Olympic Gold Medal

The Olympic year will accelerate with the 97th installment of the Millrose Games tonight. The indoor track and field meet at New York's Madison Square Garden will be graced for the first time by Marion Jones, as the world's top female sprinter will try to elevate an enterprise that has come to resemble the Jerry Springer Show instead of a sport. Doping issues hover over American track and field. Accusations of drug use have led to defiant denials and an act of contrition. Earlier this week, USA Track and Field apologized to the U.S. Olympic Committee for its perceived cover-up in the case of Jerome Young, the 400-meter runner who was allowed on the gold-medal-winning, 1,600-relay team at the 2000 Olympics despite testing positive for banned substances the year before.

News item: : Editor & Publisher released a Pew Research Center study Friday showing that one-quarter of stories about the Olympics focused on Michael Phelps, who got seven times as much media coverage as the next-most-spotlighted athlete. My take: : Seven times as much? That sounds low to me. : News item: : Cuba defeated the United States, 10-2, Friday to knock the U.S. team into the bronze-medal game in what might be the final Olympic baseball tournament. : My take: : One of the reasons they're dropping baseball is because Major League Baseball won't suspend the season and send the game's top players to the Olympics.

Mary Lou Retton has been a household word for years now, and she's still only 24.The kid from West Virginia who bounced into our consciousness in 1984 to become the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics now sells fitness for the president of the United States. She tries to motivate others with a "take-risks" talk that she delivers dozens of times a year to adults and youngsters and is, of course, still "the Revco girl.""I'm lucky that I've made the transition" from Olympic gymnast to salesperson extraordinaire, she said while in Baltimore yesterday to kick off ticket sales for the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials, to be held here in June.

It only seems as if Greg Foster has been around forever, the master hurdler winning at the World Championships in 1983, 1987 and 1991 while picking up a silver medal in the Olympics and several broken bones along the way. And yet, he's probably at the top of his game at the Methuselahan age of 34."All things considered, last year was probably my best year and I didn't even go as fast as I can," said the man who has been ranked either first or second in the world for the last decade or so. It wasn't the times he ran or the victories he posted so much as the fact he was able to run hard in each race.

BARCELONA, Spain -- Wimbledon, it's not.But what the tennis tournament at the Summer Olympics lacks in tradition, clout and drama, it makes up for in . . .That's the problem. No one has figured out how to turn what is essentially another stop on a world-wide serve-and-volley tour into a grand Olympic moment.This week, Barcelona. Next week, Indianapolis.Wimbledon champion Steffi Graf is here. So are American's Jim Courier, No. 1 in the world, and Michael Chang and Pete Sampras. And Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the local heroine, will aim for a gold medal on red clay at the La Teixonera Municipal Tennis Club.

Mary Lou Retton has been a household word for years now, and she's still only 24.The kid from West Virginia who bounced into our consciousness in 1984 to become the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics, now sells fitness for the president of the United States, tries to motivate others with a "take-risks" talk that she delivers dozens of times a year to adults and youngsters and is, of course, still "the Revco girl.""I'm lucky that I've made the transition" from Olympic gymnast to salesperson extraordinaire, she said while in Baltimore yesterday to kick off ticket sales for the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials, to be held here in June.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- It seems everyone that Theresa Grentz knows is impressed that she will be coaching the U.S. women's basketball team in the Summer Olympics.Everyone, that is, but her younger son, Kevin."I've got a 5-year-old who said to me, 'Mom, I'm really excited that I'm going to the Olympics.' And I said, 'Yes, son, it should really be an exciting time.' Then he says, 'I'm really hoping you can get me Michael Jordan's autograph,' " said Grentz, the head women's basketball coach at Rutgers.

Jack Pierce knows desperation. He saw it every night while working the graveyard shift at Harrah's Marina in Atlantic City, N.J. He cleaned the slot machines, pulling cigarette butts, gum wrappers and the occasional forgotten quarter from the silver trays.He watched people toss away their last coins in final bids to hit a jackpot. Helped losers get cab rides home. Dried the tears of the broke and the lonely."At first, you'd think, 'How could people lose all their money?' " Pierce said. "But you realize everyone believes they're going to make a million dollars."

She's been sending athletes, old and young, off to the games for 30 years. But last year, it was her turn to go.Anne Clemmitt, 56, finally got the chance to prove her own tennis skills last June when she won first place in the Senior Olympic National Consolation Singles Tournament in Baton Rouge, La.Mrs. Clemmitt, although suffering from tendinitis and lower back pain, beat every tennis opponent age 55 to 59 who crossed her path. The Crofton resident of 22 years played three sets of tennis each day for five days consecutive in 90-degree weather to capture the gold.

For Roger Kingdom, keeping a tight rein on his Olympic 110-meter hurdles title is the focal point of his comeback.While training to make the U.S. team for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, Kingdom is running down an unprecedented dream."