The Associated Press | Posted: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 11:00 pm
BEIJING -- Lolo Jones was supposed to take the Olympic 100-meter hurdles title. Other entrants knew it. Jones knew it. Even told herself so right before the start, mouthing, "I can win this race," when she was introduced to the crowd.
And Jones was right: She could have won, and she was about to -- not just holding a lead but adding to it when she came to the ninth of 10 hurdles Tuesday night.
Alas, the American's foot slammed into that barrier instead of clearing it, and the next thing Jones knew, she was struggling to keep her balance rather than smoothly sailing across the finish line.
Jones dropped from first to seventh behind unlikely champion Dawn Harper of the United States, then dropped to her knees in despair, folding her body to the track and resting her head on her hands. There she stayed, all alone, for a few minutes.
"You hit a hurdle about twice a year where it affects your race," said Jones, who came in with the year's best time and an indoor world championship. "It's just a shame that it happened on the biggest race of my life."
Sanya Richards also was supposed to wear a gold medal for the U.S.
Everyone in the Bird's Nest knew that when she was touted over the PA system before the 400-meter final as "No. 1 in the world the last three years."
Richards was also about to win -- taking a lead into the final 80 meters. That's when she began slowing and was passed, not once, but twice.
Richards blamed her fade on a tightening right hamstring, and although she still wound up with a bronze behind Britain's Christine Ohuruogu and Jamaica's Shericka Williams, she hardly looked thrilled up on that podium, sighing after receiving her flowers. Minutes later, she was sobbing into a cell phone, sitting on the floor in a hallway beneath the stands.
Earlier this month, at U.S. training camp in Dalian, China, Richards and her personal coach, Clyde Hart, were talking about how the splotches on her legs -- a final remnant of a rare disease that has hobbled her -- were finally fading.
Richards figured there'd be no better sign she was all the way back than an Olympic title.
"I knew that gold was mine," she said. "I was already getting up and elated coming off the turn, because I know how my races usually go. I just had a really tough break on that one."
Tough breaks came twice Tuesday, for Richards and for Jones, in an Olympic track and field meet in which little has gone according to plan for the United States.
Instead, victories on this night seemed to be reserved for athletes who barely made it to the Summer Games.
Harper, for example, grabbed the last spot at the U.S. Olympic trials by 0.007 second. On the biggest stage of all for her sport, she was good enough for gold, windmilling both arms as she finished in 12.54 seconds.
That wasn't anywhere near as fast as Jones' best time this year, and Harper arrived here not nearly as touted as Jones, who drew attention before the Beijing Games for her talent and her life story -- living in a church basement at one point as a kid, working at a hardware store and as a waitress to pay bills as an adult.
"This is a kid nobody knew," said Harper's coach, Bob Kersee. "Now she's an Olympic gold medalist."
Ohuruogu, the 2007 world champion who won in 49.62 seconds, was cleared in November to compete at these Summer Games when she won her appeal against a lifetime Olympic ban for missing doping tests. The British Olympic Association automatically bars any athlete found guilty of a doping violation from competing in any future Olympics. But a sports arbitration panel overturned that.
She was suspended for a year by UK Athletics for missing three out-of-competition drug tests between October 2005 and July 2006 -- the first British track athlete punished for missing three tests. She said she missed the testers when her training schedules were changed at late notice.
Asked whether her medal might be tainted, Ohuruogu replied, "Why should it be spoiled, unless someone tries to spoil it for me?"
Someone else who barely made it to Beijing yet went to sleep Tuesday night a gold medalist is men's high jumper Andrey Silnov of Russia. He failed to qualify for his country's team at its Olympic trials -- but then turned in a season-best performance of 7 feet, 9 fl inches (2.38 meters) last month.
So the Russian federation ordered a "jump-off" between him and another athlete, and afterward, Silnov was put on the team.
The most anticipated of tonight's finals is the men's 200 meters, where Jamaica's Usain Bolt will try to add that gold to his world-record-breaking title in the 100. Success would make him the first man since Carl Lewis in 1984 to win both sprints at an Olympic Games.
"I'm going to out there to run my heart out," Bolt said, looking ahead.
Jones and Richards were both left to look back. Both women stayed on the track for several minutes, watching replay after replay of their races on the arena's scoreboards.
Jones put her hands on her head and exhaled, then looked across the way at the spot where she had knocked over that hurdle. Then she slapped her sunglasses against her palm while watching Harper take the flag-waving victory lap that was supposed to be hers.
"It was like racing a car at max velocity. When you hit a curve, you either maintain control or you crash and burn," Jones said. "Today, I crashed and burned. I'm shocked and sad. But I'm happy for the girls."
It's likely she'll be thought of along with Gail Devers, the American who was leading her race at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, then hit the final hurdle and finished fifth.
"I kind of felt like she was me for a minute there," Devers said. "It's heartbreaking, because I saw her face afterward. I know the feeling. I know how she felt."
• Wrestling: Freestyle wrestler Henry Cejudo, the son of illegal immigrants from Mexico, was 4 when he last saw his dad. His mom raised six kids and often struggled to make ends meet. The family moved more times than anyone remembers.
He got into wrestling as a youngster because his older brother Angel was good at it, good enough to get invited to live at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Only halfway through high school, Henry went with him.
The kid became a national champ at 17, then defied conventional wisdom by blowing off college to study nothing but wrestling. Yet last year, at the world championship -- his first senior-level international event -- he didn't win a single match.
Now he's the world's best in the 55-kilogram division, the youngest American ever to win an Olympic wrestling gold medal. That's saying something, because his was the 50th gold won by U.S. wrestlers; swimming and track and field are the only sports to produce more.
His story is packed with vines of inspiration for all kinds of people to grasp. The parts he hopes resonate most: Dream big, work hard and never give up.
"Anybody can do it," he said. "It's just a matter of seeing it, believing it and just working at it, and achieving it. ... The guy who went 0-1 (at the world championship) just won the Olympic title."
Also in wrestling, American Mike Zadick worked so hard to get to the Olympics. Was it worth it? He wrestled for less than 10 minutes over two matches and didn't score in either one.
"This is an opportunity I've wanted since I started wrestling at 5, 25 years ago, and it's pretty sour to have on me," he said. "It happened so quick, it's just kind of a shock to me, and it's something I'll deal with."
He competed in the 60-kilogram freestyle division, which was won by Russia's Mavlet Batirov.
• Women's basketball: Not that there was much doubt, but the U.S. women are headed back to the Final Four of this tournament. Sylvia Fowles had 26 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Americans on their latest rout, a 104-60 victory over South Korea. The Americans have made the medal round in every Olympics they've entered, and have won 31 straight games since losing in the 1992 semifinals.
The Americans will play Becky Hammon and Russia in the semifinals Thursday night. Russia rallied to beat Spain 84-65 Tuesday night. China plays Australia in the other semifinal.
The Aussies advanced with a 79-46 victory over the Czech Republic. China moved on with a 77-62 victory over Belarus. It's the first time the Chinese are in the medal round since taking silver in 1992.
• Baseball: Despite losing its opener, losing one key player to a gruesome injury and seeing another key player get hurt, the U.S. is headed to the medal round.
The Americans advanced with a 4-2 victory over Taiwan, powered by John Gall's go-ahead homer and a solid outing by pitcher Brandon Knight. The final prelim test comes Wednesday night against medal favorite Japan. The semifinals start Friday.
South Korea and Cuba are advancing, too. Those teams squared off in a battle of unbeatens, and South Korea won 7-4.
"Since we beat the U.S. in our opener, the good luck has stayed with us so far," South Korea manager Kim Kyung-moon said.
• Diving: China is up to 6-for-6 in its bid for all eight golds.
He Chong easily won the men's 3-meter springboard, getting 11 perfect marks of 10.0 in the six-round final. This is the fourth consecutive Olympics China has won this event.
American Troy Dumais was sixth for the third straight Olympics. Teammate Chris Colwill was 12th and last.
• Men's soccer: The final is set: Argentina vs. Nigeria.
Argentina is headed back to the Olympic final with the chance to become the first nation in 40 years to defend its title -- and to avenge a loss to Nigeria in the 1996 finals.
• Cycling: This wasn't Olympic cycling. It was the British Open. With Victoria Pendleton winning the women's track sprint and Chris Hoy taking the men's version, the Brits won seven events and 12 medals in cycling, with Hoy claiming three golds. They were favored to also win the men's madison, but Argentina took it.
The Americans? Not a single medal in the competition.
• Women's volleyball: After a slow start, the U.S. took down Italy in five sets to advance to a semifinal matchup with undefeated Cuba. Afterward, the team celebrated with abandon. Ogonna Nnamani was joined by her teammate in a dance. They chanted "U-U-U-U-U-S-A!" And, of course, there were hugs all around. Brazil plays defending champion China in the other semifinal on Thursday.
• Women's water polo: The U.S. will be playing for gold, taking on the Netherlands on Thursday, but will do so without center forward Lauren Wenger.
Wenger, the team's most versatile player, broke her right hand in the closing minutes of a 9-8 semifinal victory over Australia. Brenda Villa scored three goals, including the winner with a minute left.
• Beach volleyball: Get ready for a rumble. Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor -- the winners of 107 straight matches, including the last Olympic title -- are headed to the finals against the Chinese duo of Tian Jia and Wang Jie. The Americans easily beat a Brazilian tandem in the semifinals. Tian and Wang advanced by beating another team from China.
The United States has now reached the podium in all four Olympics since beach volleyball was added to the games in 1996.
"I think they are going to be the Olympic champions, for sure," said Renata, part of the Brazilian team defeated by the Americans.
• Canoe-kayak: Rami Zur left Athens with a broken neck because of a freak pool accident. He might leave Beijing with two medals.
Zur has reached the semifinals of two kayak single (K-1) events. His berth in the 500 meters was secured a day after making it in the 1,000 meters. Carrie Johnson advanced to the women's semis, giving the U.S. hope of returning to the Olympic flatwater medal stand for the first time since 1992.
Also, Canadian kayaker Adam van Koeverden set a world-best time in the 500-meter kayak single in a qualifying heat. Van Koeverden, who carried Canada's flag at the opening ceremony, is the defending Olympic champion in the 500.
• Men's triathlon: Germany's Jan Frodeno, who was seventh at last year's world championship, worked his way past a pack of foes with more glittering resumes and won the gold medal. The top American was Hunter Kemper, who finished seventh.
Jarrod Shoemaker was 18th, Matty Reed 32nd. Reed's brother, Shane, competes for New Zealand and was 34th.
• Boxing: A light heavyweight from Tajikistan was disqualified for biting his opponent on the shoulder -- and Evander Holyfield, boxing's most famous biting victim, just missed seeing it.
Holyfield was at the arena for much of the evening card, but apparently was gone when Dzhakhon Kurbanov chomped on Kazakhstan's Yerkebulan Shynaliyev during a clinch, drawing blood.
Also, China clinched at least four medals after managing just one at all previous Olympics.
Lightweight Alexey Tishchenko, one of three Russians left after their powerful team's collapse, stayed in contention with a victory. He won the featherweight gold in Athens before moving up in class two years ago.
• Sailing: The U.S. got its first gold from the regatta when British-born Anna Tunnicliffe won the women's Laser Radial class. China's Xu Lijia got bronze, marking the third sailing medal for the hosts.
Britain got its third gold in sailing when Paul Goodison won the men's Laser.
Also, a jury rejected yet another protest about the 49er class gold medal that went to Denmark in a boat borrowed from Croatia. Spain, which would've moved from silver to gold if the Danes were disqualified, said they saw the markings for Croatia and didn't realize it was really the Danes.
• Synchronized swimming: Russia's four-time world champion duo, both named Anastasia, kept their front-runner status going through the duet free preliminaries. The final is Wednesday. Americans Christina Jones and Andrea Nott came out of prelims fifth.
• Women's handball: Russia needed two overtimes to beat France 32-31 and advance to a semifinal game against Hungary. The Russians came out of pool play undefeated.
South Korea will play Norway in the other semifinal.
• Men's field hockey: Australia advanced to the semifinals against Spain. Germany will play the Netherlands.
• Equestrian: Anky van Grunsven of the Netherlands won her third straight gold in individual dressage.
• Weightlifting: Germany's Matthias Steiner won the men's super heavyweight division, getting gold and the right to call himself the world's strongest man. At the medal ceremony, Steiner held up a picture of his wife, Susann, who died in a car accident last year.
"I thought of her before the competition," he said. "I won this for her, for friends and family. But mostly for her."
Steiner lifted a total of 461 kilograms (1,016.3 pounds), clinching the win with a clean and jerk of 258 kg (568.8 pounds).