett; American Brendan Hansen had the agony of finishing fourth in the 100-meter backstroke and the added disappointed of losing his world record to winner Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima; and Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe set a world record in the 100-meter backstroke semifinals, taking down the mark set this summer by American Natalie Coughlin.In the 400 IM on Sunday, Phelps was supposed to have tough competition from teammate Ryan Lochte. But he also had secret motivation: He told his coach, Bob Bowman, that he wanted this to be the last time he did this event.“He said I have to end on a record,” Phelps said. “In my opinion, that was my last one.”Dara Torres, the 41-year-old mom competing in her fifth Olympics, was given the anchor leg on the 400-freestyle relay. She dove in second and touched the wall second, fending off Australia but unable to make much of a move on the Netherlands despite posting the second-fastest split time in the race. SOURCE:YAHOOSPORTS.COM

Thrilling swimming wins push Americans atop medal count

BEIJING (Ticker) - The world records continue to fall, and slowly the United States has begun to increase its medal total. After six world records fell in swimming, the Americans had 11 medals to their credit - three gold, four silver and four bronze - to lead the action during Monday’s competition.In a thrilling race, the United States set the world record with a time of 3:08.24 in the men’s 400 freestyle relay Monday, setting the sixth world mark in the Water Cubes at the 2008 Olympics and handing Michael Phelps his second gold here.Jason Lezak notched the fastest relay split in history, touching in at 46.06 on the anchor leg to cap a miraculous comeback as he chased down France’s Bernard, who holds the world record in the 100-meter freestyle. Alain Bernard also made headlines prior to the race when he said, “The Americans? We’re going to smash them. That’s what we came here for.”It looked as though the French were going to follow through on that promise as Bernard took a huge lead midway through the final 50 meters before Lezak’s remarkable final flourish.Lezak lunged and touch in just ahead of Bernard and French, who secured the silver by finishing eight-hundredths of a second back with a European-record time of 3:08.32. France also bested the previous world record of 3:12.23, which was set by Team USA one day earlier.The triumph kept alive Phelps’ bid for eight gold medals at these Games, which would best the seven won by Mark Spitz at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. He won six golds and two bronzes at the 2004 Games in Athens.Australia, which also was one of five teams to finish ahead of the previous world record, snagged the bronze with a time of 3:09.91.It was the latest accomplishment in a record-setting day.Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima bested the world mark by clocking in at 58.91 en route to a gold medal in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke, surpassing American Brendan Hansen’s previous record.But it wasn’t the first record to fall Monday thanks to Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry, who set a world record in the women’s 100-meter backstroke semifinal, clocking in at 58.77. In what is likely to be his final Olympics, Hansen not only saw his world record fall but did not secure a medal, finishing fourth with a time of 59.57. His previous world record was 59.13 and was set more than two years ago. SOURCE:YAHOOSPORTS.COM

USA Basketball and Marvin Gaye give the Anthem some soul

If I were Coach K, I would show this clip to my players before each game over in Beijing. I got goosebumps as I listened to Marvin Gaye's stirring rendition from the 1983 NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles. Everybody has a difference of opinion on how they like the National Anthem to be performed, but I think Gaye's version is one of the best renditions of all time.

Olympic Roundup: Volleyball, Phelps, gymnastics

BEIJING (AP)—On a day that featured Michael Phelps’ first gold medal in Beijing and Dara Torres swimming to silver at 41-year-old mom, perhaps the most gripping drama for Americans came from a first-round men’s volleyball match against an unheralded foe.The U.S. team took the court against Venezuela with heavy hearts and a fill-in coach, as Hugh McCutcheon left to be with his wife following an attack at a Beijing tourist site that killed her father and critically wounded her mother.The Americans huddled, arms linked, then bowed their heads for a moment of silence for Todd and Barbara Bachman, McCutcheon’s in-laws and the parents of Elisabeth “Wiz” Bachman, a member of the 2004 U.S. Olympic team.The men then went out and won their first two games. To claim the match, all they had to do was win one of the next three.It took all three, but they got it.“We talked about how the best thing we could do was try to play volleyball,” team captain Tom Hoff said.Sunday in Beijing was filled with rain, toying with the tennis schedule and making cycling’s road race quite treacherous. Just ask the South Korean who wound up in a roadside ditch.Unlike Athens, the pool here is indoors, at the spectacular Water Cube. And inside that is the spectacular Phelps.In his first two swims of this meet, he set an Olympic record in prelims, then set the world record in his first final, the 400-meter individual medley. But the only thing that went wrong was the national anthem cutting off early during the medal ceremony. Odds are, he’ll give DJs plenty more chances to get it right.With 21 medals decided through Sunday night, the Americans and Chinese are pulling away from the pack in the medal count. They’re not, however, separating from each other.Both have eight medals, but give China the advantage because six are gold— and none are bronze. The Americans have two gold, two silver and four bronze. Swimming Phelps proved he’s mortal by posting only the fourth-fastest time in the preliminaries of the 200-meter freestyle. It was a tactical move to save his strength, not an indication of being sapped from his incredible show nine hours earlier. He’ll swim the 200 freestyle semifinal Monday morning, along with the 400 freestyle relay. His relay squad will have a tough act to follow: The prelim crew set a world record Sunday night. SOURCE:YAHOO.SPORTS.COM

U.S. humbles China in basketball

BEIJING (Reuters) - The millionaire stars of the U.S. basketball team swept past hosts China in the showcase match-up of the Olympics, watched by tens of millions on Chinese television and cheered on by U.S. President George W. Bush.Talismanic giant Yao Ming, flag carrier for China at the opening ceremony, could not protect his colleagues from the speed and power of the NBA professionals.Ming, who plays with the Houston Rockets, scored 13 points in the 101-70 loss to the U.S. in what was billed as the most watched basketball game in history.Bush and his father, former President George H. W. Bush, huddled with the U.S. team ahead of the game to wish them luck.“What’s up, pops?” NBA scoring champion LeBron James quipped to Bush’s ageing father. Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, the NBA’s Most Valuable Player, won a huge cheer from the star-dazzled home supporters but the loudest shout from the raucous 16,000 crowd was for Ming, China’s favorite athlete along with 110m hurdler Liu Xiang.The U.S. team is still smarting from winning only bronze at Athens in 2004 and has nicknamed itself the “Redeem Team.” They have joked they will be unable to return home without the gold.The Americans will face a tougher test in their other Preliminary Group B matches against world champions Spain and a tough Greece side that stunned them in the world championship semi-finals in 2006.Bush had earlier watched U.S. swimming sensation Michael Phelps demolish his own world record in a winning start to his bid for an unprecedented eight golds in a single Olympics.His splash of speed lit up the Games, eclipsing worries over security, heat, air pollution and intolerance of dissent that marked the Olympic build-up and lingered into the first day. SOURCE:YAHOO.SPORTS.COM

Phelps opens Olympic swimming in 400 IM prelims

BEIJING (AP)—The routine is always the same: Wipe down the starting block with a towel, stretch out each leg, step up from the side of the platform, flap those long arms so hard they slap him in the back.Then Michael Phelps gets down to business.A workmanlike Phelps won his opening race at the Beijing Olympics on Saturday night, providing a tantalizing glimpse of what might be coming. His time in the preliminaries of the 400-meter individual medley was 4 minutes, 7.82 seconds—which would have been good enough for gold at the Athens Games.“I wasn’t expecting the heats to be that fast,” Phelps said. “But after seeing the first two heats, I kind of wanted to be the top seed going into tomorrow, and that’s all I went out and did.”With Phelps, it’s that simple.If someone is swimming fast, he’ll go faster. If someone is standing in the way of him breaking Mark Spitz’s record, he’ll take them down.Phelps, of course, is trying to win eight gold medals in Beijing, which would be one more than Spitz’s historic haul in Munich 36 summers ago.Well, it’s one race down, 16 to go.“Getting that first race under your belt,” he said, “feels really good.”Phelps’ time was easily the best of the prelims—0.44 second ahead of his gold medal-winning time in 2004 and nearly a second and a half faster than anyone else managed on the opening night of swimming. Then it was off to bed before the Sunday morning finals, which will be his first chance to win gold at these games.His top rival, fellow American Ryan Lochte, was only the fourth-fastest qualifier and knows what it will take to stop Phelps.“A perfect race,” Lochte said.U.S. swimmer Katie Hoff, who like Phelps qualified in five individual events, opened her ambitious schedule as the second-fastest qualifier in the women’s 400 IM. Hoff, the world record holder, was timed in 4:34.63—0.08 second behind 15-year-old teammate Elizabeth Beisel.For Hoff, it was a much different result than her first Olympic race in 2004, when she was overcome by nerves, failed to advance out of the prelims and threw up on the deck afterward.“It was definitely on my mind a little bit,” Hoff said. “It can’t not be.”Phelps, on the other hand, never seems flustered by anything.He was under his world-record pace after 150 meters of the four-stroke race, but eased off to save something for the one that really matters. Even so, he still broke his own Olympic record. SOURCE:YAHOO.SPORTS.COM

Yao plays, Bush watches: US set for hyped opener

BEIJING (AP)—Between Yao Ming’s return and President Bush’s arrival, this might be the only Olympic basketball game in which the guys wearing red, white and blue have to cede the spotlight.The United States begins the tournament Sunday night against host China, a game that figures to have a lopsided result but should feature an atmosphere that rivals a Super Bowl or any other championship match.Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are the headline names on the gold medal favorites, but the star power this time goes well beyond them. Yao is back from a foot injury to play before his frenzied home fans, who will be joined by Bush, as he becomes the first U.S. president to attend an Olympic Games on foreign soil.“I think that is going to be one of the most-watched games in sports history,” U.S. forward Carmelo Anthony said. “It’s going to be exciting.”USA basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo said the Americans have been told more than a billion viewers are expected, potentially making it the largest audience ever for a sporting event.Coach Mike Krzyzewski has won three NCAA championships, led teams to 10 Final Fours and was an assistant on the Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics, but knows he’s about to take part in something he’s never experienced before.“How cool, how good is it that we’re going to play in a game that might be the most-viewed game in the history of sport? Come on,” Krzyzewski said. “I remember growing up, inner city of Chicago, shooting at a basket in a schoolyard hoping that one person would watch me. And now I’m going to have a chance to coach my country’s team in front of a billion people? Are you kidding?”It probably won’t be close. A sampling of recent U.S.-China games includes scores such as 121-90 in the 2006 world championships, and 119-72 in the 2000 Olympics.This time the Chinese are home, and after some early anxiety they’ve got Yao, the Houston Rockets center who is China’s greatest athletic superstar. So don’t tell anybody here it’ll be a blowout, least of all the American players who are bracing for a fired-up opponent.Asked the challenge of facing China in its home country, Bryant said, “The energy. The one thing about these games is that they are shorter games than NBA games. Teams can get hot and stay hot and all of a sudden you find yourselves in a dogfight. I think that’s a danger you face.”The U.S. playing China in Beijing is like a No. 1 vs. No. 16 game in the NCAA tournament with the underdogs playing in their arena with thousands of their fans cheering them on.This is likely the lone game in which the Americans aren’t the crowd favorites. Most of them are wildly popular in China, where the NBA estimates 300 million people play basketball, and the U.S. team enjoyed great support in exhibition games in Macau in Shanghai.Center Dwight Howard, one of the best-known players after his Orlando Magic played exhibition games in China last fall, now becomes the villain for a night as the guy responsible for covering Yao.“I love the Chinese people and I love the fans here, so hopefully they won’t hate us too long,” Howard said.Yao was hurt in February and had surgery in March to repair a stress fracture in his left foot. His absence would have been devastating to the Chinese team, and there was some immediate concern he would have to sit out because he has been injury prone in recent seasons. Instead, he worked hard to get himself back into shape to play in these games and said the Chinese goal should be a quarterfinal berth, but they need him to be at his best for any chance to survive pool play.“When he got hurt I was more concerned with him being healthy than anything, because I know how big and how important playing in front of his country is to him,” Howard said.With Yao and fellow NBA player Yi Jianlian up front, the Chinese have a strong frontcourt. They lack the perimeter play, though, to match Bryant, Dwyane Wade, and the rest of the U.S. guards. SOURCE:YAHOOSPORTS.COM

SUMMER OLYMPIC TICKER

WASHINGTON (TICKER) —The United States has lost a boxing medal hopeful before the Olympics are officially underway. Bantamweight Gary Russell Jr. collapsed trying to make weight on Thursday and will miss the Games, the Washington Post reported. Russell needed to weigh 119 pounds and was at 121. He tried to run off the two pounds and collapsed upon returning to the Olympic Village. He did not lose consciousness and was treated immediately by doctors, according to the newspaper.“I’m extremely disappointed,” Russell said in a statement released by USA Boxing. “Competing in the Olympic Games has always been one of my dreams, and I wish I would have been able to represent my country alongside my teammates.”The 20-year-old had made the team by winning six bouts in a row after losing his first one at the Trials. BEIJING (Reuters) - Kobe Bryant, one of the world’s best-known athletes, joked Friday that he will flee his country if the United States fail to win Olympic basketball gold.“People ask me and I joke around a lot, but if we want to remain U.S. citizens we got to win gold,” the Los Angeles Lakers guard told Reuters on Friday.“I’ll be an Italian. You’ll be calling me Kobe Giovani, you know what I mean?!”The U.S. are among the favorites for gold at the Beijing Games after failing in Athens four years ago when they finished third while a dashing Argentina swept to the title.Bryant’s team mate Carmelo Anthony was another plotting am emergency escape route, just in case.“I’m going to ship my clothes somewhere else, man,” said Anthony, who played in Athens and at the 2006 world championships when the Americans were again relegated to the bronze medal.“I’m going to negotiate a contract with another team somewhere—I ain’t going back!“In ‘04 we didn’t know anything. We were blind. It was embarrassing to come back to the States knowing we’re supposed to be the best basketball players in the world and to come back with a third-place medal. BEIJING (AFP) - Tyson Gay has rebounded from a leg injury which cost him a place on America's Olympic Games 200m team but acknowledged he will have his work cut out to challenge the "phenomenal" Usain Bolt and "dark horse" Asafa Powell over the 100m.The reigning world double sprint champion, who will be 26 on Saturday, strained a hamstring muscle at the US trials in July to wreck his chances of repeating his world feat on the Olympic stage.The American sprint king, who claimed double world gold in Osaka last year, then locked himself away at a training camp in the southern German city of Munich and is now raring to go."My state of mind is pretty relaxed," he said. "It (the injury) was a setback, especially mentally. But at the same time, I think it helped me being away from the media for a while; no interviews for three or four weeks.

Men’s swimming story lines: Phelps’ race to history

Michael Phelps gets his second chance at bettering Mark Spitz’s record of seven golds. The question is not if he can do it, but rather who can stop him. Phelps owns the world’s best time in each of his five individual events and only Ryan Lochte in the individual medley events has been able to seriously challenge Phelps. The event schedule works against Lochte in the 200-meter IM as he also swims the finals of the 200 backstroke on the same day. Phelps is most vulnerable to upset in shorter races. His only 100 event comes last, and if he has four individual golds in as many tries, his confidence level will surely be soaring. Plus, Speedo will kick in with a handsome seven-figure bonus.

Mind over matter: Trials’ performances mean squat

At this point, swimmers’ training schedules are about the same, with no athlete able to gain much of an aerobic advantage just days before opening ceremonies. With physical comparisons slight, how athletes perceive their ability to perform under pressure and how they react to adversity will separate first place from second. The next Olympic champions in Beijing have already put the elation and familiarity of the U.S. trials behind them and no longer expect the comfort of domestic travel. Using mental imagery techniques during dozens of distinct moments each day, top performers visually role play and anticipate competing in a stranger, more intense and restricted international venue. Those who cannot embrace the differences between domestic and international competition and continue to revisit past successes at the trials will have disappointing swims. SOURCE:YAHOO SPORTS

Barring mustache, Phelps is ready

SINGAPORE (AP) -- Michael Phelps is aiming to show the world something its "never seen" at the Beijing Olympics and surpass Mark Spitz's long-standing record of seven golds at a single games. Phelps, 23, won six golds at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and is aiming to surpass both that mark and the seven-gold effort of Spitz at the 1972 Munich games. "What he did was the greatest Olympic performance of all time," Phelps said Saturday from Singapore, where the U.S. team has been getting in its late training ahead of the Olympics beginning Aug. 8. "I'm looking to do something different that the sport has never seen." The swim team is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Monday. Phelps, sporting a Spitz-like handlebar mustache, said he was primed to deliver his best in China. "I've had some of the best training I've done," Phelps said. "I've been swimming well. I've been feeling good in the water." Phelps will be competing in eight events at Beijing. The five individual events are the 200 meter freestyle, the 200 and 400 individual medleys and the 100 and 200 butterfly. He will also compete in all three relays: the 400 and 800 freestyle and the 400 medley. He holds the world record in all those individual events, except the 100 butterfly, as well as in both freestyle relays. Phelps has broken 25 world records compared to Spitz's 33. They are the only swimmers to have won seven golds at a major international meet. At last year's world championships in Australia, Phelps reached seven and was denied the chance to go for eighth victory when a teammate was disqualified from the preliminaries of a relay the U.S. was heavily favored to win. SOURCE:NBCOlympics.com

Sprinters, Pride of Jamaica, Are in the Spotlight

KINGSTON, Jamaica — For children in Jamaica’s rural villages, running is as much a part of growing up as Little League baseball or Pee Wee football in the United States. Boys and girls enter national races when they are as young as 5, and by the time they are teenagers, top sprinters are competing before a crowd of 30,000 every year at the National Stadium.Sprinters are a source of pride in this island nation, which struggles with crime and poverty despite its reputation as a carefree paradise for tourists. Home to 2.8 million people, Jamaica has produced this year’s four fastest women at 200 meters, four of the top six at 100 meters and the fastest man in both events, Usain Bolt. Jamaicans are expected to medal in the showcase sprinting events and relays next month at the Olympic Games in Beijing.Although drug cheating and suspensions have cast a pall over track and field, no sprinter who trains primarily in Jamaica has tested positive for steroids, according to the records of track and antidoping groups.Glen Mills, Bolt’s coach, said Jamaicans were proud of their clean record.“It is something that we guard dearly, and it is something that the country would turn on you,” he said. “They would turn on you so strong. It’s something they would never forgive. And athletes are aware of that and try to walk the tightrope.”But Jamaica does not have an independent, out-of-competition testing program for its athletes, nor has it joined the Caribbean Regional Anti-Doping Organization.Officials from the International Association of Athletics Federations, track and field’s governing body, said they compensated for the country’s lack of testing by flying testers into Jamaica, where the I.A.A.F. conducted more out-of-competition tests than in all but four more populous nations: Russia, Kenya, United States and Greece. SOURCE:NYT.COM

Olympic swimminig trials: Hoff doubles up on Phelps

OMAHA - At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Katie Hoff was best remembered as the 15-year-old who was so overcome by nerves that she threw up on the pool deck. Michael Phelps, her teammate at North Baltimore Aquatic Club, already was the world's dominant swimmer and won six gold medals and two bronzes at those Games. But, even then, Hoff was viewed as a prodigy with the potential to be as versatile -- and perhaps as successful -- as the guy who considered her a little sister. Wednesday night, Hoff did Phelps one better, winning two events in American-record time at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials.While Phelps failed to break his U.S. record in winning the 200- meter butterfly, Hoff, 19, lowered her American records in the 200 freestyle and 200 individual medley, giving her four victories and three records at this meet.Hoff won the 200 free in 1 minute, 55.88 seconds and the 200 IM in 2:09.71 at Qwest Center. Those records go with the world mark she set Sunday in the 400 IM (4:31.12) -- and thus far, she has one more victory than the uberstar Phelps. "This was the big night for me,'' said Hoff, who also will swim the 100 and 800 freestyles later in the trials. "When I touched the wall after the 200 IM, I felt a big sense of relief. SOURCE:STARTRIBUNE.COM

James, Bryant to lead U.S. team in Beijing

CHICAGO (AP) - MVP Kobe Bryant has a shot at another big prize after falling short of the NBA championship, and he'll have plenty of help along the way.LeBron James is there. Dwyane Wade, too.They will lead a U.S. Olympic basketball team that was announced Monday and hopes to capture the gold medal in Beijing in August after a third-place showing in Athens four years ago.The team already has "re-established itself'' on an international level, USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo said during a news conference.The next step is to bring home the gold, and the U.S. will send a deep, versatile team to China. Carmelo Anthony and Jason Kidd were also among the 12 players chosen from a pool of 33. They were joined by Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Michael Redd and Deron Williams."It was a very difficult selection process,'' Colangelo said. "When you have as many outstanding players as we have in this country - to select a group of 12 is obviously going to leave out a number of outstanding people.''The team was selected without a tryout. It will have a minicamp this week in Las Vegas and meet there July 20-25 to train and play an exhibition against Canada before heading overseas. The Americans open Olympic play against China on Aug. 10. SOURCE:NBCOLYMPICS.COM

Gay runs 100 in windy 9.68 to make US Olympic team

EUGENE, Ore. (AP)—Perhaps Tyson Gay ought to thank Usain Bolt for beating him so soundly and so surprisingly last month.That lopsided loss—Gay was a distant second as Bolt broke the world record in the 100 meters—led to some serious tinkering. Gay and his coach, former sprinter Jon Drummond, took a look at his start, his stride, his strategy.Seems fair to say they knew what they were doing: On Sunday, Gay ran 100 meters faster than anyone ever has.A blur in blue, Gay clocked 9.68 seconds to win the 100 final at the U.S. Olympic trials, a time that will not be entered in the books as a world record because it came with the help of a too-strong tailwind.Still, this is what matters to Gay and Drummond: The sprinter qualified for his first Summer Games team and served notice that his name should be mentioned alongside those of Jamaicans Bolt and Asafa Powell in any discussion about who could win the dash in Beijing.We need to get some type of flame-retardant uniform in case he catches on fire,” said Drummond, no stranger to hyperbole. “He’s running so doggone fast.”That is definitely true.Gay timed a legal 9.77 in a quarterfinal Saturday to break Maurice Greene’s American record of 9.79.Back on May 31, on a stormy night in New York, Gay finished in 9.85, easing up as he watched Bolt better Powell’s mark of 9.74.“When someone comes to your country and then kicks your butt and then breaks the world record—puts a cherry on top—that right there can put something on your mind a little bit,” Gay said before competing in Eugene. “But after a week or so, I was able to block it out and get back to business.”Gay and Drummond quickly realized the setback actually was a good thing.It forced them to really analyze Gay’s running.“We went back and said, ‘OK, you ran the fastest worst race I’ve ever seen anybody run,”’ Drummond said. “‘Technically, you ran a horrible race.”’The major problem, essentially: Gay was bringing his feet too high behind his back with each stride. Gay calls it “butt-kicking,” explaining that he was nearly hitting himself in the backside with his shoes before bringing each leg forward, while Bolt was turning his strides over more efficiently.“The joy I have in this is he worked hard, he believed in what we were doing,” Drummond said. “He believed in me enough to come back and let me work with him some more.”Wearing a royal blue uniform with red and white diagonal stripes across the front, along with matching shoes, all in a tribute to 1936 Olympic star Jesse Owens, Gay dominated the competition Sunday. SOURCE:NBCOLYMPICS.COM

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade set to represent U.S. in Olympics

AKRON, Ohio -- LeBron James and Dwyane Wade cruised city streets on bicycles Saturday for charity. Soon, the NBA superstars will be touring China for gold.James and Wade have been selected to play on the U.S. Olympic basketball team, which will be formally introduced on Monday by coach Mike Krzyzewski and USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo. The 12-man squad, which will also include NBA MVP Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd and Carmelo Anthony, will try to win a gold medal that has eluded the Americans since 1996.This will be the second Olympics for Cleveland's James and Miami's Wade, who were on the American team that finished a disappointing third and won a bronze medal at the Athens Games in 2004. "It's easy to focus on USA Basketball right now," James said. "We have one goal, and that's to win a gold medal. We're very excited about it. We don't worry about the rest. We worry about getting in shape and getting ready to win a gold medal, that's our only concern." James was joined at his "King for Kids Bike-a-thon" by Wade, Cavaliers coach Mike Brown, former Indians center fielder Kenny Lofton and NBA great Spencer Haywood, the leading scorer on the 1968 U.S. team that won gold in Mexico City. More than 2,000 riders took part in the event held in James' hometown. While James' spot on the U.S. roster was a given, Wade's wasn't assured until recently. His season ended in March, shut down by a left knee that never was right following surgery in 2007. Wade has been in Chicago working out since early May, and while he was there, both James and New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul -- also expected to be named to the U.S. team -- joined their good friend to help him polish his game. SOURCE:LATIMES.COM

Phelps, Hoff have busy trials schedules

In the competitive run-up to the U.S. Olympic swimming team trials, Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff carried a heavy workload. So it came as no surprise yesterday when the trials schedule showed Phelps competing in nine events over the eight-day meet that begins June 29 and Hoff in seven events.Phelps, a six-time gold medalist at the 2004 Summer Games, entered the 100- and 200-meter freestyles, 200 and 400 individual medleys, 100 and 200 backstrokes, 100 and 200 butterflys and 400 free. He is the world-record holder in the 200 free, 200 IM, 200 fly and 400 IM. At recent meets, his smile has gotten bigger and his times have fallen, and he shows no lingering effects from a broken wrist suffered in November.Towson's Hoff, looking to make her second Olympics team, will compete in the 200 backstroke, 200 IM and 400 IM and the 100, 200, 400 and 800 freestyles. She is the U.S. record holder in the 200 and 400 freestyles and 400 IM.The trials will be held at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb.Phelps, 22, from Rodgers Forge, is stalking the same goal as in 2004: to break Mark Spitz's 36-year-old record of seven golds in a single Games. To better his chances this time he has added three events.Hoff is the only U.S. woman to qualify for all 13 events at the trials. She added the 800 freestyle this year for fun and is now seeded second.Hoff, who turned 19 this month, said competing in a cluster of events works to her advantage. "It takes the pressure off me being focused on one chance to win a gold medal. I have tons of chances. It allows me to be a lot more relaxed and take each race one at a time." SOURCE:BALTIMORESUN.COM