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Sweating for Sydney U.S. women prep for Olympics with grueling workout
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- After 90 minutes of practice in August heat and humidity, the U.S. women's Olympic soccer team was exhausted. Then came the hard part. Twelve red flags were placed on the field, forming a huge square about 40 yards on each side, a medium-sized square and a small square that was about half the size of the large one. The players were divided into four teams: blue, white, yellow and red. When coach April Heinrichs said "Go," a sprint relay race had begun around the large square. Balls were used as batons. Each player had to run three laps. Everyone but the winning team would have to do instant sit-ups. When the race was over, the players were bent over catching their breaths. The sun-soaked fans in the bleachers applauded and thought the practice was over. But the players weren't done. There was another race around the medium-sized square. Then another around the small square. Sit-ups followed each race. Some players doffed their shoes and ran barefoot, including Mia Hamm and Carla Overbeck. "Leave your shoes on! That's just for Carla!" said Heinrichs, a reference to Overbeck's rehabilitation from recent knee surgery. Hamm ignored the coach and kept running barefoot. After the third race, the players went back to the large square to repeat it all over again. Then Heinrichs backed off her usual tough, no-nonsense approach for a millisecond and told the players that, from now on, they would only have to do two laps per race instead of three. "No!" cried Overbeck, the team captain. "We want three!" "All right," Heinrichs said. "Three." The races resumed. Overbeck, sensing curses being muttered her way, called out: "The Norwegians are doing this, everybody!" By the time they were done, no one could stand. The practice, which took place Thursday in advance of an exhibition game against Russia in Annapolis on Sunday, was over. "A fitness workout like that, you don't recover from," said Hamm, soaking wet as she walked off the field. While the Washington Redskins would be calling ambulances if their players tried such a workout, soccer demands it. Players run six miles or more per game, and the U.S. women are doing their best to avoid a letdown after last year's World Cup victory as they head to the Olympics next month. But even by those standards, this was a rough workout. "I'd rate it a 10," forward Tiffeny Milbrett said. "We've had a lot of travel. This is our first training session in this kind of humidity. To come out exhausted and then have that, it made us 10 times exhausted." The drill also demonstrated the leadership of Overbeck, whom Heinrichs called the "glue" of the team when she announced the Olympic roster Thursday. Not many captains volunteer their teammates for 50 percent more laps. "It's a major leadership moment," Heinrichs said. "And 30 seconds later she probably realized she wasn't the most popular person in town. But she's not the captain because she's the most popular player, she's the captain because she's the true leader." Overbeck agrees she wasn't Miss Popularity on this particular day, but she felt it was best not to be cutting back with a gold medal on the line. "They were cursing me," Overbeck said. "They all admitted to me they were cursing me. But coach originally said we'll do three, three, three. I just wanted to make sure that we were getting fit, and we didn't want to slack off on it. "That's something this team has always done, is outwork our opponents. We're going to be the fittest team out there. Letting us do two instead of three is not getting it done." Heinrichs said some of the players actually thanked Overbeck when it was over, at least those still had some breath. Meanwhile, Hamm was still claiming innocence on the no-shoe rule. "I didn't know it was a rule," Hamm said. "I told April I was starting to get blisters, and I just thought it was more important to play in the game Sunday."
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