Made in America

BEIJING – He wrapped himself in the flag almost as though he had been born in it.

Born in the USA.

Henry Cejudo, the son of undocumented immigrants from Mexico, is a documented gold medalist, America’s first in freestyle wrestling at the 2008 Olympics.

“I don’t want to let it go,” Cejudo said as he tugged at a flag that flew like a star-spangled cape as he raced around in tears and triumph after winning the 121-pound division Tuesday night over Japan’s Tomohiro Matsunaga. “I might sleep with this.

“This is cool, coming out of a Mexican-American background. It just feels so good. Not many Americans get to do something like this. I feel like I’m living the American dream.”

After years of sleeping four and five to a bed and sometimes not certain where he would sleep at all in a journey from Los Angeles to New Mexico to Phoenix and Colorado, Cejudo finally arrived at a destination, the one place, he was certain he would occupy. The medal stand’s top pedestal was as much of an ambition as it was a dream. Only there would Cejudo finally be comfortable.

“I always knew I was going to be here,” said Cejudo, who defeated Matsunaga with a 2-2 tiebreaker in the first period and then 3-0 in a best-of-3 match after winning three bouts within about 90 minutes earlier in the day. “I watched the Olympics as a kid, and I just knew it.

“Yeah, it was tough. But, man, is it worth it.”

The tough part, perhaps, was just overcoming the uncertainties of a young life with a troubled, mostly absent father and never far from streets full of more potential mayhem than meals.

“He has done an unbelievable job coming from the environment he came from,” said Terry Brands, his coach at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. “He grew up in Maryvale, Ariz. He could be in prison. Could be a drug runner. Could be this, could be that. He’s done an unbelievable job of not being a victim.”

He has, in part because he and his brothers are sick of the questions about where and how they grew up.

“Yeah, I’m getting a little tired of it, to tell you the truth” said Angel Cejudo, a four-time Arizona high school state champion who was his brother’s training partner in Beijing. “It’s Phoenix. Not Compton. Not Detroit. It’s not that bad. We just didn’t have much.”

What they had was a mom, Nelly Rico. She often worked two jobs and kept her sons in church and off the streets.

“Going to church was more important than going to wrestling practice,” said Henry, who fell to his knees, put his bruised face onto the mat and seemed to pray while celebrating his victory at the China Agricultural University Gymnasium.

Nelly Rico wasn’t in Beijing to see her 21-year-old son become the youngest American wrestler to win a freestyle gold. There had been plans for her to make the trip. Another Cejudo brother, Alonzo, and a sister, Gloria, were there. So was Frank Saenz, Henry’s former high school coach who wore a black-and-gold Maryvale High School wrestling shirt and sobbed when Cejudo won by overpowering Matsunaga with three points in the second period.

They cheered so loudly and were on their feet so often during the match that Chinese security threatened to throw them out of the building.

“We didn’t want that to happen,” Alonzo said. ”But, hey, he’s your brother, man. What are you gonna do?

Henry said his mom stayed in the United States to care for Angel’s child in Colorado Springs, where he and Angel have been living and training for the last few years. There were other reports from Olympic officials that she could not get into China because of passport problems. She is not a U.S. citizen.

“She is a resident,” Henry said, somewhat cryptically.

Cejudo’s mom is from Mexico City. She and Henry’s dad, Jorge, moved as undocumented immigrants to Los Angeles, where Henry was born in 1987. His dad was in and out of California jails. When Henry was 4, his parents split. He saw his father only one more time before his dad died about 16 months ago from reported heart failure in Mexico City.

”Our mom protected us from a lot of stuff,” Angel said. “She just never talked about anything bad that ever happened.”

Softball

Crystl Bustos hit a three-run homer in the ninth inning as the U.S. Olympic softball team beat Japan 4-1 in extra innings and will play for its fourth straight gold medal.

The Americans (8-0) pushed across four in the ninth to extend their Olympic winning streak to 22 games.

Tied after seven, the teams went to the international tiebreaker in the eighth as both began their at-bats with a runner at second base.

Bustos, softball’s greatest power hitter, hit her fifth homer of the games and 13th of her Olympic career. Monica Abbott pitched eight shutout innings for the U.S., which could face Japan again for gold Thursday.

Gymnastics

Clear some more space in that pile of pretty Olympic medal boxes. Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin are bringing home more loot, including a gorgeous gold of Johnson’s very own.

Johnson beat her friend and teammate on the balance beam, the last women’s gymnastics event at the Beijing Games

“I finished off the Olympic Games with, to me, the most perfect ending ever,” Johnson said, beaming as she tugged at the ribbon around her neck. “To finally get the gold medal … on my very last routine meant the world to me.”

And it means the Americans will be strutting home with more bling than Diddy.

Johnson already had three silvers, including one from the all-around, where Liukin won gold. Together, the women have won eight medals. Throw in Jonathan Horton’s silver on the high bar Tuesday night, and the Americans are leaving Beijing with 10 medals. That’s the most they’ve won at a non-boycotted Olympics since 1932, when rope climbing and Indian clubs still got you medals.

Horton decided after the all-around final that he needed to upgrade the difficulty in his high bar routine to have any shot at a medal. While that might not sound too impressive, consider that most gymnasts spend months working on a routine before it’s ready for competition.

Horton spent all of three days.

“I had initially said, `No, don’t change your routine. Go with what got you here,’ ” said Mark Williams, Horton’s coach. “Jon’s a riverboat gambler. He said, `I’ll kick myself if I don’t.’ ”

Horton added one gravity-defying release move and changed his body position in another, adding a full half-point of difficulty. And he did it to perfection.

“I hit the floor and I looked at Mark and said, `Can you believe that just happened?’ ” Horton said. “I knew instantly I was going to medal.”

Had Horton not taken a hop on his landing, he might have had gold. But he’ll happily take his silver medal to go with the bronze the U.S. men’s team won.

Women’s basketball

Sylvia Fowles scored 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the U.S. to a 104-60 rout of South Korea on Tuesday night and advance to the semifinals of women’s basketball.

It’s the sixth straight Olympics that the Americans have advanced to the medal round. The only time they didn’t qualify for the semis in the history of women’s basketball was in 1980 and that’s because the U.S. boycotted the Moscow Games.

The Americans will face either Russia or Spain in the semifinals Thursday night. China plays Australia in the other semifinal.

Women’s 100m hurdles

Dawn Harper of the United States won the women’s 100-meter hurdles.

Harper won in a personal best 12.54 seconds Tuesday after U.S. teammate Lolo Jones, who had a clear lead, was knocked off balance when she hit the next-to-last hurdle.

Australia’s Sally McLennan got the silver medal in a photo finish; both she and Canada’s Priscilla Lopes-Schliep crossed in 12.64, but when the time was extended to thousandths of a second, it showed McLennan was faster.

Jones, the world indoor champion who had the season-leading time going into the final, finished seventh in 12.72.

Women’s 400 meters

Sanya Richards was on the medals stand and she wasn’t happy about it. She didn’t like the color: bronze.

The favorite in the women’s 400 meters, Richards led in the stretch but faded at the end, ruining what would’ve been a great comeback from an illness that cost her most of 2007. Britain’s Christine Ohuruogu won, with Jamaica’s Shericka Williams taking silver.

More track and field

Usain Bolt played to the cameras before his 200-meter semifinal, slowed down in the middle and still rallied to beat rivals who were running much harder. Then he promised to go all out in the final.

If he does – and he hasn’t really yet in these Olympics – there doesn’t seem to be any way he can be beaten.

Bolt won his semifinal in 20.09 seconds Tuesday night, keeping alive his chances for the first 100-200 Olympic double since Carl Lewis in 1984.

The Jamaican sprinter, who set the world record in the 100 at 9.69 seconds Saturday, beat defending 200 champion Shawn Crawford of the United States by 0.03 second. The noticeable difference, though, was that Bolt appeared to be loping to the line, while Crawford was busting across at full speed.

“I wouldn’t say jogging,” Bolt said. “I’m just trying to get through to the next round. I didn’t know if he was running. I just wanted to make sure I was in good position.”

American Wallace Spearmon used a late burst to finish third and will join a third American, Walter Dix, in the final Wednesday night.

Beach volleyball

Americans Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser will play for the gold medal in beach volleyball.

The reigning world champions beat Georgia 21-11, 21-13 in the semifinal Wednesday in one of the quickest matches of the Olympics. The U.S. pair will play on Friday against the winner of the other final-four game, an all-Brazil matchup.

Renato Gomes and Jorge Terceiro are native Brazilians who obtained Georgian passports to avoid a quota that limits each country to two entries in the 24-team field.

Americans Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor will play in the women’s final Thursday against China.

Baseball

Breathing easier after Tuesday night’s victory against Taiwan clinched a spot in the medal round, Team USA baseball manager Davey Johnson was able to rethink his lineup for today’s preliminary round finale against Japan.

Johnson said he plans to hold pitcher Stephen Strasburg until the medal-round opener and will start Trevor Cahill against Japan. Strasburg gave the U.S. seven shutout innings with 11 strikeouts against the Netherlands.

With one game still to play in its seven-game preliminary round, the U.S. is tied with Japan at 4-2. South Korea is 6-0 after defeating Cuba 7-4 in a battle of unbeatens Tuesday, but no other team is better than 2-4.

John Gall homered and Dexter Fowler had three hits, drove in a run and scored another to lead Tuesday’s 10-hit U.S. attack.

Women’s volleyball

The U.S. women’s volleyball team, popular in Beijing because they are coached by Chinese national hero Jenny Lang Ping, have suddenly become a hit for their volleyball skills, too.

The Americans are a surprising 5-1 and, fresh off their come-from-behind 3-2 upset victory Tuesday against Italy, will take on powerhouse Cuba, a three-time Olympic champion, in a semifinal match Thursday.

The Chinese fans will again no doubt root for the U.S. team and their beloved Lang Ping, who as a player led China to a gold medal in volleyball in 1984 in Los Angeles and as a coach led China to a silver medal in the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

“It’s cool,” U.S. outside hitter Logan Tom, a three-time Olympian, said of the pro-U.S. crowds at Beijing’s Capital Gymnasium. “We see a lot of American flags out there.”

The other semifinal will be China against Brazil.

Women’s water polo

Brenda Villa’s goal with a minute remaining pushed the U.S. women’s water polo team to Thursday’s gold medal game.

The 9-8 semifinal victory wasn’t easy. Australia, America’s archrival, refused to depart quietly. The Americans struggled to victory after dominating much of the second half.

The U.S. bolted to an 8-5 lead with a brilliant third quarter. The Australians seemed done.

They weren’t. While the American offense hibernated, the Aussies surged back. Australia tied the score, 8-8, with 2:27 left.

Men’s soccer

A sellout crowd of 53,000 including Diego Maradona and Kobe Bryant jammed into Workers Stadium on a steamy Tuesday night for an Olympic semifinal soccer match that looked and felt like a final. If you didn’t know any better you would have sworn you were at the Bombonera stadium in Argentina or the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro.

Defending champion Argentina knocked out archrival Brazil 3-0 and will try to become the first team in 40 years to repeat as Olympic champion when it faces Nigeria in the gold-medal match Saturday at the Bird’s Nest. Brazil, meanwhile, leaves another Olympics without a gold medal. The five-time World Cup champions have never won the Olympics top prize.