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The heat is on
Latest: Wednesday September 20, 2000 07:38 PM
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By Mitch Gelman and Adam Levine, CNNSI.com
Entering the Olympics with 110 straight wins, the United States softball team was heavily favored to take home the gold.
But after back-to-back losses, the U.S. women are in trouble.
Following a 2-1 extra-innings loss to Japan (4-0), the Americans dropped a 14-inning marathon 2-0 to China (3-1). The game ended when Lisa Fernandez, now hitless is 18 Olympics at-bats, popped up with a runner on base.
The U.S. tumbled into a tie for fourth in the eight-team Olympic round-robin. Only the top four teams advance to the medal round.
Up next is a crucial showdown with host nation Australia (3-1) later this morning. No-hit specialist Fernandez gets a chance to make up for her lack of hitting when she takes the mound.
The U.S. closes the prelims with games against relative pushovers New Zealand (2-2) and Italy (1-3).
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Chat on CNNSI.com Thursday at 8 p.m. EDT with United States baseball hero Mike O'Neill, whose game-winning home run against Japan started the U.S. on a path that may lead to a finals matchup with Cuba, which saw its 20-game Olympic winning streak snapped by the Netherlands.
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The pool is set for some super showdowns: On Friday, Gary Hall Jr., of the U.S., meets rival, defending Olympic champion Alex Popov, of Russia, in a rematch of their 1996 race, and on Saturday the U.S. meets Australia in another relay, the 4 x 100 medley.
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Drugs remain an ugly undercurrent at these Olympics. A Bulgarian weightlifter is stripped of a silver medal; a hammer thrower from Belarus is banned; a Uzbekistani track and field coach is charged with importing an illegal substance in his luggage. Meanwhile, an already-banned Romanian weightlifter is on a hunger strike and, his coach said, threatening to kill himself if he is not reinstated. The reported official response from an international weightlifting official: "I'll sharpen [the] knife."
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Twenty-one-year-old Misty Hymen, from Phoenix, Ariz., stunned world-record holder Susie O'Neill to win the 200-meter butterfly in Olympic record time. "Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" she screamed.
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Australian equestrian mainstay Andrew Hoy led his country's three-day event team to three gold medals in three consecutive Olympics. After the win, Hoy gave some of the credit to his steady, gray horse, Darien .
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The change from three three-minute boxing rounds to four two-minute rounds makes for faster-paced, more exciting matches.
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Aussie TV 7 Network returned late from a commercial break and missed the start of local hero Susie O'Neill's gold-medal winning 200-meter freestyle race. Sometimes, tape-delayed is better.
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Marion Jones' dogs, Izzy and Polly, are on her mind. Jones reportedly calls her home in Raleigh, N.C., each day, where a housesitter holds the phone to the ears of the mastiff and the chow until they wag their tails.
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The favored Ivan Ivankov, who appeared on the Olympics preview cover of Sports Illustrated, finished fourth in the men's all-around. The gymnast finished behind Russia's Alexei Nemov, China's Wei Yang and the Ukraine's Oleksandr Beresh.
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The humility of torch bearer and 400-meter gold medal hopeful Cathy Freeman. Asked her reaction to lighting the flame, Freeman told the media, "I'm such a shy thing. When I hear you say I'm the darling, that cracks me up."
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Two mother-flame lamps were reported stolen. The lamps, which carried the flame from Olympia, Greece, and had been used to relight the Olympic torch when it went out a few times during the torch relay, turned up missing after the Opening Ceremonies.
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Firing back at skeptics, Ireland's Michelle Smith 
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates has been hanging out at the table tennis venue, watching the best ping pong players in the world. Expect a delegation of "athletes" from Microsoft HQ in Redmond, Wash., if foosball is ever made an Olympic sport.
Four-one-hundredths-of-a-second was all that separated silver medalist Alex Popov and bronze medalist Gary Hall Jr. in the 100-meter freestyle. They next face off in the 50-meter freestyle.
Dutch swimmer Inge de Bruijn goes for her second gold medal of the Games in the 100-meter freestyle Thursday.