USOC sticks by process

Athletes get one shot to make team

Michael Phelps lived up to the hype. Dara Torres didn't act her age. Tyson Gay fell. Brendan Hansen flopped.

The U.S. Olympic swimming and track trials brought out the best in some, and exposed some problems for others. Once they were over, the U.S. Olympic Committee leaders believed, as they always have, that these pressure-packed weeks with no second chances are still the best way to choose their Olympic teams.

Tyson Gay's hamstring injury Saturday at the track trials, which cost him a spot in the 200-meter dash at the Olympics, provoked the most pointed questions.

USA Track and Field long has had a very inflexible system at Olympic trials. The top three finishers in each event get spots on the team. Get injured, the way Gay did in the 200, and you don't make it, even if your record over the past year, or four years, proves you are obviously one of the best in that event.

JOYCE ADDED TO SWIM TEAM: Kara Lynn Joyce is going to Beijing after all. The 22-year-old Georgia swimmer has been added as an alternate to the 400-meter freestyle relay after Dara Torres withdrew from the 100 free.

FLOOR CHAMPION BEIJING BOUND: Olympic floor exercise champion Kyle Shewfelt was selected for the Canadian gymnastics team for the Beijing Games this week, 10 months after breaking the tibias in both of his legs.

BRITAIN'S CHAMBERS AWAITS RULING: British sprinter Dwain Chambers will find out by Saturday whether he has qualified for the British team in the 100 meters, four days before London's High Court considers his application for a temporary injunction against a lifetime Olympic doping ban.

ABBOTT TOSSES NO-HITTER FOR U.S.: Monica Abbott threw a nine-inning no-hitter with 15 strikeouts and Stacey Nuveman hit a three-run homer in the U.S. Olympic softball team's 19-0 rout of the Portland All-Stars.

FIFA TO RULE ON OLYMPIC PLAYERS: FIFA president Sepp Blatter, an International Olympic Committee member, is preparing to rule on whether players must report for national duty if selected for next month's Beijing Games, which conflict with the start of the European season.

Brazil star Ronaldinho has been chosen for China but the 28-year-old midfielder's Spanish club FC Barcelona is refusing to let him go. Brazil is to play the host nation on Aug. 13.

INJURY KNOCKS RAWLINSON OUT: A toe injury and related problems knocked 400-meter hurdles world champion Jana Rawlinson out of the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday, the day she officially was selected as part of her third Australian Summer Games team.