Bronze Medal

RESIDENTS OF Vantage House joined members of the Howard County branch of the American Association of University Women to model spring fashions Saturday.This is the fourth year the annual show has been held at the Town Center retirement community.Serving as models were Vantage House residents Adro Puma and Dot Uhlmann. Escorting them were Starley Alford and George Hartmann, who also reside at Vantage House.Also modeling were Peg O'Rourke, a Harper's Choice resident who serves as branch president; AAUW members Mary Befacchia, Angela Beltram, Carol McAuliffe and Helen Mennitto; and nonmembers Krislin Nalwalk and Donna Olsen.

NAGANO, Japan -- U.S. women's ice hockey player Angela Ruggiero sat at the computer terminal, mesmerized."I kept clicking, 'next 10 messages, next 10 messages,' " she said. "It kept going on and on, people from all over the place."I had tons and tons. I couldn't even respond."Ruggiero knew that winning the gold medal was big. But to find out how big, all she had to do was sign on to a computer at the IBM Surf Shack in the Olympic Village.On a recent afternoon, almost all 30 terminals were in use, while a library stocked with newspapers, magazines and paperbacks across the hall was nearly empty.

ATHENS, Greece -- He stood at the end of the runway, his eyes wide in a fierce stare, screaming at himself, trying to forget the pain in his foot and to remember the motivation and emotion that had carried him to 35 world records in the pole vault.Having summoned renewed determination, Sergei Bubka of Ukraine inverted himself and seemed to shove his way over the bar at 19 feet, 8 1/2 inches yesterday. He cleared the bar easily on the way up and just avoided it with his chest on the way down.

IT'S "OLYMPIMANIA" time -- and I'm not talking about the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, where the world's greatest athletes are gathering to compete. Nope, it's the International Culinary Olympics, which will be in Berlin in September. Kitchens throughout the world are filled with more than 2,500 chefs training to compete against culinary masters, all hoping to take home a gold, silver or bronze medal.It's one of the most prestigious culinary competitions in the world, and Maryland is sending a team of eight chefs.

ATLANTA -- The opportunity was there yesterday for the U.S. men's gymnastics team. Halfway through the optional finals in the 1996 Olympics at the Georgia Dome, the upstart Americans still were hanging around, still in the hunt for a bronze medal and a measure of respect.When it was over last evening, the U.S. team gained respect but missed out on a medal.The Americans were thrown by the pommel horse.The team's two best -- four-time national champion John Roethlisberger and Mihai Bagiu -- fell off, and the United States fell out of medal contention.

CAL RIPKEN JR.'S stirring consecutive games record last year? Makes us salivate for Opening Day. Magic Johnson's comeback from his HIV-related retirement? Inspirational. But it was another local sports story this winter that for us exemplified the meaning of sports heroism.Hamisi Amani-Dove, a 22-year-old soccer player from Columbia, played in the U.S. Olympic Festival in Denver last summer. As reported in a story by Laura Barnhardt in The Sun for Howard recently, Mr. Amani-Dove was coming off the field, fresh from receiving a bronze medal for his team's effort.

ATLANTA -- The Dream Team debate is certain to heat up now. The USA baseball team won the bronze medal at the XXVI Olympiad yesterday and -- in doing so -- provided another compelling argument for the use of professional players in 2000.There is little question that the United States would field the best team in the world if major-leaguers were eligible for the Olympics and a format was created that did not conflict with the major-league season. There also is reason to believe that the International Olympic Committee will find a way to make all that happen, but there was strong sentiment at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium that it would be a pointless exercise in commercialism and U.S. self-congratulation.

ATLANTA -- "The Star-Spangled Banner" was not played once at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center last night, but the opening day of the Olympic swimming competition still produced one truly all-American moment.Georgia swimmer Angel Martino won the first American swimming medal of the Atlanta Games with a third-place finish in the 100-meter freestyle, then gave it to a friend and fellow swimmer who is battling cancer.Martino draped her bronze medal around the neck of Trisha Henry, 20, in the emotional aftermath of an eventful first day for the U.S. team.

Runners from Mount de Sales Academy's cross country and track teams won medals in the Maryland State Games Track and Field Competition at Towson State University. Renee Leach won a silver medal in the 3,000-meter run and a bronze medal in the 1,500-meter run; Teresa Love won a bronze medal in the 1,500-meter run; Lori Furletti won a bronze medal in the 3,000-meter run; and Michelle Brown won a bronze medal in the 400-meter dash.*Western Maryland College's Alumna of the Year award was presented to Virginia K. Fowble of Baltimore, and Ralph O. Frith received the Young Alumnus Service Award at the college's annual homecoming celebration Oct. 9.*Two professors in the English department at Villa Julie College have recently had articles published in literary journals.

MERIBEL, France -- Winning a bronze medal was the last thing the members of the U.S. Olympic hockey team wanted to think about after the disappointment of losing to the Unified Team yesterday in the Olympic semifinals."

Anne Arundel Community College's Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Tourism Institute recently won 12 major awards at a regional competition in Washington and an international contest in New York City. Seven culinary students and four instructors were awarded a total of four gold, six silver and two bronze medals. "Winning four gold medals is an unprecedented accomplishment for the AACC Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Tourism Institute," said Mary Ellen Mason, HCAT institute director. The first HCAT group won two gold, two silver and one bronze medal Nov. 8 at the Nation's Capital Chef's Association Category K Culinary Competition at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, where 24 students and instructors participated.

Michael Phelps Rodgers Forge Age: 23 Event: Swimming Results: He simply became the greatest Olympian of all time by winning eight gold medals in a single Games, breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven, and he has won 14 career gold medals, surpassing the all-time mark of nine by four different athletes, including himself. Katie Hoff Towson Age: 19 Event: Swimming Results: Won her first career medals, taking a silver in the 400 freestyle, where she was out-touched at the wall, and two bronze, in the 400 individual medley and 800 free relay.

The U.S. women's softball team lost the gold-medal game to Japan, 3-1, after it hadn't lost an Olympic softball game since the 2000 Games. In fact, in running up an 8-0 record on their way to yesterday's game against Japan, the Americans had actually beaten Japan, 4-1, in extra innings Wednesday in a semifinal game that forced the Japanese to play Australia, with the winner advancing to the final and the loser getting the bronze medal. Japan prevailed against Australia, which gave the team new life in what amounted to a rematch with the U.S. Unfortunately for the Americans, there was no reprieve for them after their first loss.

BEIJING - He Kexin marched into the news conference for gold-medal winners fashionably late last night. Already on the podium were still rings winner Chen Yibing and his coach, men's vault winner Leszek Blanik and his coach, and women's trampoline winner He Wenna and her coach. Kexin pulled up a chair. The 16-year-old from China had been in doping control, being tested after she won the uneven parallel bars gold medal by virtue of a tiebreaking procedure over Nastia Liukin of Parker, Texas.

American athletes and American teams are stinking it up on the world stage. That's obvious. What isn't obvious is why. Less obvious is whether this means more, or less, than what it is. Less obvious than that? Whether it really matters as much as many Americans are making it matter. Lots of people seem to have answers, but in reality, there are so many segments to this topic that no single one tells the entire story. This much we know: What appeared at the time to be an isolated incident - the men's basketball team coming home from the 2004 Olympics with only a bronze medal - evolved into a trend (in later disappointments at the Turin Games and in the World Baseball Classic)

TURIN, Italy -- Jennifer Rodriguez's vision was blurry. Her knees buckled. The last two meters were horrible. It was great. "I'm proud of myself," she said after placing eighth in the women's 1,500-meter speed skating event last night. "You know what, this possibly could be my last race. I told myself `Just go out there and enjoy it. There's no pressure on you because you know you're not at the top of your game.' You just want to go out and skate your best. And that's what I did." Canada's Cindy Klassen (1 minute, 55.27 seconds)

TURIN, Italy -- There was a bronze medal, after four years of training for gold. And there was joy, if only through the eyes of a 5-year-old. As Jenny Potter skated around the rink, victory in hand and daughter Madison in her arms, the kid tugged at her mom. "Did you win a medal?" Madison asked. "Can I have it?" The U.S. women's hockey team came here on a mission - to play Canada for the gold medal, and win. The Americans lost to Sweden in the semifinals, beat Finland for the bronze yesterday, 4-0, then watched as Canada beat Sweden, 4-1, for the gold medal.

TURIN, Italy -- When the U.S. women's hockey team takes the ice today for its bronze-medal game against Finland, the only thing worse than being on the undercard to the Sweden-Canada gold-medal game is the thought of going home with no medal at all. That's what the U.S. team has been telling itself since Sweden's historic 3-2 shootout upset of the Americans in Friday's semifinal. Women's hockey Bronze-medal game, today, MSNBC, 10:30 a.m.

Ice dancing FUSAR-POLI & MARGAGLIO TV: NBC, 7-midnight -- After winning the bronze medal in ice dancing in 2002, Italy's Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio figured they couldn't do any better and retired. But the lure of the Winter Olympics in their home country proved too great and they returned to competition this season. "How could we resist the temptation?" Fusar-Poli said. It turns out they might have been wrong about not being able to improve on their Salt Lake City performance.

Soccer United, Fire open playoffs tonight D.C. United opens the playoffs on the road tonight against the Chicago Fire, with the return leg of the home-and-home, total-goals series in Washington on Oct. 30. The mission is to return to the MLS Cup, scheduled for Nov. 13 at FC Dallas' new stadium in Frisco, Texas. United wasn't the favorite a year ago, but it won its fourth league title - and first since 1999 - by peaking at the right time. After needing a few months to adjust to first-year coach Peter Nowak, the team put together a late-season run that culminated in a 3-2 victory over Kansas City in the title game.