Olympic Games 2004

Rod Gunn had insisted that all three of his children play a sport, but he was stunned when his eldest child, Chanda, found her new athletic calling at age 14. "For the first week I walked around muttering to myself, 'My daughter is a goaltender,' " he said. "I didn't try to stop her. At the time, it was somewhat of a blessing. She had always been active and her mother had taken swimming away from her because of the epilepsy."

It can't hurt rugby's chances of being added to the Summer Olympics that Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, played for the Belgian national rugby team in his youth. "We'd like to think it might help," said Greg Thomas, communications manager for the International Rugby Board, "but we know we need to rely on more than that."

NBC's coverage of last year's Summer Olympics in Athens topped the field Wednesday in competition for the 26th annual Sports Emmy Awards, earning 14 nominations. ESPN led the network totals with 29 nominations, compared with 23 for NBC, 18 for Fox and 17 each for ABC and HBO. The nominees for outstanding play-by-play announcer were Al Michaels of ABC and ESPN, Dick Enberg of CBS, Jim Lampley of HBO, Jim Nantz of CBS and Joe Buck of Fox.

In crisis, it is said, there is opportunity. A year ago, the U.S. Olympic Committee was reeling from such turmoil that one U.S. senator said, "Scandal seems to follow the [USOC] like dogs follow a meat wagon." Another decried an "Olympic-sized food fight" and the "whole sordid mess." Heading into a meeting today of the USOC's policymaking executive committee in Chicago, the USOC says U.S.

Amid extraordinary security concerns, an Iraqi Olympic Committee was formally put together and its officers elected Thursday, a key measure in having an Iraqi team take part in the Summer Olympics in August. A number of other steps remain before Iraq takes part in the Aug. 13 opening ceremony in Athens. For one, the International Olympic Committee -- which last May suspended the Iraqi committee, led by Uday Hussein, son of Saddam Hussein -- must now formally recognize the new Iraqi committee.

Conor Casey was looking forward to staying in Europe this summer. Already playing in Germany, with Karlsruher of the Bundesliga's second division, the former University of Portland player from Gilpin, Colo., hoped to make the short hop to Greece in August to compete in his second Olympic Games for the United States. Karlsruher, however, had other ideas. Instead of allowing Casey to stay with the U.S.

In a move that highlights the intent of senior U.S., international and Olympic officials to have an Iraqi team take part in the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, the U.S. Olympic Committee said Thursday that it would play host at its Colorado headquarters to an Iraqi wrestling delegation training for the Games. Four Iraqi wrestlers and two coaches will arrive soon at the USOC's Colorado Springs base for an "extended training program," the USOC said.

Hold onto your sombreros, here we go again. The United States and Mexico, soccer rivals of old, will square off in Guadalajara on Tuesday night with nothing less than a place in the Olympics at stake. That much was assured Saturday afternoon when the U.S. defeated Honduras, 4-3, to set up a crucial semifinal against Mexico in front of a probable sellout crowd of 60,000 in Estadio Jalisco. A hat trick by D.C.