Journey’s end

Jenny Thompson’s long and distinguished Olympic career ended with a night that, sadly, mirrored her week.

Thompson, the 31-year-old veteran of four Olympics, lost her final opportunity for an individual gold when she finished seventh in the 50-meter freestyle Saturday night.

Minutes later, in the 4 x 100 medley relay, she won a 12th overall medal, making her the winningest U.S. female athlete ever.

It was, however, a silver medal, since the Australians spanked the United States by 2.20 seconds in a world-record time of 3:57.32.

“Yes, this was my last Olympics,” said Thompson, who will soon return to Columbia Medical School.

“So tonight was a little bittersweet. I was feeling a little nostalgic. I love this sport and I wish everybody loved it as much as I did.”

Female wrestlers blaze trail

For years, women fought for the right to wrestle in the United States, sometimes unsuccessfully and almost always with little support from anyone but their families.

Now comes the reward for their patience, persistence, bumps and bruises, and damaged egos.

Finally, they are Olympians.

Now that they have a chance to win a medal, the four-member U.S. team — Patricia Miranda, Sara McMann, Toccara Montgomery and Tela O’Donnell — said just being an Olympian isn’t good enough.

“We’re moving this sport forward,” U.S. coach Terry Steiner said.

Fittingly, since this is the first Olympics with women’s wrestling, the women are first up with qualifying and pool matches today before the medal matches are wrestled Monday.

After that, it’s Rulon’s turn — American super heavyweight Rulon Gardner goes for a second Olympic gold following four adventuresome years since he upset supposedly unbeatable Russian three-time champion Alexander Karelin in Sydney.

The seven Greco-Roman weight classes will be competed over three days Tuesday through Thursday. After that, a talented but exceptionally inexperienced U.S. freestyle team wrestles over the final three days of the games.

The U.S. women have been competitive against the field, and all talked of wanting to perform well to accelerate the sport’s advancement in the United States.

“We have a long way to go to gain respect, and this is how it starts,” Miranda said. “This is our stage to say, ‘Hey, look at us.’ “

FIFA pledges to help Iraq

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said the world soccer body will offer more help to the Iraqi soccer program, which has been one of the unexpected success stories of the Olympic tournament.

Speaking before Iraq’s 1-0 quarterfinal victory over Australia, Blatter said FIFA will help build a new training center for the Iraqi national team.

FIFA previously earmarked $400,000 to rebuild the Iraqi soccer federation’s headquarters, which was destroyed during the war.

“Iraq will receive special help from FIFA,” Blatter said. “They need it. They merit it.”

“Najah Ali lost his light flyweight bout to Armenia’s Aleksan Nalbandyan, ending the improbable run of Iraq’s only Olympic boxer after just one victory.

Ali was outpointed 24-11 in the second-round match, but he still provided a dramatic conclusion to his 10-month journey from a job in a Baghdad furniture factory to the bright lights of Athens, where he carried the flag of the reconstituted Iraq team.

Germany loses equestrian golds

France was awarded the gold medal in the three-day equestrian team event and Britain’s Leslie Law got the individual gold after three countries won a joint appeal against an earlier decision that gave both victories to Germany.

The ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport means Germany drops to fourth in the team event while Britain gets silver and the United States takes the bronze.

Since the team event was also a qualifier for the individual medals, the decision stripped Bettina Hoy of her gold medal, giving it to Law.

American Kim Severson moved up to silver from bronze and Pippa Funnell of Britain took third.

Organizers no match for Playboy

Try as they might, organizers of the Athens Olympics were unable to keep the Greek edition of Playboy off newsstands.

In fact, the August issue is sold out in Athens — in part because of the publicity caused by the uproar.

This in a country where ancient statues of nude subjects are everywhere.

Organizers took exception to the issue, which contained a four-page spread titled “2004 seconds of pleasure” and featured photographs of nude models in various “athletic” poses, including throwing the discus and holding up the Olympic rings. The issue urged readers to “win gold in the sexathlon.”

But a court ruled in favor of the magazine.