Gold Medal

BEIJING - The players can almost feel it now, dangling in front of their chests. Their prizes won't weigh too much, but it won't be that slight tug of the neck that they'll notice most. The gold medals will feel as light as a feather, in fact, because the 5-ton burden that U.S. basketball players have been carrying on their shoulders for a half-dozen years is almost gone. Just one game separates Team USA from the medal stand. Tomorrow's gold-medal game feels like somewhat of a formality.

BEIJING - A storied era in U.S. women's soccer ended when Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy and other pioneers retired as Olympic champions after the Athens Games, but another promising era might have dawned yesterday on a soggy field at Workers' Stadium. The U.S. women won their third gold medal awarded for women's soccer in four Olympic tournaments by edging Brazil, 1-0, on midfielder Carli Lloyd's extra-time goal. The U.S. team had defeated Brazil in Athens, also in overtime, but this team has a different roster and is less famous than its predecessor.

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."

BEIJING - Shawn Johnson had dark circles under her brown eyes and a headache, but when she jumped on the balance beam last night, she switched on her smile and defiantly pounded out a gold-medal routine. It wasn't the gold Johnson wanted. She had come here as the favorite to win the all-around title, had hoped to lead the U.S. team to a gold medal, had hoped to defend her world championship in the floor exercise and add to that a balance-beam gold medal. But through a succession of silvers - team, all-around, floor - Johnson, 16, of West Des Moines, Iowa, stuck out her chin, wiped away tears and insisted that silver was just as nice as gold.

BEIJING - The U.S. finally got untracked in the track and field competition at the Olympics yesterday. After a sluggish start over the first weekend that included no gold medals, Americans won five overall medals yesterday, including a 1-2-3 sweep in the men's 400-meter hurdles. Pole vaulter Jenn Stuczynski also won a silver medal, and Stephanie Brown Trafton won a surprise gold in the women's discus - the first for a U.S. woman in the event since 1932. The U.S. hurdlers talked about the slow beginning for the track team at the Olympic Village and during the warm-up period for their final.

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.

BEIJING - Venus and Serena Williams of the United States won the gold yesterday, beating Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain, 6-2, 6-0. The Williams sisters failed to medal in singles but found considerable consolation in doubles, improving their lifetime Olympic record as a team to 10-0. They won the doubles gold at Sydney but didn't play in Athens four years ago because Serena was hurt. "It does mean more for me to win it with Serena, to share this kind of moment with your sister," Venus said.

BEIJING - Nastia Liukin is having so much fun at these Olympics, she says she might stick around and compete again next year at the world championships. Shawn Johnson won't look beyond tomorrow's balance-beam final, her last chance to win a gold medal. Johnson won the silver medal in yesterday's floor exercise competition, her third silver medal of the Olympics, and it was a bittersweet finish for the defending world champion who had to compete first among the eight finalists and then watch and wait.

BEIJING - He is the ultimate Swiss timepiece now. Gold, no less. Roger Federer has been pursuing a spot on the top platform of an Olympic victory stand for eight years and three Olympics, and it didn't seem possible that he had not yet made the climb. He has been the best tennis player in the world for long enough to have your son or daughter start and finish college, but the Olympics have always been his banana peel. Last night, it finally came to pass that dreams do come true, even for icons who have realized almost all of theirs.

BEIJING - Someday, years from now, when they tell the tale of the swimmer from Rodgers Forge and his eight gold medals, it will be difficult - if not impossible - to know exactly where to begin. The epic story of Michael Phelps' transcendent Olympics has produced many iconic moments, a diverse selection of did-I-really-just-see-that? mental snapshots. These Olympics have always been about making history for Phelps, a 23-year-old with a long torso, longer arms and the competitive instincts of a hungry shark.