Olympic Games 2008

Briana Scurry has been playing soccer long enough to know that anything can happen. So rather than vent her anger at being left off the U.S. roster for the Beijing Olympics, the veteran goalkeeper is going to China as an alternate, staying in peak condition and making sure she is ready if called upon. "I'm definitely disappointed," Scurry said of not making the final squad of 18. "I feel I came into this year and worked really hard and was in some of the best shape I've been in.

Adam Nelson, one of the best shotputters in the world, is lying on a bed in a Long Beach hotel, Room 526. Anyone in Room 528 probably could have heard this: "Full extension. Express. Thrust, release, follow through. Feel and I'm doing this now. I tap your forehead, it's your turn to throw. Move toward the laser, so lasered, so locked in, so absorbed in the moment and your express word. POWER." There is also New Age-y tonal music playing. But this is not what it sounds like.

LAS VEGAS -- It's a command played out in countless junior high gymnasiums and one usually met by grumblings and groans. "Defensive slides," the coach tells his players, his voice even but stern. Only this isn't any coach. This is Coach Mike Krzyzewski, synonymous with Duke and winning. Coach K, to nearly everyone now. And this isn't any team, let alone one of seventh- and eighth-graders.

OMAHA -- Both sides were proclaiming, if not victory, a strong measure of satisfaction and engaged in verbal shots at the U.S. Olympic swim trials. Never mind that the meet doesn't actually start until this morning at the Qwest Center. USA Swimming's head coach, Mark Schubert, took jabs at TYR Sport, which is suing him, USA Swimming, Warnaco Swimwear Inc. -- the parent company of Speedo -- and swimmer Erik Vendt in connection with the LZR Racer swimsuit.

EUGENE, Ore. -- Two weeks ago, Muna Lee said, she was in a truck in College Station, Texas, when it hit another vehicle that had run a red light. When Lee got out of the truck, the first thing she did was walk up a hill to make sure her legs were all right. The crash left her with a totaled truck but little damage to her body, other than a bruised shoulder that hurt when the willowy Lee lifted weights.

EUGENE, Ore. -- Please, let them be clean. Please, let there not be any nasty surprises in the coming weeks involving positive tests for steroids or other performance-enhancing chemicals with unpronounceable names. Let it be hard work, talent and gusts of hot summer wind that carried Tyson Gay to a spectacular, fastest-ever-recorded-under-any-conditions time of 9.68 seconds in the 100-meter dash Sunday at Hayward Field in the marquee event of the U.S. Olympic track and field trials.

Tony Azevedo was 14 when he watched the Spanish water polo team erupt in joy after capturing the Olympic gold medal in 1996. The moment is still fresh in his mind. "When they won a medal, they were kissing each other and they were crying," Azevedo said. "It was then that I knew the only thing I want to do is represent my country with a medal around my neck."

OMAHA -- The planet of sound reached out and touched Natalie Coughlin, underwater, no less, and Aaron Peirsol said he used his vision to eye his rivals in the lanes to his right and left. Different senses. But they helped achieve the same result Tuesday night at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials: World records in consecutive finals, both in the 100-meter backstroke. That barrier breaker, Coughlin, pushed through the pain to reach a place no woman had gone before, breaking the 59-second barricade, winning in 58.97 seconds.

OMAHA -- One shock after another unfolded at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, almost a changing of the guard in one session Thursday night at the Qwest Center. Brendan Hansen, who held the world record in the 200-meter breaststroke a month ago, won't be swimming that event in Beijing. Nor will the silver medalist at the World Championships last year in the 200 butterfly (Kim Vandenberg) or the woman who finished fourth at the trials four years ago at that distance (Mary DeScenza).

EUGENE, Ore. -- Every athlete at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials felt for Tyson Gay, knowing the chill of that sudden strike of pain and the hazy uncertainty that descends while you take stock of your body and desperately hope years of training have not been lost in one swift and terrible instant. Gay's stumble and fall about 40 meters into his quarterfinal heat of the men's 200 on Saturday was attributed to a muscle cramp in his left leg, and no lasting damage was found.