Track and Field: 2008 Olympic Team USA Named
The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, will witness the power house roster of an experienced American Track and Field Team. This is what the rest of the world will be competing against: a strong line-up with 15 Olympic medalists, 31 World Outdoor Championships medalists and 11 individual outdoor American record holders
USA Track & Field and the U.S. Olympic Committee on Monday presented a 126-athlete track & field squad that will be led by multi-time medalists Allyson Felix, Lauryn Williams, Sanya Richards, Bernard Lagat, Tyson Gay (has already a poster shot of him on the Great Wall of China, and is spread all across the internet already), Adam Nelson, Bryan Clay and Jeremy Wariner.
The 2004 gold medalists that are defending their titles this year are Shawn Crawford (M200) and Jeremy Wariner (M400) and silver medalists Lauryn Williams (W100), Allyson Felix (W200m), Bryan Clay (MDecathlon), Adam Nelson (MSP), Terrence Trammell (M110mH) and Bernard Lagat (M1,500 while competing for Kenya). Team USA 2004 won a total of 25 medals, eight of them gold, at the last Olympic Games in Athens. It was the highest U.S. medal tally at an Olympics since the Barcelona 1992 Games.
Team USA is coming off an incredibly strong performance at the 2007 World Outdoor Championships in Osaka, Japan, as well, where they won 26 medals, 14 of them gold. That performance tied the World Championships record for gold medals - Team USA also won 14 in 2005, in Helsinki - and tied the Team USA record for medal count at a World Outdoors.
USATF President/Acting CEO Bill Roe is confident enough to say that the Team USA this year is one of their strongest ever, with more medal-winning experience in a wider range of events, from sprints to distances and field events, than they've had in many decades. While it would take an incredible performance to match their medal counts of recent championships, he certainly feels that this team has what it takes to again top the medal tables.
Just to emphasize this Olympic's Team formidable force, of the 11 American record holders on the roster, eight have set their ARs in 2007 or 2008, including Tyson Gay, Shalane Flanagan, Kim Kreiner, Breaux Greer, Jenn Stuczynski, Brad Walker, Anna Willardand Suzy Powell-Roos.
The Team USA coaching staffs will be led by head coaches Jeanette Bolden for the women and Bubba Thornton for the men; head managers are Rich Torrellas (women) and James Li (men).
