Olympic Gold Medal

Capturing a gold medal in the Olympics. Establishing the Navy women's soccer team as a Patriot League power. Shaking hands with President Clinton.That's been the hectic life of Carin Gabarra for the past two years -- where trying to track her down has been almost as difficult as understanding how she fits everything into her schedule."

NEW YORK -- Lindsay Davenport swept through her second-round match in the U.S. Open, 6-0, 6-4, yesterday, as if nothing would ever disrupt her concentration again.Then she strolled into the post-match interview to talk about her victory over Henrietta Nagyova, stepped up on the podium and sat down in the chair just vacated by David Nainkin, the player who had upset No. 9 men's seed Wayne Ferreira."Oh! Oh! Oh!" she yelped, leaping to her feet and looking at the perspiration-layered chair as if it were a snake.

ATLANTA -- Jackie Joyner-Kersee's hamstring problems began earlier this year and flared up again here at last month's U.S. Olympic trials, when they contributed to her losing her first completed heptathlon since the 1984 Olympics and her first on American soil since 1983.It was only a foreshadowing of what happened yesterday.Going for her third straight Olympic gold medal, Joyner-Kersee reinjured the leg while running in the 110-meter hurdles, the opening event of the heptathlon, at Olympic Stadium.

ATLANTA -- Bruce Jenner's job is to be Bruce Jenner.Twenty years after winning his Olympic gold medal in the decathlon, Jenner is a legend-for-hire, socializing with corporate bosses, giving motivational speeches and appearing in infomercials to sell exercise products."

ATLANTA -- There was magic in his name and an air of invincibility surrounding his persona. From the moment in 1984 when he upset Greg Foster in Los Angeles to win his first Olympic gold medal, and for much of the decade, Roger Kingdom was the dominant figure in the 110-meter hurdles and one of the most luminous in the track-and-field world.He won another Olympic gold medal in Seoul in 1988.He was ranked No. 1 in the world five times in seven years."He was the man," said Allen Johnson, then an aspiring decathlete growing up in Burke, Va., now ranked second in the world in the 110 hurdles.

PASADENA, Calif. -- Anita Nall is not making a comeback. She would like to clear that up right from the start. Since she was never really out of swimming -- never even took an extended vacation -- that would not be the correct way to characterize her attempt to re-establish herself as the world's best in the women's breaststroke.And yet, she has some distance to come back if she is to achieve her dream of an individual Olympic gold medal in the 200-meter or 400-meter event.Nall, whose times sagged while she was coping with a serious iron-deficiency problem last year, swam 2 minutes, 31.69 seconds to tie USC's Kristine Quance for the top time in the 200-meter preliminary at the Phillips 66 National Swimming Championships yesterday, but she faded in the final and finished fourth, nearly two seconds behind titlist Annemieke McReynolds.

LILLEHAMMER, Norway -- First, Donna Weinbrecht raced for the fun. Then the glory. And then the money.But with an Olympic gold medal tucked away in a safe deposit box, she realized there was more to competing in freestyle mogul skiing than simply collecting prizes.Fifteen months ago, Weinbrecht, Mistress of the Moguls, was on crutches, lugging around a right knee that was a mass of scar tissue and ripped ligaments. Now, she is trying to reclaim her title at the 1994 Winter Olympics."I thought I would quit after 1992," she said.

ALL right. So we've established that in America you can shoot your parents in the back while they watch television (the two Menendez juries were hung), cut off your husband's penis or smash a brick into the head of a passing trucker because he happens to be white -- all without consequences.Why not then take a metal baton to the knee of your prime skating rival? Heck, by current standards, Tonya Harding could have taken off Nancy Kerrigan's whole leg. Her excuse could have been early childhood abuse (which would have the advantage of being true)

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.

In the new world of Olympic figure skating, Kristi Yamaguchi can still skate for cash and medals.Just not all at once.Yesterday, Yamaguchi, the 1992 Olympic women's gold medalist, announced that she will make her professional debut at the DuraSoft World Professional Figure Skating Championships at the Capital Centre in Landover on Dec. 12.Five nights later, she will appear in the DuraSoft Challenge of Champions at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, Calif.And,...