Men’s 100-meter final promises to be wide open

The fastest man on the planet will be crowned tonight after the finals of the men’s 100. It’s a wide-open affair, with any of three Americans capable of winning — defending champion Maurice Greene, Justin Gatlin or the fastest qualifier on Saturday, Shawn Crawford. Francis Obikwelu of Portugal or Asafa Powell of Jamaica should be prominent among the challengers. Other track finals are the men’s high jump, men’s triple jump, men’s hammer. A pair of Swedes, Stefan Holm (high jump) and Christian Olsson (triple jump) are favored for gold medals. Great Britain’s Paula Radcliffe is favored in the women’s marathon. Heat could play a factor in the race that begins 6 p.m. in the town of Marathon and finishes at historic Panathinaiko Stadium, site of the first modern Olympic Games.

Gymnastics

It’s on to the individual apparatus for the gymnasts, as the clouds of controversy, real or imagined, hover over Paul Hamm’s all-around medal. Today’s finals are in the women’s vault and uneven bars and men’s rings, floor exercise and pommel horse. Paul’s brother Morgan will try to join him as a medalist, and Courtney Kupets will try to join Carly Patterson as a women’s medalist in her best event, the uneven bars.

Softball

Team USA dominated pool play, not giving up a single run but now it’s back to square one for the medal round. That means a rematch with Australia, which they beat 10-0 seven days ago. A win sends them to Monday’s gold-medal game. Lose and it gets complicated. They would play a second game today against the China-Japan winner, with a second chance to qualify for the gold-medal game, or to go home with a bronze medal.

Diving

Laura Wilkinson attempts to defend her gold medal in the women’s platform, but she’s got some ground to make up, entering the finals in fourth place. A pair of 17-year-olds from China go into today ranked 1-2: Lao Lishi and Li Ting.