Olympic Spirit

Next month, Olympic athletes will head to Sydney, Australia, for the Summer Games. Whether you are lucky enough to be cheering them on in person, or if you just plan to watch at home, National Geographic has developed a multimedia package that can help guide you through the country's culture, wildlife and landscape. This month's magazine features a story about Sydney's metamorphosis from grimy metropolis in the 1960s to one of the world's most attractive cities. Geographic's children's magazine, World, devotes its entire issue to "awesome Australia."

The mayors of Baltimore and Washington pledged yesterday to turn the region's failed bid for the 2012 Olympics into a new standard of cooperation between the neighboring cities, as both men struggled to find solace in an announcement that clearly caught them and their staffs by surprise. Seconds after the defeat was announced, Mayor Martin O'Malley called the dual-city bid the greatest cooperative effort between Baltimore and Washington since the War of 1812. "When people look back years from now, they'll say that these relationships started with the process of this bid," O'Malley told Washington Mayor Anthony A. Williams in a phone call, shortly after their cities were eliminated from contention to host the Olympic games.

BARBARA FRITCHIE, rest easy. It looks like that old gray head will not be needed in Utah today after all. As a result of intense debate and lobbying by U.S. Olympic organizers, the American flag that was flying over the World Trade Center before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 will have a prominent role in the opening of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Potentially far more prominent than appropriate, in fact. The U.S. Olympic Committee had wanted American athletes to carry the flag in the opening ceremony tonight, when delegations of athletes from around the world parade into Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Baltimore will get a chance to show its Olympic spirit again this year. The Inner Harbor has been chosen as the site of the first-ever men's and women's U.S. Olympic Beach Volleyball Trials.USA Volleyball and International Marketing Group will announce today that the Olympic qualifying tournament will be held June 5-9 at HarborView Marina & Yacht Club. Baltimore, one of six locales to make a serious bid for the trials, was chosen from a short list of finalists that also included Dallas and Kiawah Island, S.C."

Instead of a ribbon-cutting, Baltimore County officials opened the Randallstown Community Center Wednesday with a big splash - into an expansive indoor pool. The vigor of the "first splashers" showed off the county's newest, largest and greenest center. While the kids played aquatic ball, their elders performed water aerobics. From her spot in the 25-meter pool, Margaret Belt, 69, pointed to the lifeguard. "That's my grandson," she said. "So, of course, I feel safe." The $13 million brick building finally gives the communities and businesses that line the Liberty Road corridor a hub, officials told the more than 400 people attending the grand opening.

"It's official. With the final payment on the cap and gown, we haven't any money left."My friend shared this information with a note of awe in her voice.Easing her toward the living room, I murmured words of sympathy."Stop that!" she cried. "You don't have a clue what awaits you. Your child isn't a. " She choked on the word "senior.""First, it's senior pictures. Photos so poor you question the DNA evidence that this could be your child. Then it's SATs -- payment for the privilege of proving your child's career goals are best suited for refilling a Slurpee machine."

There were no judges, no medals and no bone-aching falls.This was like skating video, pure and simple. There were Prince on the sound system and plumes on the ice. American champions skated to show tunes. A Chinese teen-ager performed triple jumps to the theme from "Ghost." And a Ukrainian rocked the house.The 1992 Tour of World Figure Skating Champions rolled into the sold-out Baltimore Arena last night. As usual, the Tom Collins-produced show had equal parts of Broadway and MTV, with a -- of Olympic spirit thrown in.So you get U.S. pairs champions Calla Urbanski and Rocky Marval interpreting James Brown, and American men's champion Paul Wylie running through "Miss Saigon," and Canadians Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler doing throws while Bryan Adams sings, "There Will Never Be Another Tonite."

So, now that all the leftover stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie from yesterday's feast have been crammed into the appropriate refrigerator spot, you've got three days of free time and more turkey than humans should be allowed to consume.What to do, what to do? Thankfully, wise and knowing sports programmers have been hard at work making sure your Thanksgiving weekend won't be spent in vain, with basketball, football and a wonderful celebration of the Olympic spirit filling the airwaves, from just after dawn to well past midnight.

At the front of a meeting room in a downtown San Antonio hotel on the morning of the NCAA championship game sat 13 of the most powerful figures in American basketball -- together looking like the stage on Deal or No Deal, except they were wearing suits, not mini-dresses. (Thank goodness.) NBA commissioner David Stern, NCAA president Myles Brand and Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt, president of the Black Coaches and Administrators, sat in front of the rest. That trio did most of the talking, trying to explain why they were there: to attempt to collectively improve the state of youth basketball in this country to produce a trickle-up effect on the quality of the game and its players in college, the pros, and on the international stage.

Two Olympic equestrian silver medalists will compete in the ** ninth annual Columbia Classic Grand Prix today at Howard Community College.Michael Matz and Peter Leone helped the four-member U.S. equestrian team win the silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Today they will demonstrate their show-jumping talents in the Columbia Classic, which benefits HCC students who need financial assistance.Sandy Harriman, executive director of the HCC Educational Foundation, said she hopes the Olympic spirit isn't gone and that spectators will come out to see the two Olympians and learn about Grand Prix show-jumping.