Olympic

"Oh, you mean the guy with the 70-year-old head and the 20-year-old body-builder body? That picture has got to be Photoshopped." Dr. Jeffry Life smiles when I tell him about the general reaction I get about the famous picture of him with his shirt off, the shot that turned a mild-mannered doctor in his mid-60s into a poster boy for super-fit aging and controversial hormone replacement Appearing in medical-clinic ads in airline magazines and...

When historians of such things seek the moment the U.S. Olympic Committee found a way to forge the agreement Thursday that put the U.S. back in the game as a potential Olympic Games host, they need look no further than Oct. 7, 2009. It was five days after Chicago had suffered a humiliating first-round loss in the International Olympic Committee vote for host of the 2016 Summer Olympics. There quickly followed calls for heads in the USOC leadership to roll. It was the day USOC Chairman Larry Probst got so angry about being called out by some of his constituents, including athletes and the heads of the national sports federations, that he vowed to show them.

Reporting from Santa Clara, Calif. — Eight, apparently, was just enough. Swim icon Michael Phelps couldn't have been more emphatic on the burning topic of again trying to go after eight Olympic gold medals. There is no doubt he won't be winning eight gold medals because he said he won't be competing in eight events in 2012. Been there, done that. But that is only part of it. Phelps pulled off the record, three summers ago at the Olympics in Beijing. He won five individual gold medals and three more in the relays.

U.S. hurdler Lolo Jones says she's been tempted. She says she's had plenty of opportunities. She's even had guys tell her that having sex with them will make her a faster runner. A win-win situation, right? But every time, Jones has said no. The 29-year-old Olympic athlete recently revealed on Twitter that she has never had sex. She discussed maintaining her virginity with Mary Carillo on the May 22 episode of HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel."

DALLAS -- Everything about Holley Mangold is oversized. Her personality. Her laugh. Her ambition. But the first thing most people notice is her body, which, at 5 feet 9 and 350 pounds, is hard to miss. "I'm huge," Mangold says with pride, not political correctness. "I love my body. I think it's perfect. "I don't know what my personality would be like if I wasn't so huge. " She has a pretty good idea what her athletic career would be like, though. And it wouldn't include a trip to the Olympic Games this summer.

It wasn't so long ago that Gwen Jorgensen got a call from U.S. triathlon officials. They knew she had competed as a runner and swimmer in college. Now that she had graduated, they wondered if she might like to try something new. But Jorgensen had pretty much put sports on the back burner to start a career in accounting. Besides, the word "triathlon" conjured images of the grueling Ironman competition, athletes pushing themselves to the point of collapse. "No," she told them, "that doesn't interest me. " Which makes it all the more surprising that - just a few years later - the 26-year-old will race in the triathlon at the 2012 London Olympics, an overnight success in a sport she has grown to love.

As an athlete, an Olympic swimmer with goals different from, say, someone who earns a living as a businessman or artist or construction worker, Eric Shanteau made decisions that might raise an eyebrow. In 2008, less than a week before the U.S. Olympic trials, Shanteau learned he had testicular cancer. Surgery was recommended. Immediately if possible. Shanteau chose to wait. He made the U.S. team and competed at the Beijing Olympics, where his father was able to watch and cheer for his son. Richard Shanteau had lung cancer in 2008, a disease that would kill him in 2010.

The United States is the only country to have medaled in each of the first three Olympic water polo tournaments for women. And Coach Adam Krikorian relied heavily on that experience Thursday when he selected the 13-woman team for this summer's London Games. Eight of the players Krikorian named have at least one Olympic medal, and attackers Brenda Villa and Heather Petri have three. "We have focused on becoming a team in and out of the water, which will help us in London," said Villa, the U.S. captain and one of 11 Californians on the team.

DALLAS -- Rarely do the Olympics, javelinas and chewing tobacco wind up in the same story. But then, rarely do the Olympics encounter someone like Brady Ellison. The young man tugs a faded cap down over curls of blond hair and explains that, if it weren't for a steady hand and a sharp eye, he might still be hunting hogs on the ranch. "I'm a country boy at heart," he says. For now, his singular talents have led him in a different direction: Ellison heads into summer as the world's top-ranked archer and a good bet to win gold at the 2012 London Olympics.

Robert Gesink, a Dutchman who rides for the Rabobank team, won the Amgen Tour of California on Sunday, confirming his place on top that he had earned by climbing fast up Mt. Baldy on Saturday. The win was emotional for the 25-year-old, who grew up on a farm and learned to love cycling from his father, Dick, who was killed in a mountain bike crash two years ago. Father and son loved coming to California, Gesink said. Peter Sagan of Slovakia, who rides for the Italian-based Liquigas-Cannondale team, won his fifth stage of the eight-stage race Sunday, edging out crowd favorite Tom Boonen, the big Belgian sprint specialist who rides for the Omega Pharma-Quick-Step cycling team, for the win in the 42.6-mile road race between Beverly Hills and L.A. Live on Sunday.

After the coffee. Before getting out of wet Boston. The Skinny: After almost two weeks on the road, I'm finally heading back home Wednesday night. Just don't tell me it's raining in Los Angeles. Wednesday's headlines include NBC's plans to hype the online component to its Olympics coverage, Disney hitting pause on a pricey movie, andCNN's ratings troubles. Daily Dose: While the National Cable & Telecommunications Assn.'

DALLAS — If you're looking for quiet and unassuming, Jordan Burroughs might not be your man. Not that you would expect reticence from someone who spends his days grabbing people and throwing them to the ground. This is a guy who does not hesitate to proclaim himself the new "face of USA wrestling. " A guy who will be tweeting from the 2012 London Olympics under the name "alliseeisgold. " "Obviously, it rubs some people the wrong way," he said. "A lot of people mistake my confidence for cockiness.

BOSTON -- Looking to make consumers who subscribe to cable or satellite television aware that the bulk of the Summer Olympics can be watched online at no additional charge, NBC is going to embark on a large marketing campaign in advance of the London Games. "There will be a barrage of information sent out to the American public about how one can access this content," said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics.

Mary Killman and Maria Koroleva were synchronized swimming rivals when they began the sport, competing against each other on Northern California club teams. Not much more than a year ago, they were paired together as an American duet. Though the U.S. failed to qualify for the London Olympics as a team, a failure that shocked Killman and Koroleva, they have qualified in the Olympic duet to salvage some success from the U.S. program. And Killman, 20, of Santa Clara, Calif., and Koroleva, 22, a Russian native with U.S. citizenship now living in Concord, Calif., are so determined to be side by side in the pool that they even share an apartment bedroom.

BOSTON - Recognizing that many viewers want to watch key events live, in prime time, rather than tape-delayed, NBCUniversal plans to bolster its coverage of the Summer Olympics in London in August by putting 3,000 hours of programming online. The company, which is paying a record $1.18 billion for the rights to broadcast the London Olympics, is challenged to keep the up with the times. The long time zone difference between Britain and the U.S. means that key events will be broadcast when most Americans are not in front of their TVs. And increasingly, consumers are watching programming online, prompting NBC to make changes to its playbook.

DALLAS -- Anna Tunnicliffe was born and raised in England. And she has the British accent to prove it. "With certain words it comes out," she acknowledged. But that does not, she insists, make this summer's Olympic Games a homecoming. "I'm American," said Tunnicliffe, who became a U.S. citizen in 2003 and an Olympic gold medalist five years later. "I've spent more than half my life in America. I'm going to England to compete. "I love the country. But no, I'm not going home.

Kim Rhode isn't easily rattled. She competed against adults at 13 to win her first world title in the shooting sport of American skeet. She won an Olympic gold medal in double trap at the 1996 Atlanta Games five days after her 17th birthday, the youngest female Olympic shooting champion in the Games' history, and returned to win bronze in 2000 and gold again in 2004. When women's double trap was dropped from the Olympics, she switched to skeet and virtually started over. All she did was set a world record in her first World Cup event and win a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Games.

When the 2012 London Olympics begin less than three months from now, it will mark an anniversary that Americans might not want to celebrate. Ten years have passed since the Games last took place on U.S. soil. And with the bidding process extended years in advance, this country's next opportunity will not come around until 2022. "That's a problem," said Anita DeFrantz, an International Olympic Committee member from Los Angeles. "We like hosting this event. It's important to the psyche of our people.

Robert Gesink, a Dutchman who rides for the Rabobank team, won the Amgen Tour of California on Sunday, confirming his place on top that he had earned by climbing fast up Mt. Baldy on Saturday. The win was emotional for the 25-year-old, who grew up on a farm and learned to love cycling from his father, Dick, who was killed in a mountain bike crash two years ago. Father and son loved coming to California, Gesink said. Peter Sagan of Slovakia, who rides for the Italian-based Liquigas-Cannondale team, won his fifth stage of the eight-stage race Sunday, edging out crowd favorite Tom Boonen, the big Belgian sprint specialist who rides for the Omega Pharma-Quick-Step cycling team, for the win in the 42.6-mile road race between Beverly Hills and L.A. Live on Sunday.