Olympic Trials

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Yesterday, USA Track and Field unveiled the uniforms its teams will wear in Sydney, Australia. They include a new logo for the national governing body, one adorned with wings, which begs the question: Will the sport still fly after the Olympics are done in October? USA Track and Field is floating on a current of positive developments at its Olympic trials. It has enjoyed record crowds, a bright new star in Marion Jones, a proven one in Michael Johnson and a grudge match to savor, as his 200 against Maurice Greene that will conclude the meet here Sunday has both men talking smack worthy of a World Wrestling Federation production.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- When Bernard Williams had to decide where he would spend the last two years of his collegiate eligibility, it came down to Florida or UCLA. Williams chose Florida, but the Baltimorean and every other American male sprinter who doesn't train in Los Angeles got a reminder of the talent that is drawn to Southern California and the teaching that is going on there yesterday, when Maurice Greene lead an HSI sweep of the 100-meter dash at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials.

Kayaker Becky Brown doesn't expect to become an Olympian -- at leastuntil 1996.But she will pick up valuable experience next month at the Olympic Trials for the U.S. Canoe and Kayak Team that will compete in the Summer Games in Barcelona later this year.The Monkton resident qualified last weekend in South Bend, Ind., for one of 22 spots at the Olympic trials, May 15 and 16, on the Savage River in Western Maryland.Only three women will make the team.Brown, racing in Connecticut this weekend, could not be reached for comment.

A renamed swim meet will serve as a rite of passage for Michael Phelps. The Argent Mortgage Long Course Championships opens a four-day run at the Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center tonight. What used to be known as the North Baltimore Aquatic Club Invitational is now supported by one of Phelps' corporate sponsors. The meet has traditionally been on his competitive calendar, but his days with the NBAC are numbered. It is Phelps' final tuneup before the U.S. Olympic trials, which will be conducted next month.

High tide raises all boats. Just ask the teammates of Michael Phelps. The North Baltimore Aquatic Club is the host of the Argent Mortgage Long Course Championships, which concludes a four-day run tonight. Phelps is its most obvious force, but when he ships off to the U.S. Olympic trials in three weeks, he'll be joined by 11 others from the NBAC, doubling its previous trials high. That doesn't include Marianne Limpert, who's shooting for her record fourth Canadian Olympic team. Over the past 14 months, talent like Limpert, Kevin Clements and 15-year-old phenom Katie Hoff joined the NBAC because of Phelps' acclaim.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - While his wife and the other sprinters postured and preened, C. J. Hunter and the other big men in the shot put promised that their event would be one of the most compelling at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. They delivered. Hunter is the husband of Marion Jones, and he does not appreciate being called "Mr. Jones." He also had to play second fiddle last night, as Adam Nelson popped the throw of his life, 72 feet, 7 inches, in the sixth and final round to win the event and set a trials record.

ATLANTA -- Michael Johnson left Olympic Stadium on Saturday night knowing how close he had come to breaking the oldest record in track and field. Only the slightest of hot summer breezes had kept Johnson from going into the record books and erasing Italy's Pietro Mennea from memory.Johnson's time of 19.70 seconds in the semifinals of the 200 meters at the U.S. Olympic trials had been faster than the 19.72 seconds Mennea ran at a meet in Mexico 17 years ago. But Johnson also knew he would get another chance.

Blue is for first, red is for second ... Swimming meant a kaleidoscope of ribbon colors to Katie Hoff until a fateful finish in an otherwise forgettable summer meet in Virginia. "It was a 25-yard breaststroke," Hoff said. "I remember looking up and seeing one of my friends far ahead of me, and saying, `I don't like this.' I guess the competitive side of me broke free. I started racing at that point, instead of just swimming." That occurred in 1996, the year of the Atlanta Olympics, and it's convenient to mark her growth in terms of the quadrennial.

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?"

Terry Musika, an accountant and expert witness who worked in business fraud and patent damages claims, died of pancreatic cancer Dec. 18 at his Hunt Valley home. He was 64. The co-founder of Invotex, a Fells Point business, he was a legal economics expert in lawsuits involving corporate giants Apple, BlackBerry and Samsung. He also immersed himself in Baltimore legal affairs and testified in numerous local cases. "He was considered one of the top intellectual property damages experts in the country," said a colleague, Debbie Pavlik, his firm's marketing manager.