Samuelson leads Olympic Hall class

50-year-old marathoner going strong

With one last Olympic trials to run, Joan Benoit Samuelson's place in the Hall of Fame is already secure.

The 50-year-old runner, who will compete in her fourth and final Olympic trials in Boston on Sunday, is one of nine individual athletes who will be part of this year's U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame class. The class was announced Tuesday at the U.S. Olympic Committee media summit and will be inducted June 19.

Also in this year's class:

* Karch Kiraly, a three-time Olympian in volleyball.

* Bruce Baumgartner, who won gold, silver and bronze medals in wrestling.

* Gold-medal figure skater Brian Boitano.

* Boxer Oscar de La Hoya; original Dream Team member David Robinson.

* Swimmer Amy Van Dyken, a six-time gold medalist.

* J. Michael Plumb, an eight-time Olympian who has marched in more opening ceremonies than any other U.S. athlete.

* Lones W. Wigger Jr., a double gold medalist in shooting.

* Paralympian John Morgan, a visually impaired swimmer, who won eight gold medals and two silvers at the 1992 Games.

The "Magnificent Seven," who in 1996 became the first U.S. women's gymnastics team to win Olympic gold, will be inducted in the team category.

Carlo Fassi, who coached figure skaters Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill, was selected in the coach category, and gold medal figure skater Carol Heiss Jenkins is the veteran inductee. Hollywood producer Frank Marshall will join the hall as a special contributor.

"This is a very humbling experience," said Dominique Dawes, a member of the "Magnificent Seven" along with Shannon Miller, Dominique Moceanu, Kerri Strug, Jaycie Phelps, Amanda Borden and Amy Chow.

Samuelson won the first Olympic women's marathon in 1984 and is a two-time Boston champion. She is the oldest of 162 runners registered for Sunday's trials and has said it will be her final competitive marathon.

UEBERROTH PROMISES CLEAN U.S. TEAM: The U.S. Olympic Committee leadership downplays its medal hopes any chance it gets and considers Chicago a long shot to land the 2016 Games. When it comes to the subject of sending a drug-free team to Beijing, though, the USOC is much more positive.

"This will be a clean team," chairman Peter Ueberroth said at the USOC media summit.

Ueberroth and CEO Jim Scherr stopped just short of guaranteeing there would be no positive drug tests among the 600 U.S. athletes who will compete in August in China.

But they were optimistic. They touted the advances that have been made in the fight against dopers since the last Olympics -- including more effective testing policies by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency -- and suggested those athletes who cheated in previous games were from a bygone era.

"I think we've gone to a new era in our country, and this will be a clean team," Scherr said.

There was less optimism about the U.S. team's chances to win the medals count as it has for the past three Summer Olympics.

The U.S. will face stiff competition from Russia and China. China has been targeting specific sports since 2002 as part of its "Project 119" -- as in, 119 medals.

The Americans won the medal count in Athens with 102.

"You start doing the math, and that's what keeps me up at night," chief of sport performance Steve Roush said.

At world championships in 2006, China did very well, in some cases at U.S. expense. Then last year, things shifted: The U.S. won four of six gold medals in women's gymnastics (a record), 20 in swimming (best in 29 years) and 14 more in track (nine more than second-place Kenya).

"We have a good team. We have a strong team that will go on the field of play," Scherr said. "But we're making no illusions about the fact we think the Chinese have the strongest team heading into these games."

CHICAGO HAS WORK TO DO: Peter Ueberroth blunt when assessing where Chicago ranks in the contest to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

"Still not anywhere near first," the USOC chairman said.

Still, he won't say where he thinks Chicago ranks. The other cities are Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Tokyo; Madrid, Spain; Doha, Qatar; Prague, Czech Republic; and Baku, Azerbaijan.

The first cut comes in June, and the International Olympic Committee will select the host city in October 2009.