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U.S. Softball Team Denied Gold Medal

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A Tribune wire report

Published: August 22, 2008

BEIJING - With silver medals swinging from their necks, their eyes filled with tears, five members of the U.S. Olympic softball team walked to home plate and placed their cleats in the dirt.

Their Games were over, and so were their international playing careers.

With that they said goodbye to softball, the sport they played better than anyone else save for one game.

Losing for the first time since 2000, the Americans were denied a chance for a fourth straight gold medal Thursday, beaten 3-1 by Japan in softball's last appearance in the Olympics for at least eight years. Maybe forever.

Yukiko Ueno, Japan's remarkably resilient right-hander, shut down the Americans and handed them their first loss since Sept. 21, 2000, at the Sydney Games. The U.S. had won 22 in a row since then, most with outrageously lopsided scores.

Another gold was certainly within reach. Instead, they walked off Fengtai Field with their heads bowed.

"It hurts a lot," slugger Crystl Bustos said.

"You train your whole life and you want to win. You don't expect to lose."

The U.S. team never led and made two uncharacteristic errors in the seventh inning to help the Japanese add an important insurance run - one they didn't even need.

The U.S. has dominated the sport since its Olympic debut in 1996, winning all three golds, rewriting the record books and setting a standard for a sport considered too all-American by some.

It was the Americans' utter domination - they outscored the field 51-1 four years ago in Greece - that may have contributed to the International Olympic Committee's decision to drop the sport in a close vote taken in 2006.

IOC To Investigate Ages Of China's Gymnasts
The International Olympic Committee said today it had asked gymnastics officials to investigate whether the Chinese women's gymnastics team that won the gold medal had underage athletes, saying "more information has come to light."

"We've asked the gymnastics federation to look into it further," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. "If there is a question mark and we have a concern, which we do, we ask the governing body of any sport to look into it."

It was not immediately clear what new information prompted the IOC to act now, three days after the gymnastics competition ended.

Messages for the International Gymnastics Federation were not immediately returned.

Questions about the ages of at least three of the athletes on China's team have swirled for months. Online records and newspaper accounts suggest three Chinese gymnasts - He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan and Jang Yilin - could be as young as 14, but Chinese passport records show they meet the age rules. A gymnast must be 16 in an Olympic year to compete at the Games.

The IOC had said previously that it had verified the passports of all athletes competing at the games.

BASKETBALL: Diana Taurasi had 21 points and the U.S. women's team beat Russia 67-52 to advance to its fourth straight Olympic gold-medal game. The Americans will face Australia on Saturday as they try to win a fourth straight gold.

VOLLEYBALL: The U.S. women's team has advanced to the gold-medal game, defeating Cuba in three sets to guarantee the Americans their best Olympic finish since 1984.

The United States, which will play Brazil for the Olympic title Saturday, improved to 6-1 in Olympic play with the 25-20, 25-16, 25-17 victory.

WATER POLO: The Netherlands won the gold medal in women's water polo, stunning the U.S. 9-8 behind seven goals by Danielle de Bruijn. She scored the winner with 26 seconds remaining.

The Americans came to Beijing ranked No. 1, and Thursday night looked as if they might get the gold that eluded them in Sydney and Athens.

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