Injured Texans player walks again

HOUSTON - For the first time since injuring his neck and spine last week, Texans receiver Harry Williams has walked by himself.

Houston television station KRIV reports that Williams walked by himself Thursday morning at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

He suffered a cracked vertebrate and severe ligament damage in his neck Aug. 22 during a preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys.

Williams told the station, "I started walking today. I brushed my own teeth today, sat up in a chair today, fed myself today."

"I'm doing good man."

Doctors say its unlikely he'll be able to play football again, something the 26-year-old says he accepts.

Williams was on the New York Jets and New York Giants squads in 2005 before signing with the Texans in 2006.

Venus Williams, favorites keep winning at US Open

NEW YORK (AP)—Venus Williams kept favorites on the fast track at the U.S. Open, overwhelming Rossana de Los Rios in less than an hour Thursday to reach the third round.

The seventh-seeded Williams won on her fifth match point, needing only 59 minutes to advance.

That’s mostly been the pattern so far at Flushing Meadows, with the big names facing little trouble.

Through the early action on Day 4, only two top players had been upset in the tournament—No. 8 Vera Zvonareva and No. 10 Anna Chakvetadze.

No. 6-seeded Dinara Safina, No. 9 Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 17 Alize Cornet, No. 18 Dominika Cibulkova and No. 19 Nadia Petrova also won in straight sets, while No. 20 Nicole Vaidisova lost to Severine Bremond 7-5, 6-3.

On the men’s side, No. 10 Stanislas Wawrinka swept Wayne Odesnik.

Top-seeded Ana Ivanovic and James Blake were scheduled to play second-round matches later in the day. No. 1 Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams were set for the night session.

Venus Williams breezed past an opponent ranked 117th. After teaming with her sister to win Olympic gold in doubles, the two-time U.S. Open champion stayed on course to play Serena in the quarterfinals here.

Safina, not nearly as volatile as brother Marat Safin, played under control in beating Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-3. The Russian seemed perturbed just once, when she challenged a line call—she was right—and earned a replay of a point late in the second set.

The 22-year-old Safina has won 17 of her last 18 matches, losing only to Elena Dementieva for the Olympic gold medal.

Radwanska beat Mariana Duque Marino 6-0, 7-6 (3) and fittingly won the final point at net. Last year, the Polish teen made a splash at the U.S. Open when she startled Maria Sharapova, often walking halfway to the service box and hopping before backing up to receive.

That breakthrough win over Sharapova came in the third round. This time, Radwanska will play Dominika Cibulkova in the third round.

Cornet rallied in the first-set tiebreaker to fashion a 7-6 (5), 6-1 over Bethanie Mattek. The 18-year-old French teen took advantage of Mattek’s four straight misses to close out the opening set.

Mattek is known for her outlandish outfits—she started out last year’s Open in a revealing, metallic gold Wonder Woman get-up and later wore a leopard-print ensemble. Her attire for this match was downright conservative by her standards, featuring a white top that was wide open in the back and a black skirt.

Now ranked No. 44 after a successful season, Mattek lost in her first matchup with Cornet. Mattek came to the Open without a coach and sometimes uses YouTube to scout players she’s never faced.

Cornet stayed aggressive, highlighted by a sequence in the first set when she hit so many overhead slams in

Bolt could have run 9.52 in Olympics, coach says

By Sam Cage

ZURICH (Reuters) - Triple Olympic gold medalist and world record holder Usain Bolt could have run the 100 meters in 9.52 seconds if he had not slowed to celebrate, his coach said on Wednesday.

Glen Mills said Bolt, who electrified Beijing with his sprint victories, was at the start of his 100 career and would peak only in about two years’ time.

“If he had continued, the slowest he would have run would have been 9.52,” Mills told reporters ahead of Friday’s Weltklasse athletics meeting in Zurich, where Bolt is due to run the 100.

“This is his first year of running the 100 meters,” Mills said. “In two more years he should be peaking at this distance and by then I am certain he will be down to there.”

Bolt set a world record of 9.69 seconds in the 100, and was so far ahead of the field that he slowed before the end to celebrate.

Bolt then broke Michael Johnson’s 12-year-old mark in the 200 and added a third gold by contributing to a world record for Jamaica in the 4x100 relay.

On Friday, Bolt will face the two men who won medals behind him in the Beijing 100, Richard Thompson of Trinidad & Tobago and American Walter Dix.

Other Beijing winners on show in Zurich include women’s pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva and Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia, who won the men’s 5,000 and 10,000 meters.

“I’ve had some sleep since I’ve been here so I’m not tired. I’m trying to get my blood pumping again,” Bolt said.

He declined to speculate on what time he might run on Friday.

“I don’t think you can really set another goal after doing that at the Olympics,” said Bolt, who turned 22 the day after his 200 Beijing win. “I’m just trying to get to the end of the season, injury free, and go home and enjoy myself.”

(Editing by Clare Fallon)

Upshaw helped and hindered

Gene Upshaw was a great NFL player who made an even bigger impact on the game after turning in his helmet, becoming one of the most influential figures in professional sports.

The NFL Players Association's longtime executive director, who died Wednesday from pancreatic cancer at 63, leaves behind a legacy that includes two decades of uninterrupted labor peace and unprecedented riches for the union's dues-paying members.

And the depressing thing is, he could have accomplished so much more.

I'm saddened by Upshaw's sudden death three days after being diagnosed with the horrible disease, and I respect the ferocity and conviction that helped him achieve so much on and off the field. But even as we mourn his passing, I believe those of us in the NFL community have a responsibility to be honest about his successes and failures.

It's a well-reported fact that, thanks partly to Upshaw's leadership, the NFL players currently collect nearly 60 percent of the league's gross revenues, a sum that has been estimated at $4.5 billion.

Yet it's also true that, under Upshaw, the NFLPA was almost obsessively concerned with bottom-line pursuit of dollars at the expense of improved working conditions, responsiveness to its membership and genuine concern for the well-being of retired players who paved the way for this golden era.

I'm not sure if I'm the sole journalist writing these things at this dark hour, but I'm not the only person who's thinking about them. Too many current and former players I respect, from Joe Montana to Vikings center Matt Birk, have complained in recent years that Upshaw was domineering, arrogant and consumed with self-interest.

Upshaw and his defenders always countered by doing the equivalent of pointing to the scoreboard – look at how prosperous we are, they'd say. But believe it or not, there is more to life than money for some players. Back in the early 1990s after decertifying and winning an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL, the union had almost unprecedented leverage in forging a new labor deal.

Yes, an environment was created in which many prominent players – and Upshaw, for that matter – got rich. But an opportunity was missed to address numerous other player-welfare issues. For example, fighting for a ban on AstroTurf, at least in outdoor stadiums, would have been a worthy and popular cause at the time.

Unrestricted free agency, even with exceptions such as the franchise tag, was a good thing for the rank and file. But many players I know would have placed an equal emphasis on pushing for guaranteed contracts.

The owners certainly would have resisted, claiming that football is such a violent sport that guaranteeing contracts is unfeasible, given the risk of injuries. If unable to win that battle, Upshaw and the union might have pressed for lifetime medical benefits, reasoning that the players needed at least some protection for the sport's inherent risks.

But, as we would later learn, worrying about the continued care of aging players wasn't the Upshaw way. He seemed concerned only with instant gratification, to the point where he was prepared to fight against the growing call for a cap on spiraling rookie contracts, and seemed downright disdainful when challenged by those who felt the NFLPA had turned its back on retired players with severe medical problems.

At issue was a dysfunctional disability system that awarded benefits to fewer than 1 percent of all men who ever had played in the league, far less than the nationwide average for all occupations of 8.7 percent. The retirement package was similarly scrutinized – a 2006 report alleged that an NFL player with 10 years of service who takes his pension at age 55 received $24,000 a year, while a major league baseball counterpart in the same situation got $105,000 annually.

When confronted with the growing complaints of retired players in 2005, Upshaw was dismissive. "The bottom line is I don't work for them," he said. "They don't hire me, and they can't fire me. They can complain about me all day long. They can have their opinion. But the active players have the vote. That's who pays my salary. They (the retirees) say they don't have anybody in the (bargaining) room. Well, they don't, and they never will. I'm the only one in that room. They're not in the bargaining unit. They don't even have a vote."

Given that everyone in the NFL is one play away from being a retired NFL player – and that the average career lasts a little longer than three years – you'd have thought Upshaw might have chosen his words more carefully. But this wasn't the only time he opened his mouth recklessly in the face of dissent.

Speaking of one of his most strident critics, fellow Hall of Fame guard Joe DeLamielleure, in May of 2007, Upshaw told the Philadelphia Daily News, "A guy like DeLamielleure says the things he said about me, you think I'm going to invite him to dinner? No. I'm going to break his … damn neck."

Simply put, the former Oakland great presided over the union like his onetime boss, Al Davis, runs the Raiders. He was ruthless, intolerant of dissent and all about the cult of him, with zero intention of ever relinquishing his power.

In 2006, Players Inc., the marketing and licensing arm of the NFLPA (which paid a portion of Upshaw's reported $5.7 million annual salary), announced it had hired sports marketing veteran Andrew Feffer as chief operating officer. "I had many applicants, and I picked him because I liked his energy and I liked his marketing skills and I liked what his references had to say about him," Upshaw said.

An agent forwarded the press release to me with the following message attached: "This is the problem. The executive director thinks he owns the association."

Upshaw with Vincent in Arizona prior to Super Bowl XLII.

To the end, Upshaw seemed oblivious to the reality that he was an elected steward of membership. Looking ahead to a potential lockout in 2011, Upshaw already had announced that he would ignore the NFLPA's bylaws calling for the mandatory retirement of its officers at age 65 – even though Upshaw had been the one who put the rule into effect.

Upshaw, who would have hit the milestone in August 2010, said he wouldn't leave until the right successor was found. He acted as though the thought of navigating a period of potential labor strife without him in charge was unthinkable, something that would expose the union to harsh ramifications.

Around that time Upshaw kneecapped his presumed successor, former NFLPA player president Troy Vincent, and scoffed at the very notion that anyone who worked under him would be worthy of inheriting the big job.

In an infamous quote he emailed to Sports Business Journal last March, Upshaw took the term "Looking Out For No. 1" to an absurd level.

"There is only a No. 1 and there will not be a No. 2," he wrote. "Number 2 is always trying to become No. 1 and never wants to wait. They can always do it better, they are like backup (quarterbacks). There is a reason they are backups."

With an attitude like that, it's hard to imagine Upshaw, on his deathbed, believing that he was leaving the NFLPA in good hands. That's a shame because the obvious and brutal lesson is that nothing lasts forever and it all can be taken away from even the most powerful of us in an instant.

I like to think that, when all this shakes out, the union's new leadership will step up to the challenge – that if Upshaw were able to look down on his successors, he'd end up being pleasantly surprised.

Surely, Upshaw didn't see this tragedy coming, and of course he wouldn't have wanted it to play out this way. But things don't have to be as bleak for the NFLPA as he might have feared. With a little creativity and compassion, the people who succeed Upshaw can turn the union he considered his into an even greater organization,

-by Michael Silver

Romania's Sandra Izbasa grabs gold

BEIJING (AP)—Once more, the gold medal was within Shawn Johnson’s reach. Again, it was snatched away.

Two days after Nastia Liukin edged Johnson for the all-around title, Romania’s Sandra Izbasa—the very last competitor—grabbed the floor exercise gold that was almost in the American’s hands.

After Johnson went in the unenviable first spot Sunday night and saw her 15.50 stand up through six other finalists, including Liukin, only Izbasa remained. But the Romanian wowed the judges with her soaring somersaults and solid landings, earning a 15.65.

That left Johnson, the 2007 world champion, with three silver medals in Beijing, and gave Liukin, who took bronze, one of each. Not a bad haul, with more event finals to come.

Johnson, gracious as always, wore a bright smile all night, and gave several competitors big hugs when they finished their routines. She barely flinched when Izbasa’s mark came up, and the 16-year-old American also had a hug for the winner.

“I just stayed calm and had a great time out there,” Johnson said. I love to perform.”

The biggest upset of the night came in women’s vault, with China’s Cheng Fei losing for the first time in three years. The gold medalist at the last three world championships landed on her knees on her second attempt, leaving the competition wide open. North Korea’s Hong Un Jong stepped in with two solid vaults and clean landings to win the title—the first gymnastics medal for her nation.

The men’s event finals were—here’s a shock—dominated by China. Zou Kai won the floor exercise and Ziao Qin took pommel horse, making the hosts 4-for-4. Add in the women’s successes, and it’s been a medals feast for the Chinese.

And not at all disappointing for the U.S. women, who now have five medals. Johnson and Liukin had a hand in all of them.

“After the all-around, I was excited to have made the floor finals and a bronze medal feels great,” Liukin said.

Neither of them competed in vault, where Cheng followed the best effort of the night, a 16.075, with her huge error, ending up with the bronze behind Oksana Chusovitina of Germany. Cheng also fell during her floor routine, then burst into tears as her coach tried to console her on the sideline.

Chusovitina, competing for Germany for the first time but in her fifth Olympics, won silver. A native of Uzbekistan and now a German citizen, the 33-year-old Chusovitina said she “feels 18.”

“Today I concentrated only on my moves, not the medals,” she said. “I felt that I had a very normal performance without surprises, and that is why I got a silver medal.”

American Alicia Sacramone, who has three world championships medals in vault, felt she deserved a medal, but finished fourth.

“I’m disappointed, especially since third place had a fall and I made both of mine,” she said. “I can’t change her score. The judges made up their minds.”

Sacramone was hoping to atone for her weak performance in the team competition, when she fell off the balance beam, then struggled on floor as the United States finished second to China.

“I definitely had to pull myself together a little bit the last few days,” Sacramone admitted. “I’m sure someday I’ll appreciate what I did. I still have to get to that step.”

8 Golds for Phelps

BEIJING (AP)—Michael Phelps locked arms with his three teammates, as though they were in a football huddle calling a play, then hugged each one of them.

It took a team to make him the grandest of Olympic champions. And one last big push from Phelps himself.

Going hard right to the end of a mesmerizing nine days in Beijing, Phelps helped the Americans come from behind Sunday in a race they’ve never lost at the Olympics, cheering from the deck as Jason Lezak brought it home for a world record in the 400-meter medley relay. It was Phelps’ history-making eighth gold medal of these games.

“Everything was accomplished,” he said. “I will have the medals forever.”

Phelps sure did his part to win No. 8, eclipsing Mark Spitz’s seven-gold performance at the 1972 Munich Games.

Team USA dominates

BEIJING – The United States is desperate to drain the drama out of these Olympic Games, delivering doses of destruction at a frightening and ferocious rate now. Spain surrendered without so much as a struggle, the defending world champion leaving itself and the rest of this tournament’s teams to ask a most sobering question: Never mind beating the Americans, can we even give them a game?

When the U.S.’s 119-82 beating was over, a bewildered European reporter had a question for Spain’s star, Pau Gasol: Had Spain held back – tanked, essentially – so it could manipulate the brackets for Argentina instead to meet the United States in the semifinals? With the loss, it’s most likely that Spain wouldn’t meet the Americans again until the gold medal game.

Make no mistake: The line for a silver medal starts behind Spain.

“They were sending a statement, ‘We are for real,’ and they sent it loud and clear,” Gasol said. “They wanted to show everyone they are superior, and they did.”

For those desperate to see the U.S. even challenged, they should hope that Spain was working that tanking angle. Who could even tell the difference? The U.S. never gave them a chance. The Americans never let them breathe.

Near the start of the game, Pau Gasol tried to set a screen on his Lakers teammate, Kobe Bryant, and just got obliterated. The message was unmistakable and the Americans pounded it into the Spaniards’ weary bodies and minds.

Here’s the difference between No. 1 and No. 2 in this tournament: Thirty-seven points.

So, yes, see you in the gold medal game.

“The Greek game, we thought we were going to be tested,” Carmelo Anthony said. “The Spain game, we thought we were going to be tested. We still have teams on the other side we haven’t played yet.”

That’s what Team USA is trying to tell itself anyway. The U.S. isn’t just destroying teams now, it’s delivering a goodwill clinic of the highest order. In the past, how the world had come to believe it could attack Americans centered on its lazy defense and spotty shooting. Suddenly, it’s impossible to run an offense against the U.S., a labor just to run a play against them without the ball getting swallowed up. The Americans are attacking in a way on defense that is systematically creating chaos, a perfect storm of athleticism, strength and speed that this time unleashed itself on the gifted Spanish guards.

“I guess you could say Americans haven’t played defense for the last eight years,” Jason Kidd said. “Look at 2004. Look at 2006. Our defensive intensity wasn’t high. Now, with the maturity of these guys, they understand what it takes.”

The 16 steals out of Team USA came from picking passes out of the air and scooping up dribbles and literally ripping the ball out of the Gasol brothers’ hands. These aren’t five separate fingers on the U.S. defense, but a fist. They move on a string, one movement related to the next, and the next, and the swarming upon the Spanish guards made it impossible for them to run an offense. Pity poor Ricky Rubio, the 17-year-old thrust into that grinder in this Pool B game.

The Americans pressured Spain’s players with the ball, blitzed passing lanes and created a torrent of turnovers and steals that sped the U.S. fast break. This game was done in the second quarter, a TKO without so much of an instant of doubt. The prospect of going the distance with the Americans hasn’t appeared this daunting for a long, long time.

“What makes this team a little special right now is that watching us on tape is one thing, but when you have the speed factor up close, it’s a whole different ball game,” Kidd said. “That comes from defense and our transition game. Look at the guys on the floor. Dwyane (Wade)…LeBron (James) – they’re all pretty fast.”

Spain turned the ball over 28 times, a fact that allowed the Americans to feast on fast breaks for a 32-0 advantage on the run. The U.S. made 12 of 25 three-pointers, so many coming from Chris Paul’s and James’ penetration and passes out to the perimeter for open shots. The balance for the Americans is staggering – eight players reached double figures – and that’s gone a long way to creating an uber team where the sum creeps closer to matching the parts.

Resistance was futile for Spain. Nothing worked. Spain was called for a technical foul for slapping the ball out of the basket as a means to slow down the U.S. Officials are supposed to warn a team just once before that delay-of-game call, and the U.S. bench howled when Spain was granted a second warning, too. Eventually, that act earned them a tech. For such a swift and athletic team as Spain, one that can be spectacular in transition, it was sobering for everyone that Spain was scoreless on the run. Thirty-two to nothing.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever seen that before,” Anthony marveled.

So exhausted were the referees with chasing the Americans up and down the floor, one Team USA veteran wondered whether the refs were blowing whistles on needless calls against both teams – the U.S. and Spain – just to stop the action and catch their breaths.

Through it all, Team USA’s gold medalist, Kidd, found himself searching for something to chastise his teammates for, to combat complacency. When the U.S. had a stretch of three consecutive turnovers, he lit into them. These days, the Americans aren’t chasing a gold medal as much as they are a standard of playing the game – perhaps even a small sliver of perfection.

“The small things are what win ball games and we got away from that after 2000,” Kidd said. “When you look at the rest of the world, that’s what they do well: All the little things. Pass the ball. Set screens. Make the extra pass. We got away from that. We thought our athletic ability was going to win ball games and that wasn’t the case.”

No more. Now, the Americans are doing it all again. The genius is in the details for American basketball again, and the defending world champion found itself flattened by 37 points on Saturday night. Spain stumbled away dazed, despondent and with an unmistakable message for the rest of the world’s teams: The line for the silver medal starts behind us.

Lightning Bolt

BEIJING – Like the best of showmen, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt left us wanting more.

Twenty meters from the finish line, his celebration began. He relaxed his arms, looked toward the crowd and slapped his chest. And despite those theatrics, he still covered 100 meters faster than any man ever has.

He did it in 9.69 seconds, and immediately one had to wonder how much faster he could go. Faster than a speeding bullet?

The showman teased our imaginations. But he denied us the answer, shrugging off questions about why he coasted for the final 20 meters rather than obliterate the world record.

“I didn’t come here to run the world record because I am the world-record holder,’’ he said. “I came here to win.’’

This wasn’t so much an Olympic 100-meter final as a tantalizing one-man show. Because the World’s Fastest Man is also the World’s Biggest Ham.

He was dancing before the race even began.

Shimmying in front of the starting blocks, Bolt struck a pose during pre-race introductions as if the race was over before it started. Turns out it was, and Bolt had post-race entertainment planned for the enthralled sellout crowd of 91,000.

It took him fewer than 10 seconds to run 100 meters but at least 10 minutes to complete his victory lap. He pulled off his gold spikes and held them aloft, wrapped himself in a Jamaican flag and clowned as if he were on stage at a karaoke bar rather than on the biggest stage of the Olympics.

“I like to have fun,’’ he explained.

Munching on a post-race snack during a press conference, Bolt said there would be plenty of time to test his limits and lower the world record. That’s the most mind-boggling part about it – what might come next.

He is only 21, and his specialty is the 200 meters. Like a lot of things in life, Bolt runs the 100 for fun.

At 6 feet 5, he stands in stark contrast to the shorter and stockier sprinters. Too tall to run the 100, most experts thought before the jolly giant arrived on the scene. It took him five races as a pro before he broke the world record.

“He’s a freak of nature,’’ said Darvis Patton, one of seven runners who was vying for the silver medal in Saturday’s final, seeing that Bolt could have jogged his way to the gold.

Lightning Bolt, they call him. Prodigy, they called him before that.

At 15, Bolt became the youngest-ever world junior champion in the 200. He qualified for the 2004 Games at the age of 17, but an injury derailed his chance of medaling. His coaches then urged him to begin running the 400, too, but Bolt hated the 400 workouts. So earlier this year, he and his coach cut a deal.

If Bolt broke the Jamaican record for the 200, he could give up the 400 in favor of the 100. So Bolt promptly broke that record and began a mind-boggling dash to the title of World’s Fastest Man.

He earned it May 31 when he beat Tyson Gay, the reigning world champion, and lowered the world record to 9.72 seconds from the 9.74 Jamaica’s Asafa Powell had run. Six weeks later, at the U.S. Olympic trials, Gay ran a wind-aided 9.68, setting up a hotly anticipated showdown with the young phenom.

But six days later, Gay suffered a hamstring injury and he failed to regain his form by Saturday, when he finished fifth in his semifinal heat. The mention of that after the race was about the only time Bolt looked downcast.

“I was looking forward to racing Tyson,’’ he said. “To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best.’’

But on Saturday, Bolt looked unbeatable. Next, he’ll turn his attention to the 200 meters, with the first rounds set for Monday and the finals scheduled for Wednesday. If he wins the event, he’ll become the first man to capture the gold in the 100 and 200 since Carl Lewis in 1984. Without anyone as talented as Lewis around to challenge him in the 200, he might be competing against history.

The world record of 19.32 seconds, set by Michael Johnson at the 1996 Olympics, looks within Bolt’s grasp. Marveling at Bolt’s performance, Johnson already has said of the 12-year-old record that he’s “ready to kiss it goodbye.’’

But if it happens, it might be incidental. Bolt looks and sounds more interested in winning gold medals and celebrating. When he had circled the track and finally completed his joyous and comical victory lap, he looked up at the crowd and took a bow.

Make no mistake. For the young showman, there will be an encore.

Hungarian weightlifter injured at Beijing Games

BEIJING (AP)—Hungarian strongman Janos Baranyai’s first Olympics ended in agony Wednesday when he dislocated his right elbow in the ugliest moment yet of the Olympic weightlifting competition.

Baranyai was trying to snatch 148 kg (326.3 pounds) in his third lift in the men’s 77-kilogram division, when his elbow popped out of socket.

No longer able to support the weight of the barbell, his right forearm bent backward. The 24-year-old Hungarian fell to the floor in shock, shaking and crying out in pain.

Hungary’s coaching staff and competition officials rushed to Baranyai’s aid as he lay trembling on the floor, his arm limp and twisted out of position.

Baranyai was carried off the platform on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to a hospital for evaluation and treatment.

“There was a dislocation of the elbow but the bones are not broken,” Hungarian weightlifting federation boss Tamas Feher said. “They just put it right back, but I think he’s lost the rest of the year.”

Feher said Baranyai was OK and watching the rest of Wednesday’s weightlifting competition on TV from a his bed at China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing.

“It looked really awful,” said Benny Johansson, a technical controller at the event. “If the ligaments are damaged then it could take several months to heal.”

He said elbow and knee injuries are the most common injuries in the sport, “but the number of injuries are quite small in comparison with the number of athletes. You cannot even compare it with football for example.”

A former judo wrestler from Oroszlany, Hungary, Baranyai was competing with the so-called B-group of lifters in the 77-kg division; the top contenders in the A-group were set to enter the contest later Wednesday.

Hungary’s lone lifter in the Olympics, he was ninth in both the snatch and clean and jerk in the European Championship earlier this year and placed 33rd in last year’s world championship.

He cleared his first snatch attempts at 140 kg (308 pounds) and 145 kg (319 pounds) before loading up the bar at 148 kg—a relatively modest weight in top-level competition. The world record in the snatch is 173 kg (463 pounds).

In the snatch, the bar is pulled overhead in one continuous motion as the lifter settles into a squat, then rises with arms extended. Baranyai was in the squat position when his elbow popped.

“He’s 24 so at least he has two more Olympics,” Feher said. “He’s our biggest hope for London 2012.”

Golden Guy

BEIJING (AP)—Michael Phelps won his fifth Olympic gold medal Wednesday, swimming the leadoff leg of the 800-meter freestyle relay and helping the United States smash the old world record by 4.68 seconds.

Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay led the entire race, winning in 6 minutes, 58.56 seconds. That bettered the old mark of 7:03.24 set by the U.S. at last year’s world championships in Australia.

Phelps earned his 11th career gold medal and second of the day. About an hour earlier, he won the 200 butterfly. He is 5-for-5 with world records in each of his events.

Russia took the silver in 7:03.70. Australia earned the bronze in 7:04.98.

USA 101, China 70

BEIJING (AP)—The U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team dazzled President Bush and perhaps a billion more fans in one of the most anticipated events of the Summer Games.

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and company put on a dunk contest Sunday night against China, playing up to the basketball-crazed Chinese fans that packed the arena. While the Americans struggled shooting jump shots, the Americans soared for array of reverse slams and tomahawk jams drawing oohs and ahhs from the fans as they cruised to a 101-70 victory.

Wade scored 19 points and James had 18 for the Americans. Kobe Bryant finished with 13 points.

But the score and the game didn’t seem to matter, this was an event.

China’s Yao Ming, All-Star center for the Houston Rockets, finished with 13 points. He started the showcase by drilling a 3-pointer from the top of the key for the first score of the game.

Bush and his family were wrapping up another long day of sports, more than 12 hours after they watched swimmer Michael Phelps win his first gold medal of these games.

The guys Bush caught here expect to bring home gold, too.

The Americans made 21 of their first 25 shots inside the 3-point arc, though they had another inept night behind it. Still, with James, Wade and Bryant repeatedly getting out on the break, the poor 3-point shooting wasn’t a problem on this night.

NBA players are wildly popular in China, where the league estimates 300 million people play basketball. The Americans, still known as the Dream Team here, enjoyed a huge backing during exhibition games in Macau and Shanghai, support that will surely help them here on their gold-medal quest.

Bush came out first, walking to his seat above center court about a half hour before the 10:15 start. He was still shaking hands and slapping five with fans around him minutes later when Yao, back from season-ending foot surgery in March, led China’s players onto the floor to a thunderous ovation.

The Chinese team gathered in the center circle and waved to their flag-waving fans, then began their pregame warm-ups. Fans remained standing and let out another roar when Yao made his first hoop—possibly the first standing ovation ever for a layup line.

The Americans sprinted out a few minutes later to an ovation that was just as loud. They were wearing their home white uniforms—and it felt like a game with two home teams. A listener going just by the noise from the crowd would have never known which team just scored.

Fans throughout the arena chanted “Jia You! Jia You!” (Let’s go!) and cheered plays on both ends. There was nothing resembling a boo until the referees called Yao for a blocking foul, instead of the charge he hoped for, on a basket by James almost 5 minutes into the game.

Yao’s 3-pointer to start the game sent the crowd back into a frenzy and China stayed in the game for a while by hitting from behind the arc. The Chinese hit eight of their first 12 attempts, with Sun Yue’s 3 tying it at 29 with 6:09 remaining in the second quarter.

The Americans then started forcing turnovers by China’s smaller guards— long the team’s Achilles’ heel—and broke open the game with a series of layups and dunks. That helped the U.S. score 10 straight, highlighted by James’ spectacular one-handed slam of Wade’s alley-oop pass, to build a 45-32 lead with under 2 minutes left in the half.

The lead reached 20 when Wade hit two free throws with 2:39 remaining in the third quarter, and the U.S. team kept building on it from there. Michael Redd’s 3-pointer with 6:54 to play made it 84-50 and sent Bush and his family to the exits.

Yao checked out about 2 minutes later, raising a fist to the appreciative fans who were still cheering even in the blowout.

The Americans face Angola on Tuesday. Things don’t get any easier for the Chinese, who face world champion Spain.

China strides onto Olympic stage

BEIJING (AP)—Once-reclusive China commandeered the world stage Friday, celebrating its first-time role as Olympic host with a stunning display of pageantry and pyrotechnics to open a Summer Games unrivaled for its mix of problems and promise.

Now ascendent as a global power, China welcomed scores of world leaders to an opening ceremony watched by 91,000 people at the eye-catching National Stadium and a potential audience of 4 billion worldwide. It was depicted as the largest, costliest extravaganza in Olympic history, bookended by barrages of some 30,000 fireworks.

To the beat of sparkling explosions, the crowd counted down the final seconds before the show began. A sea of drummers—2,008 in all—pounded out rhythms with their hands, then acrobats on wires gently wafted down into the stadium as rockets shot up into the night sky from its rim.

President Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were among the glittering roster of notables who watched China make this bold declaration that it had arrived. Bush, rebuked by China after he raised human-rights concerns this week, is the first U.S. president to attend an Olympics on foreign soil.

Already an economic juggernaut, China is given a good chance of overtaking the U.S. atop the gold-medal standings with its legions of athletes trained intensely since childhood. One dramatic showdown will be in women’s gymnastics, where the U.S. and Chinese teams are co-favorites; in the pool, Chinese divers and U.S. swimmers are expected to dominate.

The run-up to the games had epic story lines—China investing $40 billion to build the needed infrastructure, reeling from a catastrophic earthquake in Sichuan province in May, struggling right up to Friday to diminish Beijing’s stubborn smog. China’s detentions of political activists, its crackdown on uprisings in Tibet and its economic ties to Sudan—home of the war-torn Darfur region—fueled relentless criticisms from human rights groups and calls for an Olympic boycott.

Second-guessed for awarding the games to Beijing, the International Olympic Committee stood firmly by its decision. It was time, the committee said, to bring the games to the homeland of 1.3 billion people, a fifth of humanity.

The games, said IOC President Jacques Rogge, “are a chance for the rest of the world to discover what China really is.”

The story presented in Friday’s ceremony sought to distill 5,000 years of Chinese history—featuring everything from the Great Wall to opera puppets to astronauts, and highlighting achievements in art, music and science. Roughly 15,000 people were in the cast, all under the direction of Zhang Yimou, whose early films often often ran afoul of government censors for their blunt portrayals of China’s problems.

The show’s script steered clear of modern politics—there were no references to Chairman Mao and the class struggle, nor to the more recent conflicts and controversies. The ceremony was taped for broadcast 12 hours later in the United States.

A record 204 delegations were set to parade their athletes through the stadium—superstars such as basketball idols Kobe Bryant and Yao Ming, as well as plucky underdogs from Iraq, Afghanistan and other embattled lands. The nations were marching not in the traditional alphabetical order but in a sequence based on the number of strokes it takes to write their names in Chinese. The exceptions were Greece, birthplace of the Olympics, which was given its traditional place at the start, and the 639-member Chinese team, which lined up last.

The American flag-bearer was 1500-meter runner Lopez Lomong, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, who spent a decade of his youth in a refugee camp in Kenya. He’s a member of the Team Darfur coalition, representing athletes opposed to China’s support for Sudan. On Friday he avoided any criticism and said the Chinese “have been great putting all these things together.”

Abroad, human rights activists were less generous.

“The Chinese government and the International Olympic Committee have wasted a historic opportunity to use the Beijing Games to make real progress on human rights in China,” said Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch.

For Chinese dissidents who have dared to challenge the Communist Party’s monopoly on power, the start of the Olympics meant tighter surveillance and restrictions.

“It’s not my Olympic Games,” said Jiang Tianyong, a human rights lawyer. “It’s not the games for the ordinary people.”

By all indications, however, most Chinese have embraced the games, buying up tickets at a record pace, volunteering by the thousands for Olympic duties, nursing expectations of triumphs by their home team.

To their eyes, the omens were good. The ceremony began at 8 p.m. on the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008—auspicious in a country where eight is the luckiest number.

“It not easy to meet with such a date,” said Wang Wei, secretary general of Beijing Organizing Committee. “Hopefully this lucky day will bring luck.”

Favre traded to Jets overnight

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP)—Brett Favre’s journey from retirement and back has finally ended—in New York. The Green Bay Packers reached an agreement Wednesday night to trade their three-time MVP and Super Bowl-winning quarterback to the New York Jets, ending an emotionally grinding month of indecision over Favre’s future.

The move ends a remarkably ugly split between Green Bay and one of its most beloved players, allows the Packers to move forward with new starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers and gives Favre a fresh start—although not exactly the one he wanted, as Favre’s first choice was widely believed to be the Minnesota Vikings. Terms of the trade weren’t immediately available.
“It is with some sadness that we make this announcement, but also with the desire for certainty that will allow us to move the team and organization forward in the most positive way possible,” Green Bay officials said in a statement. Jets chairman and CEO Woody Johnson issued a statement early Thursday. “I am looking forward to seeing Brett Favre in a New York Jets uniform,” Johnson said. “He represents a significant addition to this franchise, and reflects our commitment to putting the best possible team on the field.”

Green Bay had been talking with the Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers since deciding earlier this week that they could no longer coexist with Favre. The Packers decided to move forward with Rodgers as their starer after Favre announced his retirement in March. Given their commitment to Rodgers, team officials weren’t particularly receptive when Favre decided just over a month ago that he might want to play after all—the latest development in several years’ worth of flip-flopping about his football future. The agreement was first reported by Fox Sports on its Web site.

“We just felt like this was an opportunity to go get somebody of Brett’s stature and what he’s accomplished,” Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum said during a conference call early Thursday morning. “We felt it was in the best interest of the team and when the opportunity presented itself, we felt it was the right move for us to make and we went ahead and did it.”
A number of fans made it clear throughout training camp that they wanted Favre on the Jets with signs and “Get Brett!” chants. Favre’s new No. 4 Jets jersey already was for sale on the team’s Web site about an hour after the trade was announced.

Tannenbaum, who said he had a “good” conversation with Favre, wouldn’t speculate whether the quarterback will play in New York beyond this season. “We had discussions with him and his agent, Bus Cook,” Tannenbaum said, “and we’re going into this and we’re going to take this one year at a time and we’re excited to have Brett on the team this year.” The arrival of Favre signals the end of Chad Pennington’s career with the Jets. Tannenbaum said there would be another transaction regarding Pennington, who spent his first eight seasons with the Jets.
“It’s a bittersweet moment for us,” Tannenbaum said. “I have all the respect in the world for Chad as a person, as a player. We’ve accomplished a lot of good things with Chad … He gave his heart and soul to this organization for a long, long time. I really appreciate everything he’s done.”

Favre left Green Bay on Wednesday, boarding a private plane that left for Hattiesburg, Miss. at 1:25 p.m. EDT with his wife, Deanna, and Cook. Favre’s family home is near Hattiesburg.
In Mississippi, Favre confirmed that he was considering the Jets and Buccaneers.
“We’re working on it,” Favre told Jackson TV station WJTV. “Hopefully, we can get something resolved. I’ve been saying that for quite a while now. I don’t want to say we’re running out of time, but I need to get into a camp somewhere.” The 38-year-old Favre holds most major NFL passing records and led the Packers to the NFC Championship last season, where they lost to the New York Giants. Favre threw what would prove to be the decisive interception in overtime.
The Jets went into training camp with an open competition between Pennington and Kellen Clemens after neither established themselves during a 4-12 season. Pennington was 1-7 as the starter and was benched midway through the season. Clemens went 3-5, but Pennington actually had the better season statistically.

After some hope for reconciliation between Favre and the Packers earlier this week, the final split became obvious Tuesday evening. Packers coach Mike McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday that after approximately six hours of what he called “brutally honest” conversations over two days, the coach had determined that Favre doesn’t have the right mind-set to play for the Packers. McCarthy said Favre couldn’t seem to get past emotional wounds that were opened as tensions mounted in recent weeks—even with the chance to win his starting job back potentially on the table. “The train has left the station, whatever analogy you want,” McCarthy said Tuesday. “He needs to jump on the train and let’s go. Or, if we can’t get past things that have happened, I have to keep the train moving.”

McCarthy said Wednesday he was happy the rest of his players were getting a chance to move forward. “We talked about it last night,” McCarthy said. “The players want resolution, they want what everybody wants. To come out here every day and talk about somebody that is not here and then shows up, it’s gone on too long, and understandably so. They want to play football.”

Favre trade talk heating up as Packers move on

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP)—Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson was not seen at practice Wednesday morning, and his scheduled early afternoon media availability was postponed—one of several signs a trade involving Brett Favre might be brewing.
Favre’s agent, James “Bus” Cook, confirmed in an e-mail to The Associated Press Wednesday that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Jets were emerging as the most likely trade destinations for the three-time MVP.
Favre was on a private plane that left for Hattiesburg, Miss. at 1:25 p.m. Cook and Favre’s wife, Deanna, also boarded the plane. Favre’s family home is near Hattiesburg.
Earlier Wednesday, Cook told the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger that the trade might happen in a matter of hours.

“Brett’s ready to go play,” Cook told the paper. Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden refused to address speculation that the team was on the verge of a deal for Favre. The Buccaneers have yet to confirm publicly that they are interested in Favre, although Gruden conceded that Favre’s situation is “unprecedented” and acknowledged that he’s always willing to explore ways to improve his team.

“We are a good football team,” Gruden said. “We’re trying to become a great one. We’ll do anything we can to get better. And if that involves looking at other players, by George that’s our job. That’s our responsibility.” The Jets had no comment on the Favre situation, a team spokesman said Wednesday. Meanwhile, Packers coach Mike McCarthy said he was happy the rest of his players were getting a chance to move on.

Players vented frustration over the Favre situation Tuesday, after fans chanting “Bring Back Brett!” turned practice into a zoo-like atmosphere and reporters continued asking questions about Favre instead of football. “It’s time for it to be over,” cornerback Charles Woodson said Tuesday. “It’s gone on long enough.” As the league’s longest-running daytime drama continued to twist and turn, Woodson and other veteran Packers players weren’t publicly assessing blame or taking sides. They just didn’t want to talk or think about it any more.

“For them to keep us in the dark and just have us answering a bunch of questions that we can’t possibly have a good answer for, I don’t think it’s fair to us,” Woodson said. “I think there needs to be something said, yea or nay for Brett Favre.”
That answer—a resounding “nay”—came Tuesday evening, when McCarthy told reporters that after extensive conversations with Favre over the past two days, he has determined that Favre doesn’t have the right mindset to play for the Packers.
McCarthy has praised his players’ ability to stay focused throughout the team’s showdown with Favre, but acknowledged Tuesday that it could take a toll on the team.
“We have an excellent opportunity here to be a very good football team in 2008,” McCarthy said. “We’ve had an extraordinary challenge dealing with this situation, a lot can be learned from it, but they definitely want this thing resolved as soon as possible.”
Wide receiver Greg Jennings admitted Tuesday’s practice—with fans chanting for Favre and against general manager Ted Thompson—was a distraction. Just like everything else in this ugly, omnipresent mess.
“When it’s in your face, like this, how do you avoid it? How do you not allow it to be in the back of your head? You can’t,” Jennings said. “You’re thinking about it. Everybody’s in here thinking about it, and we just don’t know what the next move’s going to be.”

The next move might be coming soon. But for now, it’s clear that bond between Favre and the Packers appears to be broken beyond repair. After approximately six hours of what McCarthy called “brutally honest” conversations with Favre over the past two days, McCarthy said Favre couldn’t seem to get past emotional wounds that were opened as tensions mounted in recent weeks—even with the chance to win his starting job back potentially on the table. “The train has left the station, whatever analogy you want,” McCarthy said. “He needs to jump on the train and let’s go. Or, if we can’t get past things that have happened, I have to keep the train moving.”
Favre left Lambeau Field just before Packers practice Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re at a stalemate,” Favre told ESPN Tuesday morning.

Induction ceremony at Hall of Fame goes Hog wild

CANTON, Ohio (AP)—The Hall of Fame induction ceremony turned Hog wild Saturday.

Darrell Green and Art Monk walked across the stage waving their arms and urged thousands of Washington Redskins fans to give them one more salute. Emmitt Thomas, the former Chiefs player and Redskins coach, simply waved back.

And they applauded the three other inductees without Washington ties—Fred Dean, Andre Tippett and Gary Zimmerman—knowing they would have fit in with the Redskins’ blue-collar reputation.

“Standing up here on this platform is much different than I imagined,” Monk said. “The reality of getting into the Pro Football Hall of Fame didn’t really hit me till a few days ago. And then to see the magnitude of all of this, and all of you, it’s been something amazing.”

Almost as shocking as the partisan crowd that turned Canton, Ohio, into a temporary home for the Redskins.

From the burgundy-and-yellow clad crowd to the pig’s snouts to the responses whenever the Dallas Cowboys were mentioned, the ceremony looked more like a team induction than a league-wide enshrinement.

Fans cheered louder each time Thomas mentioned a Redskins player or coach. They chanted “Dar-rell, Dar-rell” when Green stepped to the microphone, and the continual cheers forced Monk to start speaking while they were still applauding.

Yes, it had everything but the band playing “Hail To The Redskins.”

The inductions were also marked by poignancy.

Dean, Tippett and Zimmerman all chose team owners as their introductory speakers. Green, Monk and Thomas each gave the honor to their sons, and Derek Thomas delivered the most moving of those speeches after watching his father endure a decades-long wait before finally earning his spot in the Hall.

The younger Thomas, a college basketball coach, suggested it was time for his father to finally let everyone know how good a player he was, then broke down as he wrapped up.

“My dad provided my sister and me with a lot of great advice throughout the years,” he said. “Like most kids, we don’t always follow that advice. A piece of advice he gave me once was never make athletes your heroes because they are humans and they make mistakes, too. I guess I didn’t listen to that advice very well. I’d like to introduce you to my hero, my mentor, my father, Emmitt Thomas.”

Others recounted tales oft tragedy and hardship in their lives.

Green, the oldest cornerback in league history (42) when he retired in 2002, spoke of the deaths of two close friends from his childhood days and the deaths last year of two former teammates—Kevin Mitchell and Sean Taylor.

As usual, Green, did his own thing, though. The only player in the ‘08 class selected in his first year of eligibility was also the only one to cry, and he was proud of it.

“Deacon Jones said I was gonna cry. You bet I’m gonna cry,” he said after his son, Jared, introduced him. “You bet you’re life I’m gonna cry. You bet your life I will. That’s my boy, that’s my boy right there.”

Thomas, who still holds the Chiefs record with 58 interceptions, took another tack.

He spoke of the difficulties he had growing up, following the death of his mother when he was 8 years old.

As a tribute to his grandfather, Thomas asked the Hall of Fame to let him go into the Hall with the name of Emmitt Earl Fyles Dean. His grandfather’s name was Lewis Fyles Jr.

“My late grandfather is still my hero. I remember those long, hot summer nights sitting on the porch listening to a game or a prize fight or other sporting events,” he said. “He taught me about honor, commitment, love, religion, hard work and respect.”

There was also funny moments.

Dean, the first pass-rush specialist in league history, spoke so deliberately and emphatically, it sounded like a church sermon. In the middle of the speech, however, Dean told the crowd he had forgotten his glasses and couldn’t reach the speech. Another Hall of Famer responded by quickly handing them to Dean.

“I think that’s gonna work, dog,” Dean said, drawing laughter.

Zimmerman, who protected John Elway’s blindside for five years in Denver and was one of the era’s best tackles, spoke about his own learning curve after leaving Minnesota.

It was with Denver that Zimmerman won his only Super Bowl ring—and that he learned about The Curse.

“It happens when you’re protecting someone like John and what happens is the night before the game you get little or no sleep,” he said. “Because if you didn’t do your job, you’ll forever be known as the guy who lost our franchise. … I would also like to thank John, it was worth every sleepless night.

Tippett, a fearsome pass rusher with New England who was cut out of the same mold as Lawrence Taylor, reflected on the things he did that helped him embark on a Hall of Fame career.

“In my youth, I watched every game I could. I studied all the great players — (Jack) Lambert, (Jack) Ham, Bobby Bell and many others,” he said. “Some kids play cops and robbers. I emulated you.”

The largest ovation was for Monk, who retired in 1995 as the NFL’s career receptions leader with 940 catches—apparently not enough to make it into the Hall of Fame on his first seven chances.

“It’s been hard to sit back and think about the significance of what all this really means,” Monk said. “By now, I realize that it’s more than a bust and wearing a gold jacket. It’s about history and the game and those who made the game what it is today, and it’s a privilege to be included in that group.”