Olympic Team

Event by event, gymnast Courtney Kupets is building a case -- for her coach, Kelli Hill. When U.S. Olympic Committee officials meet in Texas from July 13 to 18 to select the women's team going to Athens, Greece, they also will select a head coach. Usually, the honor goes to the coach with the hottest athlete, and right now, that's Kupets. The 17-year-old from Gaithersburg is the two-time U.S. all-around champion. With her first-place finish at the Olympic trials last weekend in Anaheim, Calif.

You could start an NBA All-Star Game with the Americans who aren't going to the 2004 Olympics. Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, Jason Kidd and Shaquille O'Neal aren't going to Greece. Ray Allen, Mike Bibby, Karl Malone, Tracy McGrady and Jermaine O'Neal have also begged off. Their excuses range from court dates to birthing plans to fear and loathing of spending a good chunk of the offseason in what could be a very hot spot. Take away veterans like Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson, and this Olympic squad could be as young as some of the U.S. teams that had military men and true amateurs spicing the mix of collegians.

WITH THE U.S. Olympic trials about two months away, sprinter Bernard Williams is no longer running from his past or struggling with his future. "I'm 26 years old now," said Williams, a Baltimore native, after an early morning workout at the University of Florida in Gainesville. "I have a daughter. I have a family. I live in one place, train in one place and have reunited with my old coach. I read the Bible daily - started that about a month ago. I'm settled and more focused now than ever."

AUSTIN, Texas - If misfortune befalls Michael Phelps and other premier swimmers at the U.S. Olympic trials, they won't receive the relief that Ian Thorpe is expected to get in Australia. Thorpe was invincible in the 400-meter freestyle, until he fell off the starting block at his Olympic trials last month and was disqualified. Second-place finisher Craig Stevens is expected to withdraw from the 400 freestyle to focus on other events, enabling Thorpe to replace him and defend his title.

Forgive the local sailors who just made the U.S. Olympic team for not standing in the spotlight. After three years of hard work and with a full schedule of European competition ahead of them, Liz Filter of Stevensville and Nancy Haberland of Annapolis, along with Rhode Island skipper Carol Cronin, hung up a "Do Not Disturb" sign this month. "We're introducing ourselves to our families once again," said Filter, who is spending time with her husband and two young children. "We're trying to protect our March."

LOS ANGELES - A memorial service for Al Heppner, the Olympic race walking team candidate from Columbia, Md., who apparently took his life in a leap from a bridge Wednesday, will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif. A scholarship fund in his name will be started by the North American Racewalking Foundation, based in Pasadena, Calif., announced Elaine Ward, the foundation director. "I had no clue, none whatsoever, that Al might have been contemplating something like this," said Tim Seaman of North Babylon, N.Y., his national race walking team friend and training partner in the Chula Vista-based group.

Millard T. Lang, a member of the 1932 U.S. Olympic lacrosse team and one of Sports Illustrated's top 50 greatest sports figures of the 20th century from Maryland, died of pneumonia Sunday at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. He was 89 and lived in Towson. Born and raised on Fort Avenue in Locust Point, Mr. Lang's prowess as an athlete developed early. He earned letters in football, soccer, basketball, lacrosse and track as a student at Polytechnic Institute. He also was one of two athletes there to letter in five sports in one year.

I DID NOT bring the Winter Olympics up right away, figuring it's about as sore a point as you could raise with a young, funny, likable guy who planned on going to Salt Lake City until that day he fractured his skull and slipped into a coma. Besides, the first 10 minutes I spent with Paul Binnebose - at Ice World in Harford County - he dropped about 100 one-liners on me and I could barely keep up with the self-deprecating wisecracks. In other words, I was having too much fun to mention the fall that ended his Olympic dreams.

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - After the globe hopping. After the rush of competition. After the cheering has stopped. What happens to the men and women who make up the U.S. Olympic team? "You put your life on hold to pursue a dream," says hockey player A.J. Mleczko, 29. "All of my peers have at least five years of post-college experience. I don't know if what I'm doing qualifies me for anything." And that's from a woman with a gold medal from the 1998 Winter Games, the likelihood of another one next month and a degree in U.S. history from Harvard University.

How close is one-hundredth of a second? "It's so close it's not even funny," said speed skater J.P. Shilling, who can laugh about it now. That blink of an eye, that whisker, that almost-photo-finish measurement of time is what put Shilling on the U.S. Olympic team Wednesday night. The Baltimore native edged K.C. Boutiette in the 1,500-meter event during the U.S. Long Track Olympic Trials in Kearns, Utah. "In speed skating, I don't know how you would measure that amount of time with your hands, the difference between K.C. and me. Is it even a centimeter?"