'Swifter, Higher, Stronger'
The Olympic Motto is a goal for athletes in these competitions: boxing, softball, soccer,
Boxing: When We Were Kings
American boxing has a storied Olympic legacy, serving as the golden launch for giants of the ring such as Muhammad Ali (or Cassius Clay, as he was known at the time), Joe Frazier, George Foreman, "Sugar" Ray Leonard and Oscar De La Hoya. But in recent Games, the United States has arrived with that legacy and returned home with little (nothing) to add to it. Americans have been winning gold in several gladiatorial sports—freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, taekwondo and fencing—but since De La Hoya won gold in Barcelona in '92, only two Americans—David Reid in '96 in Atlanta and Andre Ward in 2004 in Athens—have climbed to the top of the podium. (a U.S. boxer hasn't topped the podium since David Reid in 1996). This year could be different, though. The team boasts America's first world amateur champs since 1999: Cincinnati flyweight Rau'shee Warren and Providence welterweight Demetrius Andrade.
Bicycle Motocross: Come On, Let's Go For a Ride
New Olympic sports can usually be summed up with one of three words: "fast," "sexy" or "splat." Anything that showcases speed, skin or danger makes the sport TV-friendly. Snowboard cross, with its downhill velocity and spectacular wipeouts, was a hit in its debut at Torino 2006. This summer its spiritual twin, bicycle motocross, or BMX, crashes the Games. BMX is a dirt-track race with plenty of jumps—and plenty of opportunities for catastrophe. Sand will be hot in Beijing, too. America's defending beach-volleyball champs Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh remain the gold standard—they haven't lost a match in almost a year.
Martial Arts: Fighting Family Taes
Steven Lopez is among the most accomplished U.S. Olympians you've probably never heard of. The 29-year-old Houston native will be bidding for his third consecutive taekwondo gold in Beijing. That makes him the biggest name on the American squad—even though "Lopez" is pretty much the only name on the squad: the four-person taekwondo team also includes his brother Mark, 26, and his sister, Diana, 24—the first time in more than a century that three siblings have been on the same U.S. Olympic team. And the coach? Yet another Lopez: Jean, the oldest brother and a 1996 Olympian himself. The only U.S. Olympian in taekwondo with a surname other than Lopez is Charlotte Craig.
Softball and Soccer: Goodbye, Golden Girls
Two of America's most successful women's teams are hoping that Beijing will get them headed back in the right direction. The soccer team is trying to rebound from a disappointing and dispiriting performance in last year's World Cup. The bronze-medal finish was bad enough—even worse was the rupture in the team's treasured notion of "sisterhood." The culprit was goalkeeper Hope Solo, who publicly criticized a teammate and was booted off the team right before its final game. But Solo will be back in goal for the squad's first post-Mia Hamm Olympics, and she'll have a shot to redeem herself and her team. The U.S. softballers face a taller challenge. Their sport has already been dropped (along with baseball) from future Games, meaning it will join croquet, polo and tug of war among the ghosts of Olympics past. So the goal in Beijing for the U.S. team, led again by ace Jennie Finch, is twofold: win a fourth straight gold and prove that dumping the sport was a big mistake.
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Mark Starr was named a senior editor in March 1998. He continues to serve as Newsweek's Boston bureau chief, where he has been headquartered since 1985. Starr has also held the title national sports correspondent since 1992. Before moving to Boston, he spent four years as a general editor in National Affairs.
Starr has covered eight Olympics, beginning with the Winter Games in Albertville and the Summer Games in Barcelona back in 1992. Before the Salt Lake Olympics, he wrote a cover story on American skating queen Michelle Kwan and, during the Games, covered both figure skating's judging scandal and Sarah Hughes' upset gold medal. In December 2001, Starr profiled Hughes in Newsweek's year-end issue as the "Athlete to Watch" in 2002, calling her a strong upset possibility in Salt Lake.
He was also prominently involved in four cover stories on the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding saga, which climaxed on the ice in Lillehamer, Norway in 1994. Starr has also covered three World Cups, writing cover stories on the shocking French men's home triumph in 1998 as well as America's "girls of summer," after they beat the Chinese in a thrilling Rose Bowl shootout in 1999. Starr has always been interested in women's sports. In 1996, he wrote on the U.S. women's basketball team hopes for an Olympic gold medal to jump-start a pro league. A year earlier Starr sailed with the women of America3 before its America's Cup challenge in San Diego.
Starr was a major contributor to Newsweek's special issue on the retirement of Michael Jordan, "The Greatest Ever" (October/November 1993) and the March 20, 1995, cover story on Jordan's first return to basketball, "Hoop Dreams." Starr has profiled a wide range of top personalities and performers in all sports including basketball's Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, baseball's Pedro Martinez, NFL coaches Steve Spurrier and Bill Parcells, skating star Tara Lipinski, tennis' Martina Hingis, boxing champ Evander Holyfield, track stars Marion Jones, Michael Johnson and Carl Lewis, soccer superstars Roberto Baggio and Mia Hamm, Olympic gymnast Shannon Miller, speedskating queen Bonnie Blair and golfer David Duval.
Starr has also covered some of the more dramatic political stories out of Massachusetts, including John Silber's longshot bid to capture the State House, congressman Barney Frank's revelation that he was gay and Michael Dukakis's 1988 campaign for the presidency. Starr rode the Dukakis "bus" from New Hampshire until the November election.
Prior to Newsweek, Starr covered Central America for the Chicago Tribune during the Sandinista revolution of the late '70s. He was also a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury-News.
Starr, a native of Boston, holds a B.A. from Cornell University and an M.A. in journalism from Stanford.
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