Baumgartner Denied Shot At Third Gold

The expectations for Bruce Baumgartner were huge, his own hopes even greater. He was the big man of the U.S. Olympic team, and that made his fall even harder.

Baumgartner went down to one of the United States’ most disappointing defeats in these home-soil games, losing 6-1 to Russia’s Andrei Shumilin on Thursday to end his bid for a third Olympic wrestling gold medal.

It was a crushing defeat for Baumgartner - not just because of the lopsided score or because it may be the final Olympics for one of America’s great amateur athletes ever.

Baumgartner has dominated super heavyweight wrestling for a decade. A third gold would have tied him with Russia’s Alexander Medved, considered the best freestyle wrestler in history.

“Bruce is crushed. He’s devastated,” U.S. assistant coach Greg Strobel said. “America’s expectations for Bruce were high, but so were his. He is a very proud man. He is taking this very hard.”

Shumilin has been Baumgartner’s most difficult opponent, beating him four times in five matches. The U.S. flagbearer for the opening ceremony, Baumgartner still can wrestle back and win a bronze medal; he beat Georgia’s Zaza Turmanidze 14-2 in his first consolation match. Only two of the five Americans to wrestle Thursday are alive in the winners’ bracket. In addition to Baumgartner, 114-pounder Lou Rosselli of Edinboro, Pa., and 198-pounder Melvin Douglas of Mesa, Ariz., lost.

Tom Brands, a two-time world champion from Iowa City, Iowa, won twice at 136-1/2 pounds and got a bye into the semifinals.

Kenny Monday, a two-time medalist and 1988 Olympic champion, survived a 1-1 referee’s decision over Alberto Rodriguez of Cuba, then beat Radion Kertanti of Slovakia 5-1. Monday, of Tulsa, Okla., won a gold medal in 1988 and a silver in 1992.

U.S. wins women’s soccer gold

History was made twice on a muggy night when the United States beat China, 2-1, for the Olympic women’s soccer gold medal.

The of 76,481 at Birmingham, Ala., is believed to be the biggest crowd to attend any women’s sporting event, and the Americans won the first Olympic title in the sport.

The score was tied 1-1 at the 68th minute (24 minutes into the second half) when the United States mounted an attack. Defender Joy Faucett took the ball down the right sideline, slipped around a Chinese defender and passed across to Tiffeny Milbrett, the team’s leading scorer in 1996, who was racing downfield straight in front of the goal.

The pass came to her right foot about eight yards in front of the goal, and Chinese goalie Hong Gao didn’t stand a chance of stopping the low kick.

Forward Mia Hamm, the American team star and perhaps the finest woman soccer player in the world, was carried off on a stretcher with an injured left ankle about two minutes into injury time after the regular 90 minutes ran out.

When the game ended a minute later she celebrated with her teammates and said, “From the very beginning this has been an entire team effort, and this is what you saw tonight.”

Barkley leads Dream Team

Charles Barkley took over the game and put the United States one win away from the gold medal as the American men’s basketball team won 101-73 over Australia. Barkley scored 24 points.

The championship game will be Saturday night against Yugoslavia, and the Dream Team will enter it with an all-time record of 100-2.

Barkley was the difference, scoring 24 points, shooting 7-for-7 from the field and giving Americans the infusion of energy they needed to keep the Australians comfortably behind.

Americans KO’d in baseball

Kris Benson put his pitching hand on his hip and watched in disbelief as another ball cleared the wall. Like the rest of the U.S. baseball team, he couldn’t believe it was ending this way.

A team that reached the verge of the gold-medal game by hitting home runs got knocked out by giving them up. Japan hit five in all - three off Benson - for a 11-2 semifinal victory.

Instead of a Cuba-U.S. rematch for the gold Friday, it will be Japan (4-4) trying to deny the Cubans a second Olympic gold. The United States (6-2) will play Nicaragua (4-4) for the bronze.