Swimming leads the way in UA Olympic athletes

The Olympics are one event in which every American cheers for the same team - unless you're a UA swimming and diving fan.

Nearly a dozen current or former Wildcat swimmers and divers made it to the Olympics under the flags of six different countries. UA head coach Frank Busch will be going to his second games as a U.S. assistant coach, after going in 2000 as a South Africa assistant coach.

"I guess it says we are pretty fortunate. We have some pretty talented athletes and most of them are living their dream come true to come to the Olympics," Busch said.

UA student Amanda Beard qualified in three individual events and earned a world record in the 200-meter breast at the U.S. trials. At 14, Beard won two silver medals in the 1996 games in Atlanta. She also won a 4x100-meter medley relay gold and a bronze in the 200-meter breaststroke in 2000.

Beard has been featured in Maxim, Men's Fitness, Vanity Fair and FHM and was one of three athletes on Sports Illustrated's "Hot list," which also included former Wildcat softball star Jennie Finch. Beard swam for the UA for two years before leaving the team for the pros, but stayed on campus and kept Busch as her personal coach.

UA associate head coach Rick DeMont, a two-time All-American at the UA, will get a second Olympic chance as an assistant for South Africa after a heartbreaking 1972 games. While he has been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame, the former 1500-meter freestyle and 400-meter free world record holder was stripped of his 1500-meter gold medal because he unknowingly took asthma medication containing the banned drug ephedrine.

Busch and DeMont's South African Wildcats at the games will be Ryk Neethling, Roland Schoeman and junior Lyndon Ferns. The other Wildcats are junior Simon Burnett of Great Britain, Eric LaFleur for Sweden, Luis Rojas for Mexico and Juan Veloz for Venezuela.

Busch figures that some of the other top swimming programs have as many Olympians as the UA, but admits it would be tough.

"I'm sure there are some schools that have as many as we do going; I'm sure some of the big programs have as many or more but it is quite a few," Busch said.

Arizona track and field at the games

The Arizona track and field team will be well represented in Athens, and will have its top two coaches working as assistants for two running powers.

UA track and field director Fred Harvey will go the Olympics as an assistant coach for the U.S. team. Harvey was the head coach of the United States' 2003 Pan American games team, leading the Americans to 21 medals, seven of which were gold.

UA student Esko Mikkola, an electrical and computer engineering doctoral student, will represent Finland in the javelin after winning two NCAA national championships as a Wildcat.

UA head cross country coach and distance running coach James Li will go to Athens as an assistant coach for long distance powerhouse Kenya and as Tucsonan Bernard Lagat's personal coach. Lagat is the brother of UA junior Robert Cheseret, the 5,000-meter NCAA champion.

Several former Wildcats will compete in the Olympics' track and field events. Abdi Abdirahman and Alexandra Komnos will both compete for the United States. Chima Ugwu will compete for Nigeria, Dominic Johnson for St. Lucia and Patrick Nduwimana for Burundi.

Additionally, Yuliana Perez, a UA student last fall and UA track and field signee who decided to leave early for the pros, will be going to the games as of Aug. 6. Perez, the 2002 and 2003 USA outdoor triple jump champion, should go to the games despite a sixth place at the U.S. trials.

US softball highly favored

It was supposed to be the heavy expectations weighing on them, but instead the members of the USA softball team will play in Athens with heavy hearts.

On the last stop of their "Aiming for Athens" tour, Sue Candrea, wife of U.S. and UA head coach Mike Candrea, died. It was the only loss of the 53-game tour.

Sue, a fixture on the tour and at the UA, was mourned during the team's brief break before heading to Athens.

The U.S. will enter the games as heavy favorites, having been ranked No. 1 in the world for 18 years in a row.

The U.S. won the first two Olympic gold medals for the sport and features a lineup stacked with pitching, speed and power.

At least statistically, Finch is the team's ace hurler, after going 15-0 on a team-high 16 starts. Finch appeared a team-high 28 times, with a 0.27 ERA over a team-high 100.1 innings and team-leading .062 opponent batting average.

Former Wildcat and two-time gold medallist Leah O'Brien-Amico batted .380 on the tour and started 49 games. Ex-Wildcat Lovie Jung started 51 games and batted .301 and former UA player Nicole Giordano, an alternate, batted .333 after playing 33 games.

Jefferson's 'dream' team

Getting to compete in the Olympics is every athlete's dream. To miss the games is heartbreaking ... unless you're an American male basketball player.

Even though player after player, including ex-UA star Mike Bibby, has shunned the 2004 U.S. Senior National Team, former Wildcat Richard Jefferson jumped at the chance to play in the Olympics.

While Americans have been warned to not to call the latest NBA player-stacked U.S. basketball team a "Dream Team," competing in the Olympics is a dream for Jefferson.

"My goal was to make the 2008 Olympic Team ... and to have my dream come true four years earlier is very hard to put into words," Jefferson said to U.S. Basketball. "It is an honor and a privilege, and I cannot wait for the competition to begin."

Jefferson, who signed a six-year, $78 million contract with the New Jersey Nets, who drafted him after three years at Arizona, was originally a tentative U.S. basketball selection.

But Jefferson earned a spot after becoming a higher-profile NBA player and playing on the qualifying team last year.

"I'm happy for Richard; he deserves it," said UA assistant coach Josh Pastner. "It's a situation where he has one of those big contracts and he has really done well for himself, has improved every year. He's marketable; he's become a very good defender in the NBA."

While Jefferson was originally slated to start, the team's recent struggles, including an 80-77 win over Germany and a 95-78 loss to Italy - both teams that didn't make the Olympics - make it unclear as to who U.S. head coach Larry Brown will use.

"If LeBron James and (Allen Iverson) keep coming late he might be starting the whole thing," Pastner said. "I don't know what will happen with them losing to Italy, but I'm happy for him. He deserves to be starting and if he can continue to produce, Coach Brown is going to want guys that play hard, produce and are efficient."

Bibby, part of the reason Shaquille O'Neal said he did not want to compete in the games, withdrew from the team earlier this summer.

Pastner didn't know why his former teammate and pupil backed out of the games, but figured it was security concerns, a common fear among NBA players.