United States preview: U.S. prefers clean team to medal supremacy

United States preview: U.S. prefers clean team to medal supremacy

The United States will try to field a clean team to defend its medal supremacy for the fourth consecutive time in the coming Beijing Summer Olympics while facing severe challenges from hosts China and Russia.

The Americans regained the lead in the gold medal table in Atlanta in 1996 when they outnumbered arch-rival Russia 44-26 in golds, and they continued dominating the table in the following Olympics held in Sydney and Athens.

The United States took 97 medals in Sydney in 2000, but athletics super star Marion Jones admitted being a dope cheater last year and was stripped of her three golds and two bronzes by IOC this year and sentenced to prison for six months.

The California-based Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, also known as BALCO, had supplied a number of high-profile sports stars from the United States and Europe with THG and growth hormones for several years.

The BALCO customers are included famous sprinters Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, runner Regina Jacobs, hammer thrower C.J. Hunter, boxer Shane Mosley and hundreds of players of American professional league, such as MLB well-known player Barry Bonds and NFL player Bill Romanowski.

Victor Conte, founder and president of BALCO, entered guilty pleas in July 2005 and was sentenced to spend four months in prison and another four on house arrest.

"The things you are hearing about are from a previous era. We're in a new era," said USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth, organizer of the 1984 summer Olympics held in Los Angeles and chaired USOC in 2004.

To rebuild the new era of the Americans' sports, Ueberroth swore solemnly to send a "clean team" to Beijing during the USOC Media Summit in Chicago this April.

"This will be a clean team," Ueberroth said. "We're proud of the progress we've made in doping. There's no way to guarantee anything, but we feel very good about this team."

The chairman said he was pleased about the relatively few positive tests at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and the world championships in 2006.

While battling the continuing problem of drugs domestically, the Americans will not give up their medal supremacy to their archrivals China or Russia this time in Beijing with ease.

"The excitement that is behind the team comes first of all with Russia, China and the US, with all three having a legitimate shot vying for at the top gold and total medal count," said Steve Roush, USOC's chief of sport performance. "I think it has created excitement around these Olympic Games that has maybe been missing for awhile."

The Americans topped the gold race with 36 in Athens four years ago while China ranked second with 32 golds, just four fewer than the U.S. Team. Russia won 92 total medals, 10 fewer than the United States.

"We're forced," said Roush. "China has an incredibly strong team. Host nations generally have home field advantage."

"We have a good team. We have a strong team. We believe that the Chinese have the strongest team," USOC chief executive Jim Scherr said.

To assure their medal supremacy in Beijing, the Americans have to count on their swimmers and track-and-fielders, who earned 53 medals in Athens Olympics in 2004.

The United States has won slightly more than half its overall medals in the last two games in swimming and track and field.

"We hope to do much better than the team in Athens," US swim coach Mark Schubert said.

As in Athens in 2004, the headliner this August in Beijing is 23-year-old swimmer Michael Phelps, who will try to win eight gold medals, one more than American legend Mark Spitz's single Games record from 1972.

"He's a performer, as the stage gets bigger, he gets better," Schubert said of Phelps.

Phelps, four world record-holder, is considered better qualified to surpass Spitz this year than four years ago, when he took six golds and two bronzes in Athens.

The American swimmers won the gold medal race by grabbing 12 gold, nine silver and seven bronze medals in Athens. In Beijing, the Americans are to take on the challenge from the Australians, Japanese and Europeans.

"This Olympic Team is one of our strongest ever than we've had in many decades," said USATF president Bill Roe. "While it would take an incredible performance to match our medal counts of recent championships, we certainly feel that this team has what it takes to again top the medal tables."

The American athletics failed to perform as well as they expected, taking 25 medals, among them eight golds in Athens in 2004.

This time they will send a 126-athlete experienced team featuring 15 Olympic medalists, 31 world outdoor championships medalists and 11 individual outdoor American record holders to Beijing.

As for a specific target for Beijing, Jill Geer, USATF director of communications said: "What we usually say is that our first goal is to stay on top of the medal table - to remain the world's No. 1 track and field team."

Among the gold hopefuls in the US Olympic lineup are also players of wrestling and shooting who collected six golds in Athens.

Teams of reigning women's world gymnastics champions, three-time softball Olympic champions and women's basketball titleholders have look of champions while a well-known NBA squad, also called "Dream Team", will recapture the gold medal in Beijing after a poor third-place showing in Athens.

"It's really the world's game. We think we're the best at playing that game," said coach Mike Krzyzewski, one of the greatest college basketball coaches. He added that his team want to finish a demanding summer with the most coveted prize - a gold medal.