Staley named flag bearer for U.S.
Basketball star Dawn Staley will carry the U.S. flag during today’s opening ceremony, a highlight in an Olympic career that already includes two gold medals.
Staley, the first basketball player to lead the U.S. delegation at an Olympics, was chosen by captains from each of the U.S. teams.
“It’s something that caught me completely off guard. It’s a fairy tale that somehow ended up in my lap,” she said Thursday at a news conference. “To lead the U.S. delegation into the stadium, it’s incredible. It might be an out-of-body experience for me.”
Staley, 34, plays for the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting and coaches the women’s basketball team at Temple.
Greek sprinters injured en route to hearing
Greek sprinters Costas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou were taken to a hospital after being involved in a traffic accident a few hours before they were to face an International Olympic Committee disciplinary board for failing to attend a doping test.
Police said the pair were on a motorcycle when the accident occurred and that they had not been seriously hurt.
“Fortunately their condition is not a cause for concern,” said Vassilis Sevastis, head of the Greek Amateur Athletics Association, who visited the sprinters in the hospital. “Costas was driving and the bike slipped. … This accident occurred because they were in a bad psychological state.”
Olympic flame reaches Athens
With the 2,500-year-old Parthenon as a majestic backdrop, a modern-day Greek sports heroine lit a cauldron atop Acropolis Hill with the Olympic flame — home at last from a worldwide journey on the eve of the Summer Games.
Niki Bakoyianni, a silver medal-winning high jumper at the 1996 Olympics, raised her arms in triumph after touching the torch to the cauldron at the Acropolis, one of Athens’ most celebrated landmarks.
She was handed the torch by nine-time Olympic champion Carl Lewis, who was cheered exuberantly by huge crowds as he ran through the cobblestone streets below the Acropolis.
“We welcome the Olympic flame back home … it will shine in the hearts of all people on Earth, carrying the message of peace and brotherhood,” Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyianni told a crowd that gathered on a balmy evening beneath the ancient floodlit columns.
“We are ready — let the games begin!”
U.S. sending huge military force
The United States is sending more military and security personnel than athletes to the Summer Olympics in Greece, taking extraordinary precautions even though there is no specific intelligence pointing to a terrorist attack.
More than 600 military, intelligence and security-related U.S. personnel, including 400 special forces soldiers stationed nearby in Europe, are assigned to help with the Athens Games, surpassing the 538 competitors representing the United States.