Beijing Olympic Games

After no track medals in ‘04, US cyclists aim high

By TIM REYNOLDS, AP Sports Writer

BEIJING (AP)—USA Cycling team leader Pat McDonough isn’t keen on making his Olympic medal expectations public, saying he wouldn’t want to place added pressure on American racers.

He couldn’t help but share one prediction, however.

“I do believe we won’t be shut out, that’s for sure,” McDonough said.

At the very least, even one medal would represent an improvement from the U.S. showing four years ago in Athens, when the Americans’ best finish was Erin Mirabella’s fourth in the women’s points race (she was awarded the bronze after a doping case involving a Colombian rider, then had to return the medal when that ruling was overturned).

With past and current world champions Sarah Hammer and Jennie Reed on the women’s side and phenom Taylor Phinney representing the best medal hope on the men’s squad, the U.S. should contend for multiple trips to the awards podium over the coming days at the Laoshan Velodrome.

No, the Americans won’t dominate like the loaded British, but a step forward seems probable.

“I tend to liken it to maybe a NASCAR race,” U.S. sprinter Michael Blatchford said. “We turn left for a living.”

Since winning five medals on the track at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984— a games that were boycotted by the cycling-crazed Eastern bloc—the U.S. has mostly been left behind on the velodromes of the world.

American track cyclists have just six Olympic medals since 1988, and only one of them gold, that being Marty Nothstein’s victory in the sprint at Sydney in 2000. To put that in perspective, consider that Australian track cyclists won nine medals at the Athens Olympics alone, and the British believe they may be poised for double figures this year.

The U.S. isn’t there yet.

But already, even before five days of competition starts on Friday, McDonough believes the American side is getting significantly closer.

“Every year, we’ve improved at the world championships,” McDonough said. “We’ve improved at the World Cups. This team overall is going in the right direction on the track. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. We have what I would consider veterans in both Jennie and Sarah. Taylor’s a newbie, but he’s a heck of a one, and I think our men’s sprinters are even stepping up. Overall, we have some expectations.”

After the Athens Games came and went without a single American medal on the velodrome, some inside USA Cycling’s track program pointed eagerly to 2008, believing Olympic fortunes would change that year.

They might be right, albeit certainly not in the way they envisioned.

Hammer was retired four years ago, so she surely wasn’t being counted on to medal in the Beijing Games. And Phinney was about to enter his freshman year of high school, so again, there’s no way he was figuring into the American hopes for these Olympics, either.

But here Hammer and Phinney are, the individual pursuit racers set to lead the U.S. contingent over the coming days and possibly be the ones to end the American medal drought.

“I think we’ve got a really good team,” Hammer said. “And I think we’re ready to go.”