Olympic Games 2008

WASHINGTON -- Candace Parker was 10 years old when she watched Lisa Leslie win her first Olympic gold medal in Atlanta. Twelve years later, Parker gets a chance to help her Sparks teammate win an unprecedented fourth consecutive gold in the Beijing Olympics. "I was sitting on my couch watching the 1996 Olympics with tears in my eyes saying I'm going to be there one day," Parker said. They were two of the nine players placed on the U.S. women's basketball team Saturday.

Whether it's a pool in Omaha or Charlotte, N.C., or closer to home on the campus of USC, the concept is still the same for those swimmers with Olympic experience or those looking to make their first U.S. squad. Call it a final dress rehearsal. This weekend, there will be three significant swim meets around the country serving the dual purpose of fine-tuning and experimentation set against the backdrop of the U.S. Olympic swim trials, which start in Omaha on June 29. Most prominently will be a test event in Omaha, the Mutual of Omaha Swimvitational, at the Qwest Center.

U.S. Olympic Trials for three major sports will be held over the next few weeks. Some of the athletes are already stars, their names well known: gymnasts Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin and Paul Hamm, track stars Allyson Felix and Jeremy Wariner and swimmers Amanda Beard, Katie Hoff and Michael Phelps. There are other athletes, however, who aren't yet so well known but that could soon change, given recent performances.

CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- Saturday was shaping up as the biggest day in Mike Day's BMX racing career, and he wasn't about to spend it alone. "I went through my phone book in my cellphone and pretty much called everyone in there," said Day, who had to recharge his phone battery twice to get through the list. "Just to kind of even it out a little bit and know that I had some friends here." About 100 people responded, coming by caravan down to the U.S.

PHILADELPHIA -- Shawn Johnson rumbles across the floor exercise mat like a sparkling bowling ball gaining speed and power until she reaches the corner and throws herself into a sonic boom of flips, twists and a forceful landing. She offers a smile and swings her shiny ponytail. Across the way, Nastia Liukin uncoils her legs and lifts herself onto the uneven bars.

Troy Dumais became the first diver to make the U.S. Olympic team. Dumais completed a dominating performance in the 3-meter springboard Saturday at the trials in Indianapolis. The 28-year-old from Ventura will be making his third trip to the Olympics. He was sixth in the event at Sydney and Athens. Only the trials winner is awarded a spot on the team. Chris Colwill, who finished second, will be favored for his first Olympic berth when the rest of the squad is named next month in Tennessee.

PHILADELPHIA -- Bela Karolyi can't wait. He has watched Chellsie Memmel pull closer to the best of the U.S. -- something unexpected given that she was written off by many women's gymnastics officials, including Karolyi and his wife Martha, the U.S. team coordinator, as recently as two months ago. Going into tonight, the second and final night of the U.S. Olympic trials at the Wachovia Center, 2007 world champion Shawn Johnson is first with 64.

June is normally one of the busiest months in this commercial hub, home to the largest wholesale market in the world. Traders from around the globe descend here to bargain with tens of thousands of merchants and place their year-end orders. But walk through the hotel lobbies, Middle Eastern restaurants and the city's big trading emporium, where some 30,000 stalls are jammed together, and it's clear that this isn't a typical year.

PHILADELPHIA -- Shawn Johnson pounded out a dramatically confident floor exercise routine. It is the hardest-ranked floor set in the world, and when Johnson landed her final tumbling pass with a secure thud, U.S. national team coordinator Martha Karolyi applauded. "The way Shawn finished, that was wonderful," Karolyi said. "When you see a girl do something so hard so well, that is uplifting." Johnson, 16, of West Des Moines, Iowa, won the U.S.

Briana Scurry has played more games, earned more victories, recorded more shutouts and won more medals than any U.S. soccer goalkeeper in history -- male or female -- but on Monday she was not included on the 18-player roster that will travel to China in August to compete in the Beijing Olympics. It was a decision made for tactical reasons, not to avoid controversy, according to U.S. women's national soccer Coach Pia Sundhage. Scurry, 36, has been one of the American team's stalwarts for the last 14 years, winning Olympic gold medals at the 1996 Atlanta Games and the 2004 Athens Games, as well as a world championship in 1999 with her memorable penalty kick save against China in the dramatic final at the Rose Bowl.