ESPN Olympic Sports

DALLAS -- Mother's Day carried added meaning on the first morning of the U.S. Olympic Media Summit, thanks to U.S. track stars Lashinda Demus and Sanya Richards-Ross. Demus just missed qualifying for Beijing in 2008 in her specialty, the 400-meter hurdles, a year after giving birth to twin boys, Dontay and Duaine, after what she described as "a horrible pregnancy." Now, she's in top form and on top of the world, having won the world title last year in Daegu, South Korea.

"It's a big difference from 2008," Demus said. "My whole body is different. Now, this is my normal body. I'm in better shape than I was then; I'm running faster; my [sons] are bigger."

Another major difference? In 2009, Demus hired a new coach -- her mother, Yolanda Demus -- who first put Lashinda on the track when she was 2 years old.

"Everything has changed," Demus said. "My training has changed, especially with my mom as my coach. Everything is looking pretty good and on schedule as far as the Olympic Games."

Demus also changed agents, hiring her husband, Jamel Mayrant, but said it took some effort to persuade her mother to take over the stopwatch.

"My mom didn't come that easily," Demus said, "but I knew that she was a very hard coach, and I knew that if I wanted to get where I wanted to be, which I'm on my way to now, she was the best person for it. I wanted to keep everything in the family."

Richards-Ross knows what that's like. She lets her mother, Sharon, manage her career. They work well together now, but when Sanya was learning to run, they were competitors. Sharon Richards, on hand here Sunday, recalled family track meets at the beach, where her husband, a former Jamaican national soccer player, she and her daughters would race. Pops would win, and "I would be second," Sharon said.

"And then, as time progressed, it was Daddy, then Sanya." She paused for a beat. "Then Mommy retired, because I was having no part of that. I'm OK with my husband running first, me second and the girls after, but when she took over, that was it. She retired me."

Now, Sharon's in management, but she has a hard time keeping distance from her main client.

"I'm much more nervous than Sanya is," she said. Before races, "I'm teary-eyed, I get weak in the knees, I get weak in the stomach, I don't want anybody to talk to me, I need to go drink some water; it's a total emotional roller coaster for me. And one would think that since she's been doing it since she was 7 that it would get better, but it totally gets worse."

Yet she's also a cagey enough observer of the sport, having grown up in Jamaica, to know which meets to worry about and which not to. Richards-Ross was run down in the home stretch and finished second to Novlene Williams-Mills in a meet eight days ago in Kingston, Jamaica, but Sharon thinks everything is copacetic.

"Immediately after the race, [Richards-Ross] knew what happened," Sharon said. "She's been doing a little bit of speed work and she got out like a bat out of hell and wasn't able to hold on all the way to the finish line. But after having assessed the race with Coach [Clyde] Hart, he was pretty impressed that, having gotten out a second and a half faster than she should have, she was able to hold on as long as she did. So it was a learning curve for her. I think she's good from here on [out]."

Mom knows best.

DALLAS -- Allyson Felix's appearance at the U.S. Olympic Media Summit was the last leg of an around-the-world sprint of a road trip -- a very successful one.

Felix won a pair of 100-meter races in Kawasaki, Japan, and Doha, Qatar, within a week's time, the latter in a career-best time of 10.92 seconds over a strong Diamond League field that included reigning Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica. That triggered renewed curiosity about whether Felix might attempt to qualify for the Olympics in track's most glamorous individual event along with her personal favorite, the 200, where she is a three-time world champion and two-time Olympic silver medalist.

She was ready for the question. "I'm just going to start saying, 'Ask Bobby,'" Felix said, referring to her coach, Bobby Kersee. "I will run another event, and Bobby will make that decision closer to [U.S. Olympic] trials."

Last season, Felix focused on a 200-400 double and upped the amount of endurance training in her regime. She raced both events at the world championships and ran a personal best in the 400, which comes first in the event schedule, good enough for a silver medal. But she felt spent in the 200 and lost her title to her Olympic nemesis, Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown. She has refocused her training on more speed work this season and attributed her recent showing to improved technique in the blocks.

"I was surprised I put it together," Felix, 26, said of Friday's Doha race, where she also defeated Campbell-Brown. "For me, the speed has always been there. It's been my start; I've always put myself at a huge deficit from the beginning. So I think I was just more shocked that, finally, I'm strong enough to compete with these women and I can actually put my speed on display. I was happy. I've worked a lot on that portion of the race and to finally see it paying off is a cool thing."

Felix won't rule out running the 400 this summer, but has spoken of the 100-200 as a more natural dovetail. Running the 100 is not exactly a new concept for her -- she raced that distance in high school and was the 2010 national champion in the event. Regardless of what she and Kersee settle on, she said the 200 is her priority. "I've had almost eight years to think about being a silver medalist," she said, putting a slight emphasis on the color.

She's also familiar with the argument that she should just focus on what is most dear to her: winning Olympic gold in the 200.

"Sometimes you do spread yourself too thin," she said. "It's hard, but I think it also makes it difficult when you know you have potential at something and you want to fulfill that. For me this year, I said, 'OK, the 200 is my main focus.' If I do another event, it's going to come second to that."

Felix, looking fresh despite a 16-hour flight from Qatar, fielded a variety of other questions, including one from a British reporter who asked if she lamented track and field's low profile in this country.

"If you were in Britain, you'd be an absolute superstar," he said. "Here I sense that you're in the second tier," at which point Felix laughed ruefully.

"Second?" she joked, then got serious.

"We're definitely not one of the premier sports [in the United States]," she said. "It's very clear. We barely race on U.S. soil. It's sad. It's such a great sport. I have such a passion for it, I want other people to."

There is a "disconnect," Felix added, between the number of talented young people who run in high school and college but take the sport no further.

"I don't necessarily feel undervalued," she said. "Because that's not, for me, what it's about. I didn't come into the sport saying I want to be famous or I want to get a lot of money. I truly love track and field and I think that's what it has to be about to continue on."

Felix also said she hopes that having high-level competition in the Middle East is making a difference in the lives of women who face cultural obstacles in participating in athletics there.

"I've been going to Doha since I was 19 years old and I've seen a big change," she said. "Of course, it's not, I think, anywhere near where it needs to be, but I think it's progressing. It's just really cool to go there and see them excited about it and see the girls excited about competing. Even the lifestyle portion, even if they just pick up on that, you don't have to be this elite athlete, but just adopting that type of lifestyle, making it part of your daily routine, being active."

DALLAS -- Lashinda Demus, the world champion in the 400 hurdles, said that every time she competes at a track and field meet, "We know we're in a dying sport."

"People are making $15,000 a year and calling themselves a professional athlete. To me that's not a good job," she said Sunday at the U.S. Olympic media summit in Dallas. "We don't have anyone pulling in [viewers] on TV. Our races aren't on TV like in other professional sports. It's just less and less. They're trying to do better than that -- you can see that with the Diamond League meets, where you can see on who knows what channel. We're in the back somewhere."

So why is track's popularity down? Demus says it's a mixture of things.

"They say the drug thing hurts it and I think that does affect it, but you see people caught doing drugs in baseball and that doesn't really hurt them that much," Demus said. "I honestly think our track meets aren't shown, and one of the reasons they don't show them is because they're so long. If we can keep the meets down to a certain number of events to keep the viewership to stayed tune for 35-40 minutes, it might be better. ...

"That's why we need a great marketing team. I don't have the answers, but more media time would help, more sponsors would all help."

The Jesse Owens story has been told many times, but in our fleeting, fickle and 140-character era, his tale still deserves to be trending.

Fortunately, 'Jesse Owens: American Experience", airing Tuesday night on PBS, is a welcome and engaging reminder of all that Owens overcame and accomplished by winning four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Mixing footage of Owens with historian and eye-witness interviews, 'Jesse Owens: American Experience" fittingly moves along at an Olympic runner's pace.

The 1936 Olympics made Owens famous, but 'American Experience'' tells us that he and other athletes supported a boycott of the Berlin Games due to the already infamous Nazi treatment of the Jews (the Nuremberg Laws had been enacted the previous year). Then-USOC president Avery Brundage, however, sympathized with the fascists and insisted the United States compete.

While the German government took down repellant propaganda (such as signs reading 'No Jews Allowed'') during the Olympics, Hitler nonetheless snubbed Owens by refusing to shake his hand after he won the 100. In another disturbing move, the U.S. dropped two Jewish sprinters, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, from the 4x100 relay the morning of the race. A historian in the documentary said the Americans bowed to Nazi pressure to not have Jews compete (Glickman blamed Brundage for the decision). Owens was a reluctant replacement in the relay, where he won his fourth gold.

Just as interesting is what happens to Owens after the Olympics. Owens was a hero when he came home from Berlin, but national acclaim didn't come with the financial rewards it does today. This was long before endorsement money and reality TV offered gold medalists opportunities to cash in on their performances. For that matter, Olympians still could not be paid. There was no 'Dancing with the Stars" for Owens. With few financial opportunities and needing to provide for his family, Owens wound up racing against horses to pay the bills.

As we get ready to root for Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, the U.S. Olympic basketball team and others in London this summer, 'Jesse Owens: American Experience" is a compelling reminder that Owens should still be remembered among the greatest Olympians of all time, if not the greatest.

PHILADELPHIA -- Track is the ultimate soloist's sport, where early-season results, especially early-season relay results, really don't matter.

But that did nothing to dim the smiles on the faces of American athletes at Saturday's Penn Relays, where the United States opened the London Olympics lead-up outdoor season in dominant fashion.

Led by meet-record efforts on the part of its female sprinters, the U.S. won all six races in the U.S. vs. the World competition, and that 6-0 tally didn't begin to describe the cold American grip on the chilly day's events.

"A great start to the year," said Allyson Felix, who helped set meet marks in the women's 4x100 and 4x400-meter relays. “We're getting the chemistry going, saying that we're here and we want to do well, and every time we step on the track we want to win."

The world never really had a chance. Felix and her partners in the 4x100 -- starter Tianna Madison, third-leg Bianca Knight and anchor Carmelita Jeter -- were nearly flawless on their baton passes in a record-setting 42.19-second trip around the track. Even more impressive: The crew had never worked together until the day before the meet, and Jeter and Knight hardly practiced at all.

"We just knew we'd get each other the stick," Jeter said. Added Knight, "We just did two handoffs [Friday] and I said, 'That's it. It'll work. Don't worry about it.'"

They didn't look worried at all, as Jeter, the world champion at 100 meters, finished more than a full second ahead of Jamaica, the Americans' chief rival. Whether that will worry the Jamaicans this early in the season is a matter of some debate.

"If they knew we just put this together yesterday," Knight said, "then they might be a little nervous."

The oft-jinxed men's 4x100 squad also looked smooth, as Mike Rodgers, Justin Gatlin, Doc Patton and Walter Dix ran a 38.4-second lap and trounced a Jamaican squad that was minus superstars Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and Asafa Powell.

It was more of the same in the 4x400 relays. American women Francena McCorory, Felix, Natasha Hastings and Sanya Richards-Ross won in a meet-record 3:21.18, about 40 meters ahead of the field.

The usually dominant U.S. men's quarter-milers, meanwhile, were their usually dominant selves. After solid legs by Calvin Smith and intermediate hurdlers Angelo Taylor and Bershawn Jackson, LaShawn Merritt essentially toyed with the opposition, stalking and waiting until the final straightaway to glide past the Bahamas for the victory. "I wanted to make it exciting," he said.

The only true excitement Saturday came in the women's sprint medley and men's distance medley relays. In the women's race, American 800-meter runner Maggie Vessey surged off the final curve to overtake Great Britain's Marilyn Okoro in front of the frenzied Franklin Field crowd. Later in the afternoon in the distance medley, Leo Manzano of the USA Blue team beat the USA Red team's Bernard Lagat in the last lap of the final 1,600-meter leg.

The U.S. attributed the unprecedented sweep to, of all things, teamwork.

"We all get along," Patton said of the current crop of American sprinters. "There's no egos on this team anymore."

That's different from in the past, Gatlin said.

"Not taking away anything from previous relay teams from the United States," he said, about to take something away from them, "there's no prima donnas, there's no fighting for the anchor leg. We know what our positions are; we know what we're good at; and we specialize in our positions and get the stick around as quick as possible."

The U.S. will need all of the above to have any prayer of beating the Jamaicans at full strength. But despite it being early in the season (and despite the notable absences), the Americans must have felt good circling the track, wearing the stars and stripes in one of Ben Franklin's old haunts and celebrating being the feistiest and fastest bunch, at least for one day.

As Jackson put it, "London here we come."

PHILADELPHIA -- Slowly, steadily, Justin Gatlin continues his efforts to shed unwanted baggage.

The American heads into the Penn Relays on Saturday ready to take on the world, literally, in the USA vs. the World 4x100 relay at Franklin Field. And the fallen star is lighter in both body and spirit than he's been in years.

"I weighed 183 when I won my gold in '04," Gatlin said Friday, referring to his 100-meter victory at the Athens Olympics. "I'm 183 again."

He was a champion again after winning a world indoor title last month in Istanbul when he bested Jamaica's Nesta Carter in the 60-meter final.

It's a far cry from two years ago, when Gatlin was a 210-pound has-been, beginning a comeback from a four-year IAAF doping ban for elevated testosterone levels. After the triumph in Istanbul, he admitted to worrying during his exile that he'd never again be relevant in the sport. First, Tyson Gay rose in Gatlin's absence to dominate the U.S. and world stage in 2007; a year later, Jamaica's Usain Bolt broke records and attained heights of human performance never seen before.

But Gatlin's 2012 indoor season captured people's attention, and even has his competition in a forgiving mood. Bolt's coach, Glen Mills, said on a conference call this week, "I don't believe that somebody should be sentenced to death or banned for life," and that Gatlin's world title "indicates he is back to the level where he was."

Gatlin didn't plot his path to prominence this way. He hired former U.S. sprint star Dennis Mitchell as his coach in November and began the winter with a specific focus.

"I just wanted to work on my start," he said Friday. "I wanted to get the first part of my race together. I wasn't even thinking about world championships or nationals or anything like that. I just wanted to get a couple of races in and prep myself for the outdoor season."

But Mitchell, whom Gatlin called "a taskmaster, a perfectionist," altered his thinking. If Gatlin was running indoors, Mitchell told him, then he'd have to run in the world championships. And if he was running at worlds, he was winning the gold medal.

Never mind that Gatlin hadn't competed in the 60 meters since his teens; he set about critiquing his start and, at Mitchell's urging, working on "every little movement." He succeeded so well, he found himself on the podium in Istanbul.

That attention to detail matters a lot more in the Bolt era.

"The margin is smaller, and the age of running away from the field is probably past us," Gatlin said.

Since Bolt's record-setting explosion, which has seen the 6-foot-5 Jamaican lower the 100-meter record three times, from 9.74 to 9.58, "you have a lot of athletes who've passed the 'wow' factor, the shock factor of, like, a 9.85 or 9.6 or even 9.5," Gatlin said. "And they're looking at it like, 'Hey, if he can do it, I can do it.'"

Still, the Rip Van Winkle of track, who woke up from his doping ban in a completely changed world, said he doesn't think anyone could have imagined Bolt's times back in 2004.

"You'd have some people say, 'You know, somebody could run 9.5,'" Gatlin said, "but they could never tell you how."

Now everybody knows. Gatlin even had a historical analogy. Decades ago, he said, "it was so improbable to send rockets into space. And now it's like, oh well, every other month we're sending things above the atmosphere to observe stuff."

It hasn't exactly been a rocket ride for Gatlin, but these days, the man who fell to earth seems to be enjoying his journey back into rarefied air.

It was a match race from the get-go Sunday morning for both the men and the women in the New York City Half-Marathon, as pairs of front-runners bolted out at the start and reserved the finish for a party of two. Kenya's Peter Kirui pulled away from Ethiopia's Deriba Merga after emerging from a tunnel with roughly 600 meters to go to win in 59:39. Firehiwot Dado of Ethiopia, winner of last November's New York City Marathon, made her move in the same spot and gapped New Zealand's Kim Smith down the stretch, clocking 1:08:35.

The three U.S. Olympic marathon team members who started in chilly, damp conditions regarded the race as more of a checkpoint than a goal, a way to gauge their recovery from the Olympic marathon trials in Houston two months ago.

Kara Goucher finished third here for the second consecutive year, but her mindset couldn't have been more different. Twelve months ago, she was still trying to climb out of feeling "like a woman who had just given birth" -- which she in fact was, having delivered son Colton in September 2010.

Goucher arrived pressure-free, relaxed and ready to run an assertive race. She didn't try to go with the blistering early pace set by Dado and Smith, but about four miles in, running with a mixed pack of men and women, she decided to push and soloed the rest of the way.

"I was hoping there would be some kind of carnage from the men's race to be able to bridge to Kim,'' she said. That never happened, but Goucher said she was excited to have been able to bring it home by herself in 1:09:12. "I had a lot more fun this year," she said.

On April 1, Goucher will head for Mammoth Lakes, Calif., for a little more than a month of pure base training at altitude -- a new approach for her leading into London, and one she said she welcomes.

Fellow Olympic team member Desiree Davila said she felt somewhere between having a lot of work to do and being pleasantly surprised with her ninth-place finish in 1:10:44, 10 seconds off her personal best.

"This is really a starting point for me,'' said Davila, who took two weeks off after Houston and is in the midst of speed work at her training base in suburban Detroit. She plans to run the 10,000-meter event at the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford University on April 29 and won't begin her true marathon buildup until May.

Meb Keflezighi, who won the trials in Houston, found himself unable to keep pace with a chase pack that fragmented in the late going and crossed the finish line in 1:01:41.

"That's what the marathon does to you,'' he said, smiling. He called the result "a good benchmark."

NEW YORK -- When USA Track and Field sprinters Walter Dix and Carmelita Jeter line up in the starting blocks in London this summer, they'll do so wearing recycled plastic bottles. Marathoner Abdi Abdirahman will wear running shoes that look like they were crocheted by grandma. That, of course, is a simplistic way of describing some of the most high-tech, sustainable, performance apparel and footwear Nike has developed to date.

On Day 1 of a two-day Olympics innovation summit held at Basketball City in New York City, Nike revealed innovations in basketball and running, including the uniforms that will be worn by the U.S. men's and women's basketball teams and track athletes in all events. (See photos below.)

The most attention-grabbing piece in Tuesday's collection was the Pro TurboSpeed track suit, dubbed the fastest track uniform Nike has ever built. According to Nike, the suit is reportedly .023 seconds faster over 100 meters than the company's previous uniform, according to wind tunnel data. It comes in a one-piece, full-body suit, a two-piece option and shorter styles for athletes in longer distances.

"When designing these uniforms, we always start with the athletes," said Martin Lotti, Nike's Olympics innovation director. "They are always looking for a competitive advantage and we gave them just that in a suit that is faster than skin. How much faster is astonishing. It's not just the difference between first and second, but the difference in even making the podium."

Of course, when talking about suits that are astonishingly "faster than skin," questions arise as to the legality of such suits and the debate over what constitutes performance enhancement begins.

"We are following all the rules and guidelines, so it is a legal suit," Lotti said. "The U.S. federation, U.S. Track and Field goes through the approval process with [the International Association of Athletics Federations], not us, and it is approved."

Lotti said it is his job to enhance athlete performance.

"It's no different than giving athletes a lighter shoe," he said. "That has been the endeavor of Nike since the beginning. We are here to enhance the athlete's performance. And at the end of the day, we give them this tiny advantage to win, but the heavy work comes from the athlete."

The suits are made with 82-percent recycled polyester fabric, which is made from recycled plastic bottles. The bottles are reduced to fine pellets, which are then made into a yarn that is spun into material. It takes an average of 13 bottles to create enough yarn for one uniform. The basketball uniforms are made from an average of 22 bottles and are 41-percent lighter than the uniforms worn at the 2008 Beijing Games.

The distance-running shoes are constructed using Nike Flyknit technology, which is exactly what it sounds like. The shape and structure of the shoe's upper is knitted by machine using a variety of yarns and fabric threads. There is zero waste and the shoe weighs only 5.6 ounces. It is also 19-percent lighter than the shoe worn by the gold, silver and bronze medalists in the men's marathon at the 2011 World Championships.

"I have to look down at my feet to know if I'm still wearing shoes," Abdirahman told a group of more than 300 international journalists Tuesday morning. "It feels like I'm wearing socks."

BOSTON -- With Super Bowl hoopla sucking up the sports oxygen on the East Coast this week, there still were more than a few people in the region (many with great VO2 maxes, no doubt) just as excited by the recent start of the track and field season.

They showed up en force for the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix here Saturday night, with the crowd of 4,072 marking the eighth straight sellout of the event at the Reggie Lewis Center on the Roxbury Community College campus.

The bustling meet at the Reggie, together with the previous week's inaugural U.S. Open at Madison Square Garden in New York, produced a few revelations as the sport limbers up for the Olympic year:

1. Schism for some, opportunity for others

Madison Square Garden and its longest-running event, the Millrose Games, finalized an ugly divorce last year. After 98 years in the world's greatest sports arena, Millrose took its starting blocks uptown to the fast track at Manhattan's 168th Street Armory, where the venerable games will be held Saturday.

USA Track & Field, the sport's governing body, decided it still wanted a meet at the Garden and hastily put together its own show on Broadway.

Suddenly, athletes had a chance to compete in three East Coast meets in successive weeks, and they liked it. Hurdler David Oliver, the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist who trains in Kissimmee, Fla., said the three-week East Coast swing gives him a chance to maintain a fairly regular training schedule by avoiding long flights to European meets. He's coming off a pelvic injury that hindered him at the end of last season, and the bang-bang-bang schedule is allowing him to gauge his recovery and focus on a different aspect of his race each week. In Boston, he concentrated on his arm action, which was good enough to earn the win in the 60-meter hurdles in 7.60 seconds.

Whether the regional track fan base will support the three-race minicircuit remains to be seen, but the early signs are positive. The Open drew 5,844 to the Garden, many of them Jamaican ex-pat fans who came to see Veronica Campbell-Brown and Asafa Powell win their 50-meter sprints. It was less than a third of the building's capacity, but it wasn't the attendance disaster some predicted for the event, and the atmosphere was loud and lively.

The same could be said for the New Balance meet. The crowd packed the small Lewis center with Boston's running clubs and members of the area's large Ethiopian diaspora community. The latter group came away happy once again, as national heroines Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba easily won the 3,000 meters and 2-mile run, respectively.

2. Lolo on a high

Of course, it wouldn't be track if there weren't a few kinks in the marketing system. At the U.S. Open, some boisterous male fans doffed their tops to reveal the message "We love Lolo" painted on their chests, an homage to popular hurdler Lolo Jones. The reward for their enthusiasm? They were escorted from their seats by security.

Luckily, the Garden muscle didn't remove Jones, who had the most electrifying moment of the Open with a victory over a rugged 50-meter hurdles field that included defending Olympic champion Dawn Harper and 2011 U.S. national champion Kellie Wells. Jones, who had surgery to correct a spinal defect last fall and saw her 2011 season cut short, went into the meet wondering about her career. She left with a huge smile, momentum that carried her to a meet record in Moscow this past weekend and a loud message that she's ready to be a factor in what will be one of the most contested events in London.

3. Travels, and travails, with Mo and Kip

One of the most hotly contested races at last year's world championships was the 5,000 meters, in which England's Mo Farah edged American Bernard "Kip" Lagat for the gold. Both pronounced themselves in great shape coming into the indoor season, taking time to train in Kenya over the winter and running a mile indoors to test their fitness over the past two weeks.

Lagat ran in the Open and went into the race a favorite based on his glorious history running the Millrose Wanamaker Mile in the same building. But he has been training solely for the 5,000 this year, got no help from the race's sluggish rabbit and didn't have quite enough speed at the end to outmaneuver young Kenyan Silas Kiplagat. Lagat turned in a slow time of 4:00.92 behind Kiplagat (4:00.65).

Farah ran the New Balance meet and finished his mile in fourth behind Ireland's Ciaran O'Lionaird, who trains with Farah under the tutelage of Alberto Salazar. But that told only half the story; the Brit showed grit when he was tripped in the first lap of the race, hit the deck and was trod upon by about half of the field. Undaunted, Farah got back up, caught the pack and held on for a personal record of 3:57.92 behind O'Lionaird's 3:56.01.

Advantage, Farah. But Lagat steps up to the 5,000 this week at the Armory, which might paint a truer picture of his early form.

4. Kids these days

Although knowledgeable Caribbean track watchers were well aware of 400-meter runner Kirani James' potential, the ex-Alabama NCAA star from Grenada surprised everyone by upsetting defending Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt at the world championships in Daegu, South Korea, last year and becoming, at 18, the youngest 400-meter titlist in history.

At Boston, he won easily in a time of 45.96, best in the world so far in the young season. Although he turned pro last year, James is staying with what works. He's still being coached by Harvey Glance, who recruited him to Bama, and living and training in Tuscaloosa. Why mess with a good thing? If all goes to plan, James will break the streak of American Olympic 400 gold medalists that dates back to 1980.

5. Strong silent type

The best performance of the first two weeks? That belongs to Jenn Suhr, the U.S. pole vaulter ranked No. 1 in the world in 2011. On Saturday in Boston, Suhr set an American indoor record of 16 feet. But the upstate New Yorker, known as Jenn Stuczynski when she won silver at the 2008 Olympics, didn't speak to the media after the event, so the public wasn't privy to how she went from no-heighting in New York to a spectacular performance over the weekend.

Suhr, who is married to her coach, Rick Suhr, has had issues with the media in the past, but at a time when the sport needs all the promotion it can get, skedaddling after a record-setting performance is like, well, no-heighting.

U.S. Track and Field released the full list of participants for the U.S. Open event on Jan. 28 at Madison Square Garden in New York:

The inaugural U.S. Open kicks off the USATF's Visa Championships Series and will be broadcast on Jan. 29 on ESPN2 (7 p.m. ET).

Here's a look at the field:

Men's events

50 meters: Trell Kimmons (USA), Kimmari Roach (JAM), Asafa Powell (JAM), Justin Gatlin (USA), Daniel Bailey (ANT), Nesta Carter (JAM).

600 yards: Bershawn Jackson (USA), Renny Quow (TRI), Greg Nixon (USA), Tabarie Henry (UVI).

Mile: Bernard Lagat (USA), Silas Kiplagat (KEN), Henok Legesse (ETH), Daniel Komen Kipchirchir (KEN), Anthony Famiglietti (USA), Matt Elliott (USA).

50-meter hurdles: Aries Merritt (USA), David Oliver (USA), Terrence Trammell (USA), Jeff Porter (USA), Dwight Thomas (USA), Omo Osaghae (USA).

Shot put: Christian Cantwell (USA), Adam Nelson (USA), Ryan Whiting (USA), Cory Martin (USA).

High Jump: Jesse Williams (USA), Dusty Jonas (USA), Jamie Nieto (USA), Jim Dilling (USA).

Women's events

50 meters: Bianca Knight (USA), Veronica Campbell-Brown (JAM), Alexandria Anderson (USA), Tehesia Harrigan (IVB), Jessica Young (USA), Gloria Asumnu (NGR).

500 yards: Monica Hargrove (USA), Jasmine Chaney (USA), Keshia Baker (USA), Davita Prendergast (JAM).

800 meters: Ajee Wilson (USA), Fantu Magiso (ETH), Jessica Smith (CAN).

Mile: Anna Pierce (USA), Stephanie Garcia (USA), Lauren Hagans (USA), Brenda Martinez (USA).

50-meter hurdles: Kellie Wells (USA), Lolo Jones (USA), Dawn Harper (USA), Tiffany Porter (GBR), Nia Ali (USA), Ginnie Crawford (USA).

Pole vault: Jenn Suhr (USA), Becky Holliday (USA), Jillian Schwartz (ISR), Lacy Jansen (USA), Mary Saxer (USA), Janice Keppler (USA).

Pssst. Want to bet on Olympians? Now you can.

Well, sort of. Thanks to Charity Bets, you can put your money on a top athlete. You just won't win any money. But you'll win something better -- the knowledge that you're helping a good cause.

For example, go to the organization's website this week and you can place a bet on 2004 Olympic silver medalist Meb Keflezighi's goal to finish in the top three of this weekend's U.S. marathon trials in Houston. You could place any amount (say $100) on "The Over" he accomplishes his goal and any amount (say $5) on "The Under'' that he doesn't. Under those circumstances, if he qualifies, he goes to the Olympics and you give his charity, the Meb Foundation, the $100. If he finishes fourth or lower, he stays home this summer and his charity gets only the $5 you wagered on that outcome.

As if there wasn't already enough pressure competing for one of just three spots on the Olympic team.

"They bet for you or against you, to contribute money to a great cause. It gives you motivation to push harder and harder," said Keflezighi, who started the Meb Foundation in November 2010 to promote education and fitness. "To represent your country is a great honor, but to not just represent your country but to also help other people out is even better."

Keflezighi is not the only elite athlete you can bet on. Charity Bets co-founder Dave Maloney says U.S. sprinter Walter Dix, who finished second to Usain Bolt in the 100 and 200 at the track and field world championships in Daegu, South Korea, this past summer, will participate, as well. So will Justin Gatlin, who won the gold medal in the 100 at the 2004 Olympics, and 2004 Olympian Khadevis Robinson, among other runners.

Robinson said he had a few qualms at first because it involved betting, but once he learned how it worked, he was all on board.

"For me, it is a win/win for everyone," he said. "The two things that it does that I believe in is that it will, A, bring more publicity and promote the sport of track and field, and, B, provide an opportunity to raise money and help charities and foundations."

Robinson said his charity will be the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

This is sort of like fantasy football or baseball, in that it provides a financial interest in how a particular athlete fares. The big difference, of course, is instead of winning $200 and bragging rights with your friends, you're helping someone's education or health. Which is a whole lot better than that silly trophy you get for winning your fantasy league.

People don't need to bet on someone else, though. You can set up your own athletic event -- a 10K, a marathon or a century ride -- and get friends to bet charitable amounts on your outcome. They can bet on you reaching your goal or bet against you.

If you decide to bet on Keflezighi this weekend, bear in mind he is coming off a personal best in the New York City Marathon in November and says he is feeling good.

"The marathon is 26.2 miles, so a lot of things can go wrong, but also right," he said. "I'm 36, I've made the trials twice, but you have to do it that day."

The Olympics are still six months and three weeks away, so there's still a little time to order a copy of Michael Phelps' "London on 10,000 Calories a Day" guidebook. The U.S. Olympic trials season, however, is just about to heat up.

Mark the following events and dates on your 2012 Mayan calendar if you want a head start on crushing all opponents in your Olympics Fantasy League.

(Disclaimer: This isn't all of the trials since some sports don't have them, but this list is a lot to put on your plate without also explaining the selection process for the modern pentathlon team.)

Jan. 14: Marathon

Begin the long, grueling season of Olympic athlete trials and qualifications with -- what else? -- the marathon in Houston. The U.S. women may have their deepest field ever, including Desiree Davila, Kara Goucher, Shalane Flanagan and 38-year-old Deena Kastor. On the men's side, Ryan Hall is the favorite, but don't rule out 36-year-old 2004 silver medalist Meb Keflezighi, who set a personal record in the recent ING New York City Marathon. By the way, top marathoners average just under five-minute miles. For 26.2 miles. You'd be lucky to average that in Houston at rush hour in a car.

Jan. 19-29: Women's soccer qualifying tournament

Sadly, Hope Solo's "Dancing with the Stars" season finished shy of the coveted mirror ball. If she wants a shot at adding another Olympic gold medal to her collection, she and the rest of the U.S. women must first secure a spot. A field of eight countries from the Americas will compete in Vancouver, British Columbia, for two slots in London. The United States is in Group B with Mexico, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, but another interesting story should be Group A in which Haiti will face Canada, Cuba and Costa Rica. Let's just hope Vancouverites don't burn down the city if Canada doesn't qualify.

Feb. 13-19: Women's boxing

Qualifying for the Olympics is a two-step process for the U.S. women. Boxers must win the trials in Spokane, Wash., in February. Then those boxers must finish among the top eight in the three weight classes at the world championships in China in May. This will be the first time women's boxing will be on the Olympic calendar.

March 22-April 2: Men's soccer qualifying tournament

Because of the age restrictions, men's Olympic soccer isn't viewed as big a deal as it is for the women. But can Freddy Adu and his teammates grab the spotlight away from the women with a medal? Well, the Americans will first have to get there. The qualifying rounds will be played in Nashville, Tenn., and Carson City, Calif., before the semifinals and final March 31 and April 2 in Kansas City, Kan. Don't drip your scarves in the barbecue.

April 21-22: Wrestling

In addition to the usual hopefuls, there are two possible wrestlers who could make this event very interesting. Both 2000 gold medalist/"Biggest Loser" competitor Rulon Gardner and 1996 gold medalist/pro wrestler Kurt Angle have said they will attempt to make the team. A slimmed-down Gardner is working at the Olympic training center, while Angle is training on his own. No chairs, please, Kurt.

Late spring, basketball roster selections

The Olympic spots are set, it's just a matter of hearing the final rosters. The men are coming off gold in 2008, while the women are 33-0 in the Olympics dating back to 1992. BTW: If men's coach Mike Krzyzewski needs a vowel, he can buy it from women's coach Geno Auriemma.

(Read full post)

How come this sort of thing never happens to us?

The London Olympic organizing committee accidentally sold twice as many tickets to synchronized swimming as were available. Yes, it's true. There are not only people who will actually pay to watch synchronized swimming, but there are more than can fit into the arena. In fact, there were 10,000 more of them beyond capacity.

The interesting thing is that London is making up for the mistake by offering those fans tickets to other events instead, including the 100-meter final. Imagine buying tickets for synchronized swimming and receiving the 100 final due to a computer mistake? That's like buying tickets to see Michael Bolton and having U2 play instead because he had laryngitis.

Now, many of those people who bought the synchronized swimming tickets either were just looking for any Olympic event that was available or were under the impression Martin Short was competing for Canada. Either way, they will be very happy to watch Usain Bolt run instead.

But there are also some die-hard synchronized fans who are going to be very put out if they wind up with the 100 meter, the 100 freestyle or the gold-medal basketball game instead.

I don't care about the world's fastest man! I want to see Russia's Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermak repeat their stunning gold-medal twists and twirls to Edvard Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suite!"

And that Michael Phelps doesn't wear nearly enough glitter!

Meanwhile, we'll just have to cross our fingers that the committee made the same mistake with our rhythmic gymnastics tickets.

Sprinter John Carlos won the bronze medal in the 200 meters at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, but he is remembered less for that than for what happened afterward when he and teammate Tommie Smith took the medal stand. The pair stepped onto the podium shoeless as a symbol of African-Americans' historical poverty, and, when the national anthem played, they bowed their heads and thrust black-gloved fists to the sky.

The gesture was widely viewed as a black power salute, but Carlos says their raised fists were a protest against injustice and inequality around the world regardless of race or ethnicity. The salutes cost them -- ultraconservative IOC president Avery Brundage, who raised no protest against the Nazis in the 1936 Berlin Olympics when he was president of the USOC, forced their removal from the Olympic Village. They also received death threats.

Carlos continued to race after the Olympics, briefly played pro football and later coached track at the high school level. Now 66 years old and still very outspoken against the injustices he sees, he recently finished his autobiography with Dave Zirin, "The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World."

Carlos talks about the book, the fist salute, Jackie Robinson, the apathy of current athletes, the Occupy Wall Street movement and the superpower he would most like to have:

Q: What prompted you to write the book now?

A: I felt like I was getting old and that it was time to have something coming from me, for my kids and grandkids. There are so many stories about me. I just wanted people to know who I am before leaving this world and the time was right.

Q: What do you think your image was in this country after the fist salute?

A: They thought I was a fire-spitting dragon who hated white people, who hated America. Nothing could have been further from the truth. I was just concerned with right and wrong.

Q: How did that salute change your life?

A: I think it just gave me more visibility in what I've done. It hasn't changed my life. Had that not happened, I would have done the same thing I've done in my life -- I just wouldn't have gotten noticed for it. As far as becoming an icon, that's something that you and others brought on me.

Q: Are athletes more or less outspoken than in your day?

A: They're far less outspoken today. That is a good question that you have to ask them.

Q: I think of your salute and then I think of Michael Jordan and the Dream Team using the flag to cover up another sponsor's logo.

A: It's about the dollar. We went out there for humanity and they went for a fistful of dollars.

Q: Which modern athletes do you admire?

A: Steve Nash. Woodson. [Michael] Strahan. Those athletes have made statements in regards to their social and economic standing in relation to others. And of the older athletes, Jim Brown, of course. Bill Russell. Kareem. Ali. Jackie Robinson.

Q: How did you meet Jackie?

A: When I was a kid. The first memory was when my father introduced him to me. I grew up in Harlem where my father had a shoe shop and Jackie and other players came into his shop. They would play cards. The bottom line is when I met Jackie Robinson it was as my father's friend. Later on, I saw "The Jackie Robinson Story," and Jackie starred as himself in that, and I made the connection with this man being my father's friend. As a youngster going to a movie, they turn the lights down and you want to play and have fun. Then the movie starts and you realize you've met this man, so you want to pay attention and learn. I learned that he went to UCLA, that he served in the armed forces, how he crossed the color line and integrated baseball and became a sacrificial lamb to open the door for everyone else.

Q: How have the Olympics changed since 1968?

A: The way the Olympics have changed is they freed up the money. They let some of the athletes have some money. They let the kids have some money.

I don't think of it as a positive or a negative, it's just the way it is. It's an opportunity to make money. [Back in 1968], they kept us on a tightrope, giving us $2 a day. You would go into the stadium and they would have 80,000 people there and they gave you $2. Most of the guys were married and had responsibilities. We had to represent America but we thought America was not stepping up to the table. It wasn't a racial or ethnic thing. This was across the board, white kids and black kids.

Q: You've spoken at a number of Occupy Wall Street gatherings. What did you say?

A: I told them, why was I there? I am there for them. After 43 years, we're still fighting for the same issues: Equality. For everyone to be able to go to college and get a decent job and flourish in America. Before, it was black people because we were the lowest man on the totem pole, so to speak. Now the circle has widened so much that it includes every ethnic group. They're all wondering whether I will have a job tomorrow, will I be able to pay the mortgage, whether my child can go to college and whether they can pay for college. And the kids out there are not from poor families. They're from wealthy families but they're rebelling. They're saying to their parents, "We had a great life and if you had shared more, more people could have had a great life, too."

Q: I'm in Minnesota today where the owner of the Vikings is looking for a $1.25 billion stadium. What is your opinion of the super-rich owners complaining about high taxes, then demanding public subsidies -- and higher taxes?

A: He wants to put the bill on the back of those people he's fighting against. He wants the stadium and he wants you to pay for it. That's what people are saying -- enough is enough.

Q: Will the movement make a real change?

A: I think anyone who puts up a fight long enough can make a change. If you look at the word consistency, consistency will make change regardless of what you're fighting for.

Q: Finally, this is a question I ask everyone -- Which superpower would you most want to have? The strength of 100 men, the ability to fly, turn invisible or have the speed of Mercury?

A: That’s a hard one, bro. If I was invisible I could get into a lot of things and straighten them out. But when you say the strength of 100 men -- do you mean the strength of 100 men to come together and unify? I would do that, but if it's just brute strength to hold up a building or something, I don't need that.

The first of the Flight 93 family members to commit to the New York City Marathon was last to finish Sunday, but Kiki Homer was as happy as if she'd been on an Olympic podium.

Thanks to the overnight shift to standard time, it was dark when Homer jogged over the line in Central Park at 5:35 p.m., 7 hours,14 minutes after she'd started on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Folded in her fanny pack was a banner with photos of those lost -- including her brother, LeRoy, the first officer -- in a crash in Shanksville, Pa., on 9/11 after passengers tried to overcome the terrorists who had hijacked the plane. All the Flight 93 runners signed the banner, which was carried by another family member in the 2002 NYC Marathon.

Homer, who alternated walking and running, received encouragement and high-fives from lots of fans along the way and was greeted by New York Road Runners president Mary Wittenberg at the finish. Afterward, with her tinfoil blanket still tied around her waist and her finisher's medal around her neck, Homer said the tragedy has had one silver lining. "I've seen the beauty in people over and over and over again,'' she said. "As we work through the challenge of getting the memorial built, my takeaway is how beautiful the power of collective effort is.''

The runners raised approximately $30,000 through direct pledges for ongoing construction and development of the Shanksville memorial.

Here's how the rest of the Flight 93 team fared:

Jennifer Glick, the older sister of passenger Jeremy Glick, wrote "Brave" on her left hand and "Heart" on her right to remind herself of one of Jeremy's favorite movies, and put her hands together when she felt about to falter.

That wasn't often. The "Glick Chicks" -- Jennifer and her three sisters-in-law -- had a huge family support group that gathered at three points along the course to urge them on.

"I actually physically feel so much better than I thought I would,'' said Glick, who finished her first marathon in 5:16:04. "I sprinted the last two miles. It felt like someone was pushing us.''

Alongside her was Jen Bucco Glick, who is married to brother Jared and had never run at all before a year ago. She knew she had trained properly but still had butterflies at the start.

"The hardest part was right after the finish,'' she said. She and Jennifer slowed down to pick up their medals, then had to stop in a logjam of people. "I can’t describe the pain,'' Jen said. "My whole body began to lock up, and I was on the brink of tears.'' Nonetheless, she called the experience "amazing" and said she's game to run another marathon.

Jeremy's widow Lyz Best and sister-in-law Kristen Glick also ran in tandem. They found themselves in tears between Mile 17 and Mile 18 on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where both previously lived; Best scrolled through memories of Jeremy and herself taking their dog to play in Central Park. "Then, I got renewed energy and picked up the pace,'' she said.

About two miles from the finish, Lyz suddenly kicked herself into another gear. "I can be a fierce runner when I want to,'' she told Kristen, an experienced distance runner who had deliberately slowed her pace to stay with Lyz, a marathon rookie. They thanked each other as they crossed the line in 5:40:59.

Dale Nacke probably shouldn't have run, and wouldn't have if this were any other race, but he was determined to honor his older brother, Joey. Nacke has been fighting a painful iliotibial (IT) band injury in one knee and took a cortisone shot to relieve the swelling. That seemed to be effective, but a few days before the marathon, he felt pain in both feet that he suspects is plantar fasciitis.

He started the race with kinesiology tape decorating his knee and his cousin, Patrick White, at his side. But at Mile 12, "both my feet lit up,'' he said, and he knew he was going to have to walk most of the rest of the way.

Nacke reminded himself that the weeks of painful training were over and he never had to run again if he didn't want to. At Mile 23, his phone buzzed with a text from his other brother, Kenny, a police detective in Baltimore. "You can do it, only 3 miles left,'' the message said.

"That got me through,'' Dale said. "There were a lot of moments where I said 'I can’t do this,' but I could and I did.'' He and White finished together just a few minutes before Homer, in 7:11:30. Despite his ordeal, Nacke said he might lace up his sneakers again -- after he does some rehab.

"I loved the rush of everyone running around me,'' he said.

Nacke's plight inspired Emily Root Schenkel, who had been telling herself it didn't really matter if she completed the race, that her committed training was really what would have meant something to her godmother, Lorraine Bay, a flight attendant. That attitude shifted when she saw Nacke at the start. "I kept thinking, 'Dale's going to finish. I'm going to finish, if I have to walk 15 miles,''' she said.

Schenkel pinned a button bearing a smiling image of her Aunt Lorraine just below her left collarbone and tapped it softly when she felt her resolve flagging. She had to ration her emotion; when she dwelled too much on her reason for running, she had trouble breathing.

She struggled toward the end of the race but was able to regroup and regain momentum. As Schenkel approached the finish, she reached for her friend and training partner, Lee Daignault, a more seasoned runner who had adjusted her pace to accompany her. They passed under the finishing arch with hands clasped in 6:10:54.

A couple of team members decided not to run at the last minute because of injury or illness. Fifteen of the 16 starters finished the race. For the record, the fastest time -- 3:57:59 -- was logged by Heather Le Var of West Orange, N.J., the niece of Flight 93 passenger Donald Greene.