ESPN Olympic Sports

The Summer Olympics in London may be just around the corner, but American skiers recently got a taste of the slopes above Sochi, site of the 2014 Winter Olympics, when Russia held its first alpine World Cup races this month.

Lindsey Vonn clinched her fifth consecutive World Cup downhill title with a third-place finish there last weekend and Bode Miller finished fourth two weekends ago on what will be the 2014 Olympics downhill course. Miller told reporters at the event that the hill setup and jumps are good, but the course has too many turns.

"The Olympic downhill has to be the real thing and especially when you have such a great venue as this, it would be awesome to showcase it well," he said. "But this is way too turny for a downhill. It's borderline obnoxious for a downhill being that turny. It is tough when they've never run a race before, but I'm sure they're learning as much as we are and I'm sure they'll figure out how to use this terrain and make something special."

Vonn told reporters she liked the race hill.

"It's hard to compare this course to the other courses on the World Cup because it's so unique," she said at a press conference. "The terrain is really cool. It has everything -- side hills, traverses. It has a lot of terrain. It has flats, steeps. It has turns like a super-G, it has big, open turns. It really has everything. I don't think the jumps are too challenging for the women. I think it's good just the way it is."

Sochi is a large resort city of 400,000 on the Black Sea with a very mild winter climate with average temperatures near 50 in February. The Olympic alpine venue is located at the new resort of Rosa Khutor in the mountains above the city.

In an email to reporters, U.S. ski team media representative Doug Haney detailed how arriving there was like landing in a boom of the industrial revolution.

"Sparks flew from all directions as welders blasted train trestles, sky cranes hoisted beams, bus stops were humming. It was 8:30 p.m. Fifty thousand people have been working 'round the clock for the past year and a half building for 2014. Another 25,000 will be added to that number in the next year."

"This is the coolest hill I've ever seen for ski racing -- downhill, super-G -- it doesn't matter,'' Travis Ganong told reporters on the slope. "This hill is just awesome, top to bottom. It has really steep technical sections, really cool rolls and terrain with bank turns, and then big jumps and the mountains around here are gorgeous. The set can probably use some change before the Olympics and they'll work on that in the next couple of years, but in general this is a great hill."

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.

The day of the bus crash is a blank space in Stacy Sykora's memory. So is the week before. So are the 11 days afterward, days the three-time U.S. Olympic volleyball player spent in an intensive care unit of a Brazilian hospital, first in a medically induced coma, then conscious but with an uncertain prognosis due to her closed head injury.

That kind of amnesia is usually described as a blessing, and Sykora agreed it's probably best she doesn't have any recollection of the moment last April 12 when the Volei Futuro team bus, en route to a playoff game, skidded in a downpour and tipped over onto its side, shattering the windows and tossing the club's staff and players around like marbles in a tin can.

No one else was seriously injured. One woman had a broken arm, others were bruised and scraped. Sykora's teammates found her face down in a puddle of water. A passing driver offered to take her to the hospital. Two players accompanied her. Her condition, first reported as not serious, quickly deteriorated. Several of her friends from the U.S. national team made their way to Brazil, and the women's volleyball community held its breath.

Nine months and a thousand hours of rehab later, the 34-year-old Sykora is playing again and bears no outward sign of trauma, except that she wears more bobby pins in her hair (one side of her head was shaved and her hair is still growing out).

Her career prognosis is still uncertain, but in a telephone interview from Brazil last week, Sykora said she's "in a better mental place than I was before the accident." Her first competitive minutes since the crash came in January. She felt like she had "won the lottery ... I thought I would be nervous, but I was just so happy," she said.

Sykora will play in her accustomed libero (defensive specialist) position with Volei Futuro until April, fly to California via her home state of Texas, and rejoin the national team.

"I'll be there until I make the [Olympic] team or I don't make the team,'' she said, and sighed deeply. "First and foremost, it's about the team. Do I want to go? Yes. But I have to see how I work with this team. There are some great liberos who are fighting for the same position. ... I don't want [the accident] to be for me or against me. Regardless of what happens with me, it's going to be a great USA team."

That serenity didn't descend overnight for the Burleson, Texas, native, a two-time All-American at Texas A&M and 2008 Olympic silver medalist.

Sykora learned just how mysterious brain function can be when she emerged from a three-day coma and, she was later told, spoke Portuguese to the doctor, Italian to her agent and English to her mother at her bedside. She doesn't remember that, or learning to walk again. Her first memory is of circling a date -- April 23 -- on a calendar.

She was released from the hospital in early May, flew back to the United States and spent the summer and part of the fall shuttling between Casa Colina in Pomona, Calif., which specializes in helping patients recover from brain injuries, and the U.S. team's training base in Anaheim.

"They proved to me how important they've always been," Sykora said of her fellow players. "They helped me go from a one to a nine."

But she found it hard to fend off frustration at times. "I was big-time in the past," Sykora said. "I'd think, 'I could have dug that ball before the accident,' or 'I could have run that ball down.'"

Sykora was able to get fit relatively quickly, but her vision -- one of the things that made her a great libero -- had to be retrained like a muscle that had atrophied. A volleyball sailing through the air would sometimes disappear on her, like the moon ducking behind a cloud. Sykora had to put in long, tedious hours to regain clarity, light contrast and depth perception (and is still doing exercises five times a week). She needed ball touches, and she needed to re-map spatial relationships with her teammates on the court.

When the U.S. team traveled to the World Cup in Tokyo last October and secured an Olympic berth, Sykora wasn't yet ready to play a competitive match. She went back to Brazil and started traveling with the club again; she began dressing for games in December. And Sykora asked her Volei Futuro teammates to fill in the gaps about what had happened last April.

They told her she had been sitting on a teammate's lap, listening to music, when the bus flipped sideways. Everyone else grabbed their seats, but she went into free fall. They told her she was unconscious with her face in the water for perhaps 30 seconds, perhaps a minute; no one could be sure in the chaos of the moment. They told her how she was lifted out through a window and carried away. At one game, a man came up and introduced himself. "I'm the one who took you to the hospital," he said.

One day, boarding the team bus to go to an away match, Sykora insisted on recreating the scene and defiantly plopped down on the same teammate's legs. "I told them, 'I'm looked after now, this is not going to happen again,'" she said.

Everywhere Sykora goes, people tell her she's a walking miracle; but the true transformation has been internal, the kind of emotional depth perception that has nothing to do with 20/20 vision.

"I hope I get to 100 percent, but I'm content with where I'm at," she said. "I'm only focused on today. I don't look to the future at all. The only thing that matters, the only thing I have every day, is 24 hours to do everything I can."

Chloe Sutton turned 20 this week with a unique goal in sight. If all goes well for the next few months, she could become the first U.S. swimmer to have made Olympic teams in both open water and pool events.

Sutton, who swims for the Mission Viejo (Calif.) Nadadores club, blazed onto the open water scene at age 14 and over the next two years would win gold in the 10K at the Pan American and Pan Pacific Games and a bronze medal in the 5K at the 2008 World Championships. Sutton was the only U.S. woman to compete in the 10K race in Beijing in 2008, the first year the grueling discipline of open water was included in the Summer Games, and finished 22nd.

But by 2010, Sutton's double life was wearing thin. When she qualified for the open water worlds and the Pan Pac pool team -- events that were three weeks apart -- her coach, the venerable Bill Rose, asked where her heart was and Sutton put open water aside.

"She was never not a pool swimmer," Rose said. "Ninety-eight percent of her training was in the pool and geared for the pool." Sutton benefitted confidence-wise from her early success and grew because of her experience at the top level internationally in open water, Rose said.

Sutton has won the 400 in national and international competition and is a two-time national champion in the 800 since targeting the pool, but she's still in transition. Like many open water swimmers, she used a two-beat kick, but Rose has phased that out in favor of a six-beat kick to bump up her speed, asking her to give up her old two-beat cadence even in training. Sutton just completed that changeover and is racing both events with her revamped stroke now, but won't see what happens in a tapered meet until the Olympic trials in late June.

Rose said he thinks it will take an 8:18 to get on the Olympic podium in the 800 -- six seconds faster than Sutton's personal best, but achievable, he said.

"I have to give her so much credit," Rose said. "She has her eye on the prize. She lives the sport."

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Despite a gloomy prognosis that her recovery from a torn right ACL and MCL could take six to eight months, U.S. defender Ali Krieger said Sunday she hasn't given up on the 2012 London Olympics.

"I'm not going to give up, not going to lose hope," Krieger said after watching her teammates beat Guatemala 13-0 on Sunday at the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament. "People who have had this say everyone is different. Some people are back in four months, some people have gotten back in nine months, a year. But I'm going to stay hopeful and stay positive, and I'm pretty strong. I'm a fighter and I've been there before.

"I think I'm going to come back stronger than ever."

Krieger injured the knee in Friday's game against the Dominican Republic when an opponent collided with her plant leg. She said she knew it was bad, but didn't know it was that bad until the MRI came back Saturday.

"I didn't know it was my ACL," she said. "It didn't feel that bad, but I knew something obviously was wrong with that much pain."

Krieger said she will fly home to the D.C. area Monday and have surgery on the knee as soon as possible. "I'm going to get it done this week because I want to start that process started and try to get back. I'm still hopeful for the Olympics."

"I'm really sad for her," U.S. coach Pia Sundhage said. "She helped the team and she had a very good World Cup. That's tough for her, but at the end of the day, we can't do anything about it. The next step is to move on and find someone who can replace her. ... We need to look at it and find players to compete for that spot. But we have time, so I have no doubt in my mind. Maybe [the replacement] is already in squad, maybe she will be someone else coming in and fighting for the spot."

Krieger said her feelings have come in waves since the injury.

"It's been pretty emotional, pretty draining the past few days," she said. "This is the first time injuring my knee and it's pretty bad. Obviously, I want to be playing -- who doesn't? -- but I'm taking it pretty well. I'm staying positive and looking forward. I'm just taking one day at a time."

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Despite the record-setting score, the U.S. women's soccer team's 14-0 rout over the Dominican Republican might have come at a price. Defender Ali Krieger left the game in the first half with an injured right knee and her status for the rest of the Olympic qualifying tournament is unknown.

U.S. coach Pia Sundhage said the team won't know the full extent of Krieger's injury until it receives the MRI results Saturday.

"It's probably a serious injury, but by tomorrow we'll find out what it is," she said. "We as a team will move forward with or without her -- we just have to figure out what the deal is with her knee. We're obviously all thinking of her and wishing her nothing but success."

Krieger, who was not available for comment after the game, injured the knee when she fell awkwardly.

"She shoots and I think comes down funny on it," teammate Abby Wambach said. "With this kind of [turf] surface [at BC Place], you never know exactly what the prognosis is going to be until you get the results back from the MRI."

Wambach fell several times on her left knee and said she was happy to get a breather when Sundhage substituted Alex Morgan for her in the second half.

"We want her to last as long as we can in this tournament, which is one reason we took her out at halftime," Sundhage said. "The other reason is we have some good players on the bench."

I wasn't surprised when I saw Johnny Weir's comeback announcement. All the planets in his personal universe have aligned to make a return to competition completely logical. If he attacks his mission with all the purposefulness he promises, Weir could have the best of two worlds: Representing his country in a country he loves.

The 27-year-old Weir, long coached by Russians, speaks the language and has immersed himself in Russian culture; earlier this month, he married an Atlanta-based lawyer of Russian heritage. What better place to visualize the skate of his life than his home away from home during the 2014 Sochi Olympics?

There's another intangible. Weir has always been comfortable in his own skin, and he is a thoughtful, witty interview, but there was one area where he stubbornly asserted his right to remain silent. Now that his sexual orientation is a non-issue (as it always should have been), that's one less distraction from his goal. If he's called on to be a spokesman for gay athletes, my guess is he's ready.

I also wasn't surprised to see Weir's news go viral. There may be better jumpers and spinners among the pool of men gunning for Sochi in two years, but there is no better pure performer, and that has won him a huge and loyal fan base.

Limber and elegant, a risk-taker in his costumes and choreography, Weir's artistry is hard to fit within the rigid mathematics that now circumscribe figure skating. I thought Weir's scores in the free skate at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics were too low, and I wasn't alone. He'll have to earn his way into the stony hearts and calculators of the judges again, and that will likely involve full mastery of a quadruple jump.

There are no sure bets two years out from the next Winter Games. But I have no doubt it will be interesting to see Johnny Weir give skating another go.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The U.S. women's soccer team had an abrupt greeting when it arrived here this week for the start of the Olympic qualifying tournament. The first was snow and significantly colder than normal weather for Vancouver (it is much colder here now than it ever was during the 2010 Winter Olympics). The second was a fatal shooting in the restaurant of its hotel.

The players said they were all upstairs in their rooms when the shooting occurred Tuesday evening around 8:45 p.m. in the hotel restaurant.

"All of us were a bit scared," goalkeeper Hope Solo said Wednesday afternoon. "We all travel all around the world; big cities, small cities. It's a normal thing that crime happens. We were aware of the situation. It was scary for us, but it was handled incredibly well by the hotel staff and the police officers."

"It was a little scary at first," forward Alex Morgan said. "I've never been so close to a shooting even though we were upstairs. Everyone was taken care of really well by our general manager. We were calling down and guest services were very nice to us and telling us not to come down. The situation was handled really well.

"I don't think this affects us at all. Even though it was in our hotel, we didn't witness it, so I don't think that's going to be a problem. We were definitely a little shaken up the first moments when we heard about it."

Asked about whether the incident affected her, Solo replied: "Every experience in life affects you personally. You start to question what life is all about. You start to think about your loved ones. That's pretty normal. We know we're in a very safe place, both in Canada and up in Vancouver, and keep in mind, I live in Seattle, which is just a couple hours down south. I feel safe. The team has no second thoughts about being here or performing well in the tournament."

The eight-team tournament begins Thursday at BC Place Stadium, with the top two teams advancing to the Olympics. The United States plays its first game Friday night against the Dominican Republic.

With snow on the ground and temperatures in the 20s, midfielder Megan Rapinoe said she hopes the new retractable roof remains closed.

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).

Here are excerpts from our conversation with four-time Olympic gold medalist Janet Evans, who will make her return to elite competition after a 15-year absence this weekend at the Austin Grand Prix (you can read our full feature on Evans' comeback bid here):

Question from Bonnie D. Ford: I take it you've given some thought to what it's going to be like to be on the pool deck with all these elite swimmers again, in a swimsuit as opposed to street clothes?

Answer from Evans: It's kind of strange. It's not daunting, but it's like 'OK, wow, I'm really doing this.' I'm used to sitting up in the bleachers and coming down and saying "Hi" to them. Mark [Schubert] was teasing me the other day, because our caps are green, and I was saying, "I don't want to wear a green cap. I want to be more incognito." And Mark was like, "I don't think you're gonna be incognito. I don't think wearing a different color cap is gonna make you disappear in the crowd."

Q: Speaking of Mark, how critical was his ability and willingness to coach you to this endeavor? Could you have done this with any other coach?

A: Mark's never really left my life. He and I are very close. We understand each other very well. I think at this point, he's the only person who could have mentally -- I mean, physically, I think I know enough about myself and my body, I know how I feel in the water; physically, I think I could have trained with a lot of coaches. Mentally and emotionally, I think I needed Mark ... It's a comfortable relationship where I can tell him how I feel in the water and he understands it. I think another thing that's really helped us is that his daughter has two kids that are our kids' age, and he understands if I have to stay up with one of the kids.

Q: What are your expectations of this first meet?

A: I just want to see what I can do. I want to get up in the blocks. I would really love to make Olympic trials. I don't really have that many expectations. I just want to swim faster than I did against the Masters swimmers in June.

Q: In which event do you have a better shot of making the trials qualifying time?

A: I think maybe the 800. The 400, it depends how much speed I can find.

Q: Let's say you're successful. There's a big difference between that and then making the [Olympic] team and then being competitive at an Olympics. It's hard for me to imagine you being "just happy to be there." How are you navigating that mentally?

A: Look, I have no illusions that I'm going to jump in the pool and go an 8:25. That's OK. If I can improve dramatically from where I was in June, it's only January, I feel like the improvement continues. Every week, it goes better for me at workout. It's almost like baby steps a little bit, big baby steps because we don't have that much time. There's a medium middle ground for me that I'm going to be really happy with in Austin, and then we'll go from there. I need to go faster than I did in June, but I don't need to go an 8:25. Somewhere in there will show me the improvement, show me what I need to work on. It's been six months since June. Let's see what happens, and then we have another six months. I just have to make those trials cuts.

Q: You're swimming at a weight that's a lot closer to your teenage weight than your 1996 weight.

A: I'm higher in the water, and most importantly, my stroke is driven by my tempo, and when I'm heavier, I can't get my tempo going. That was one of Mark's big things, he said, "I always wanted to coach you at your fighting weight," which was like 100. Right now, I'm about 108. I was about 112 when this started. ... It's kind of fun to be so fit, that's the best part of it. My strength-to-weight ratio is really good. I feel really strong. I recover better when my weight's good. My tempo's really good in practice. Because my weight's down, I can spend a little more time on literally being in the weight room or swim a little more, something I wasn't able to do toward end of my career.

Q: You were very outspoken about doping back in the day and you competed against swimmers who doped. People are a lot more cynical now than they were then. Are you ready for those questions, that you can't possibly be doing this at 40 after having two kids?

A: Yeah, I totally am. But you know what, I've had that my whole life. I had people telling me I was doing drugs when I was 16 and I weighed 99 pounds, so it's inevitable. Any time an athlete reaches some level of success, people think they're not doing it naturally. Sure, I'm ready for it. I'm a girl who swam against the East Germans, so I'm hypersensitive to it, because they were cheating, as we all unfortunately know now. It's not something I've ever been interested in or wanted to try or do; it's not worth it to me. I'm ready. [Laughs] I'm ready.

Q: You had a very busy life leading up to this. What did you have to give up in order to do this?

A: My girlfriends laugh at me because sometimes I don't look pretty. I get to preschool with hair dripping wet, don't have on a stitch of makeup, in sweats. Little crazy things during the day don't go the way I want them to because I'm a little frazzled. It all works. Most of all, I miss sleep. Mark's always on me to get more sleep. But I'd rather get up early and spend time with my kids. [Corporate and motivational] speaking and all that stuff, we'll be careful the next couple of months because I'm training. I haven't had a vacation in year and a half, but that can all come later. Right now, my focus is my children and swimming and my family. Somehow, it's all clicking.

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.

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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.

Olympic hopeful Christine Jennings doesn't have to be educated about the inherent perils of open-water swimming (heat exhaustion, hypothermia, polluted water and stinging jellyfish, among others), but she never, ever imagined she'd be hurt sprinting toward a finish line on the beach.

Almost three weeks ago, Jennings emerged from the water for the homestretch of an invitational race in Rio de Janeiro that alternated swimming and running, with five repetitions of an 800-meter swim followed by a 50-meter dash on the beach. As she hoofed it to the finish on the uneven sand, Jennings felt her hyperextended right leg buckle and looked down to the horrifying sight of knee and calf twisting in opposite directions.

Brazilian television ran the footage at regular intervals for the next 24 hours. Jennings, trying to find some humor in the situation, tweeted from her hospital bed: "Who knew that breaking your leg could get you famous in another country? ... I can't watch!"

The toll for the 2010 Pan Pacific gold medalist and two-time world championship team member: fractures of the tibial plateau and fibula, and a sprained posterior cruciate ligament. The timing: lousy, since Jennings is entering a critical period in her bid to book a place on the U.S. Olympic team for the 10K open-water event.

Fellow American Alex Meyer has already qualified with a fourth-place finish at the world championships. Only one U.S. woman can join him among the elite in London by finishing in the top two at the national championships in late April and then in the top nine in an Olympic qualifying race in Portugal on June 9.

Jennings was able to fly home a day after her freak injury, then suffered through a bout of food poisoning. She recently began upper-body workouts and got into a pool this past Thursday for the first time since the accident to do some pulling with her legs in a stationary position. She's not sure when she'll be able to resume full training, but intends to carry on with her competitive plan this spring.

"The story hasn't ended yet -- it all depends on who's writing it," Jennings said by phone from the U.S. Olympic training center in Colorado Springs. "I'm going to make [rehab] my job as best I can."

Danielle Scott-Arruda, 39, is bidding to become one of a select few women to compete in volleyball in five consecutive Olympic Games. (Brazil's Hélia Rogério de Souza and Russia's Yevgeniya Artamonova-Estes are the others.) In 2008, the middle blocker helped lead the Americans to a silver medal, the team's first podium appearance since 1992.

Scott-Arruda took time off last year after the birth of her daughter, Julianne, in April. She began training again a scant four weeks later and said she never considered leaving the game. Scott-Arruda rejoined the program in the fall of 2010 and made the roster for last month's World Cup, where the team (she said the squad is perhaps the deepest she's played for) qualified for London by finishing second to host Japan.

"Having red, white and blue on my back is what motivates me," she told reporters on a conference call Monday.

Here are more excerpts:

• On playing for coach Hugh McCutcheon, who guided the U.S. men's team to Olympic gold in 2008 just days after his father-in-law was killed and mother-in-law seriously injured in a random attack early in the Beijing Games:

"It was quite a thrill to hear that he was now going to coach the women's team after he did such a good job with the men's team in getting a gold. I'm like, 'I hope we can get some of that.' ... I think he just makes sure the team is thinking about 'team' and how we can make the team better. It seems simple, but it's just a philosophy that everyone has to buy into, that you get out of 'self' and think more about 'team,' and beyond that, he adds a lot of feedback and a concept of how he likes things done, different ways he can make each player a little bit better.

"Even going for my fifth Olympics, I'm still working on little things that I can get better [at] that make the team better. He has a staff that's really well known in the sport. ... I just have to really say hats off to him [for his coaching job under difficult circumstances in 2008]. He was quite the husband and person of comfort for not only his team but for his wife during that period. With difficulty, you have to try to find some good and strength out of it, and I think he's done a good job doing that and just preparing the team for the next phase."

• On whether she expects the medal contenders to be the "usual suspects" of Brazil, Cuba, Russia and China, and how her seven years' experience playing for clubs in Brazil, where U.S. teammates Destinee Hooker and Stacy Sykora also play, may provide insight on how to beat the defending gold medalists:

"At any point, anyone can be a contender. ... Sometimes it comes down to who can make the least errors and be most efficient in the game. Germany has had a good season this year, and teams that have done well in the past that we didn't see at the World Cup are Azerbaijan, even Turkey and Serbia. The top-ranked teams can just change by a matter of points, so we just have to focus on playing our best game and be prepared for the other teams, making sure our game is crisp.

"[Playing club ball in Brazil], you do get to learn more of their tendencies. ... I'm working on making myself better so I can make good reads and get in good spots for attack, and serving tough, and just being an all-around player -- and that's going to make you successful against all the other teams. ... I haven't signed a contract yet, but looks like I will return there for this season."

• On being a new mother:

"Being a mom is so wonderful. After a hard day's training, coming home and seeing her smile, running with her long arms toward me and jumping up saying 'Hold me' ... having her and wanting her to know, even though she's so young, that I was able to come back to volleyball and play at a high level and hopefully have her see me play at a high level has been a motivation for me.

"The fact that my mom is retired and can take care of her and they're able to travel with me allows me to train and not worry about who's caring for her or whatnot. It's been a great journey, and I hope to be a good example for her and for others -- that even being older and having a child, dreams and aspirations are still attainable when you work hard and believe in yourself and other people believe in you, as well."

• On her longevity in the sport:

"I had no idea that I would continue playing this long, or even starting out that I would get a scholarship to play volleyball [at Long Beach State University] and then have the opportunity to make the national team and go to an Olympics, or have such an incredible career.

"Coming out of college, I played multiple sports. I got a fifth year in basketball but chose to go to the [volleyball] national team. It was, 'Come to the national team or don't come at all.' So, of course I went to the national team. It was a great decision, and I thank [former U.S. women's coach] Terry Liskevych for giving me the opportunity. ... I still have that spirit and passion of a rookie, but I've gained a lot of experience along the way, which I think just adds to my game.

"I'm just so excited to step on the court; when I got my jerseys this summer and had my first opportunity in the World Cup to put it on, I was taking pictures. ... I wish it wouldn't end, but eventually, of course, I will have to hang up my shoes, put them up in the closet on the shelf. Until then, I'm going to enjoy the process. I've been really blessed to physically be able to do it, and mentally I just enjoy the game."