Gold Medal

BARCELONA, Spain -- He hated the race. Hated it so much that when a coach told him to run the 400 meters, he sprinted to the football field. Hated it even more when on a hot night in Tokyo, he crossed the finish line and got so sick that his jaw became dislocated."

ATHENS - Paul Hamm did not medal in two individual events yesterday. It didn't matter that much, though. He still has his all-around gold medal. And no one will take that victory from him. Rejecting controversy, Hamm again proclaimed himself the all-around champion. The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) responded to a South Korean protest Saturday, reviewed the competition and suspended three judges after determining bronze medalist Yang Tae Young was robbed of a tenth of a point last week on the parallel bars.

JONESBORO, Ga. -- Now we know what a beach volleyball star wears to an Olympic medal ceremony: a red, white and blue warm-up suit, a pink cap and bare feet.Karch Kiraly stood on the podium again yesterday, only this time there were flecks of sand clinging to his toes and eight more years of digs, spikes, cuts and sets clinging to his memory as he stared at the American flag rising before him.Otherwise, it could have been Los Angeles or Seoul, South Korea. There in the stands was his family, including his lean and proud father, Las, the Hungarian immigrant who was tearfully waving the flag of his adopted nation.

ATHENS -- The United States' Aaron Peirsol was the Olympic champion in the 200-meter backstroke. Then he wasn't. After a confusing 20 minutes, he was again. Afterward, once he had the gold medal around his neck, Peirsol, 21, of Irvine, Calif., adopted the attitude that all's well that ends well. "Nothing happened," he said. "It was a little weird, but it's OK. It came out all right." Indeed it did for Peirsol. He finished first in the race in an Olympic record of 1 minute, 54.95 seconds, more than two seconds ahead of runner-up Markus Rogan of Austria and third-place Razvan Florea of Romania.

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah - At 3 p.m. today, friends will go at each other for national pride and Olympic gold, and it's likely to go down as the most-watched event in the history of hockey. But for short, you can just call it United States vs. Canada. "I can't even imagine how many people are going to watch this one," said U.S. forward Jeremy Roenick. "It's going to be a ghost town all throughout Canada. I guarantee there won't be a single person on the streets." Other than that, nothing is for certain except that one team will go home with a gold medal in hockey for the first time in more than 20 years.

BEIJING - Henry Cejudo called it the American dream. The son of undocumented Mexican immigrants who had to work two jobs to keep food on the table, Cejudo gave the United States an Olympic gold medal in freestyle wrestling yesterday with a stunning win over Japan's Tomohiro Matsunaga in the 55-kilogram (121 pounds) final. "I'm living the American dream right now, man," Cejudo, wrapped in an American flag, said moments after his win. "The United States is the land of opportunity. It's the best country in the world, and I'm just glad to represent it."

Unlike her recent gold medal at the World Figure Skating Championships in Canada, Kimmie Meissner can't wear her latest accolade - a street named after her in downtown Bel Air. Several hundred people gathered yesterday morning to watch the 16-year-old Bel Air native pull a long green cord to drop a tarp and unveil a sign proclaiming Main Street at Pennsylvania Avenue as Kimmie Way. "I'm looking up there and it's so funny," Meissner said afterward as...

GLYFADA, Greece - None of them had heard the song before at an Olympics, not at their first one in 1952 or their tragic one in 1972 or any of the years before or after. And the funny part even after the crowd stood last night, and the Hatikvah played over the loudspeakers, is that the anthem still couldn't be heard as Israel's flag rose up a center Olympic pole for the first time. Their voices carried too loudly. Their words swelled so proudly. The several hundred Israelis singing at this golden ceremony in this small amphitheater on the edge of the Saronic Gulf, as well as the several hundred more who stood outside the gates, overpowered the music with their chorus, their emotion and surely their decades of waiting through murderous suffering and sporting disappointment for one Olympic-sized celebration.

The International Ballet Competition, held June 13-28 in Jackson, Miss., was virtually a clean sweep for 15-year-old Adrienne Canterna of Linthicum.Not only did she win the women's gold medal in the junior division, but her partner, Rasta Thomas, 18, of Washington, won the men's gold medal in the senior division.Brazilian choreographer Ivonice Satie also won $5,000 for her pas de deux, "Shogun," which was Canterna and Thomas' contemporary selection.Ironically, Satie at first had not been willing to have the couple dance her duet because she would not be available to coach them.

TURIN, Italy -- Members of Canada's women's hockey team had anticipated they'd play the U.S. for the Olympic gold medal. The U.S. women's 3-2 semifinal loss to Sweden yesterday changed that, producing a mixture of pride and sympathy from the Canadian players after their 6-0 semifinal rout of Finland carried them into Monday's championship game. "When we thought about playing for the gold medal, in our heads our vision was always playing against the Americans," forward Jayna Hefford said.