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U.S. women draw short straw
Posted: Monday June 19, 2000 12:59 PM
A brutal draw will have the U.S. women's soccer team fighting for its life in order to defend its Olympic title in Sydney. Should the Americans lose their first two games to '96 bronze medalist Norway and '96 silver medalist China, they could be eliminated from medal contention as early as Sept. 17, two days after the opening ceremonies. U.S. defender Brandi Chastain, who scored the winning shootout goal against China at last summer's World Cup, says she likes the draw. "If you want to be the best you have to beat everybody," Chastain said. "If this is our toughest challenge, I'd say our track record of rising to challenges is pretty good." Barnett suggests foul playWes Barnett became the first U.S. weightlifter in 20 years to win a world medal when he captured a bronze at the '97 world championships. I asked Barnett recently if he were to take 50 of the world's top weightlifters, how many would be taking something they shouldn't be taking? "Since we're not naming names or countries," he told me, "I would say that all of them would be. The only person that you're 100% sure about is yourself." Zeiger has full plateIf you think the dedicated student-athlete is a thing of the past, consider Joanna Zeiger. The triathlete plans to compete in the Olympics, the Hawaii Ironman a month later and then finish Ph.D. studies in genetic epidemiology at Johns Hopkins next spring. Zeiger's interest in genetics spawned from the death of her two-year-old brother, Michael, who passed away two months before she was born in 1970. Michael suffered from a genetic disorder called Tay-Sachs disease that now affects fewer than 20 Americans a year. The Zeigers' parents, Karen and Bob, have devoted much of their time to educating people about the rare disease that their daughter was lucky to avoid. "Joanna's whole life has been a miracle," Karen Zeiger told me. Joanna also competed at the U.S. swim trials in 1988 and '92 and placed 30th in the U.S. marathon trials in February. She came from three minutes back to make her first Olympic team at the U.S. triathlon trials last month.Brian Cazeneuve is a Sports Illustrated writer-reporter who covers the Olympics. He is a frequent contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send a question to his Sydney 2000 Mailbag.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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