United States Athletic Teams

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.

Ten years ago Thursday, American boxing's class of '84 jump-started the playing of the national anthem nine times. The boxers cried a bit on the medal platform, hugged each other, then embarked on pro careers that a decade later continue in prosperous fashion for two--Pernell Whitaker and Virgil Hill--but have gone off the tracks for all the rest.

Kelly Garrison-Steves is that rarest of things in women's gymnastics. She's a woman. On an Olympic team where three of the gymnasts are 15 and two others are 17, Garrison-Steves reigns as a kind of Grandma Moses. She's 21, a college junior and married. At that alone, she's quite a curiousity. After failing in two previous Olympic trials she probably should have been given an oldtimer's exemption for this one. She could chaperon.

An attorney for Olympic archer Justin Huish argued in court Wednesday that the gold medalist should not be held on drug-sale charges because he was providing marijuana for the treatment of an HIV patient. But that defense, raised during Huish's preliminary hearing, met a quick objection from a Ventura County prosecutor who said state law allows only qualified caregivers to treat medical marijuana patients. Deputy Dist. Atty.

Jim Toring, a former UCLA and Harvard-Westlake High water polo star, is in a coma at a Paris hospital after being struck by a bus while competing in a tournament for the U.S. national team. Toring's blood pressure, pulse and breathing were stable Wednesday, a spokesperson for the U.S. team said. Doctors have performed surgery to drain fluid from his skull and relieve pressure from cranial swelling.

If one of the reasons the U.S. men's volleyball players shaved their heads was to make the International Volleyball Federation look bad, the joke was on them. The only people who looked really bad Tuesday were the players. "Silly" was how one of their Canadian opponents described them. Even the U.S. players confessed that they couldn't look at each other without giggling. If another reason they shaved their heads was to motivate themselves to rise above adversity, they almost failed there, too.

Former U.S. Olympian Dominique Moceanu, who at 14 was part of the 1996 gold-medal team, said Tuesday night that USA Gymnastics team coordinator Martha Karolyi once grabbed her by the neck and slammed her face into a phone, and that former coach Bela Karolyi twice berated her about her weight in front of national teammates.

They came to see a dream but they got the dark side of the force, too. Proving he can embarrass himself in any context, Charles Barkley put on a clinic in bad manners, highlighted by a technical foul for elbowing an Angola player, causing fans in the Palau d'Esports to whistle in derision. That barely slowed Barkley, who scored a game-high 24 points, or the Dream Team, which crunched Angola, 116-48, Sunday in its Olympic debut. However, it did spark a one-sided post-game debate.

It is one of the most famous sports photographs of the 1990s, the now-iconic image of U.S. soccer player Brandi Chastain on her knees, clenching her jersey in her right fist and exulting over the successful penalty kick that had just decided the 1999 Women's World Cup. Every picture tells a story, but the shot of Chastain tells several.

It was the original dream team. Maybe the greatest amateur team ever. But it didn't win. Or did it? "We were not only playing for ourselves, but for the guys who came after us," said Will Clark, the San Francisco Giants' first baseman, reflecting on the 1984 U.S. Olympic baseball team. Clark was a member of that powerhouse team that lost to Japan, 6-3, in the championship game of the demonstration tournament during the Los Angeles Olympics but helped sell the amateur program to the world.