U.S. in good shape

Marion Jones’ knees don’t creak yet. She doesn’t have even a strand of gray hair. And her face is wrinkle-free.

But when Jones looks around her, she feels old.

“I’m only 28, but I feel like the old lady,” Jones said. “Everybody else is like 20 years old, 22, 24. … This team is a lot different than four years ago. They’re young; they’re fresh; and they’re excited about everything. That just brings a little more excitement to it all.”

The U.S. won an Olympic-leading 103 medals, including 35 golds, and many of the Americans on the medal stand have a chance to compete in Beijing in 2008 and beyond. For instance, swimmer Michael Phelps, though only 19, tied an Olympic record with eight medals, including six golds.

“We have a lot of exciting young Olympians who could come back,” said Jim Scherr, the USOC’s chief executive. “There’s a lot of young talent who appear to be excited and committed to Bejing.”

Swimmer Aaron Peirsol, who just turned 21, won the 100- and 200-meter backstrokes and swam in the final of the USA’s gold-medal-winning 4x100 medley relay. Swimmer Dana Vollmer, 16, swam on the world-record-setting 4x200 relay team. Gymnast Carly Patterson, 16, won three medals, including the gold in the women’s individual all-around. Basketball player LeBron James, 19, was on the bronze-medalist men’s basketball team.

“We’re very pleased with their performance and with their future,” Sherr said.

But nowhere is Team USA’s youth movement more evident than in track and field, which won 25 medals, including nine golds. Of the 118 members of the U.S. track and field team, 47 are 25 years old or younger.

Allyson Felix, 18, finished second in the 200, and Lauryn Williams, 20, took silver in the 100. Jeremy Wariner, 20, won the 400 and was on the gold-medal-winning 4x400 relay team. Justin Gatlin, 22, won gold, silver and bronze medals, and Sanya Richards, 19, was on the 4x400 relay team that won the gold.

South Korea turns to panel

South Korea made a last-ditch push for the gymnastics gold medal given to Paul Hamm, appealing to sports’ international arbitration panel to say “yes” when everyone else has said “no way.”

Only hours before the Olympics ended Sunday, Yang Tae-young asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport to order international gymnastics officials to correct the results from the all-around, and adjust the medal rankings so he gets gold and the American gets a silver.

“We said we wanted this misjudgment to be corrected. That was very clear from the beginning,” said Jae Soon-yoo, spokeswoman for the South Korean delegation. “We are talking about our own rights, our own medal, not anyone else’s.”

But U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel said the appeal was a moot point. The International Gymnastics Federation, known as FIG, has already said it won’t change its results, and the International Olympic Committee has refused to even consider the idea of giving Yang a gold medal.

Focus turns to Beijing

The Chinese sports minister, Yuan Weimin, recently approached U.S. Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth with a message.

“I told him, ‘Don’t worry, we will not topple you,’ Yuan recalled Sunday. “But we are making this effort.”

Ping-pong diplomacy has gained new meaning as the world looks toward the Beijing Games in 2008.

In the next four years, China hopes to parlay its plans for the Olympics into a vehicle for self-promotion as the next economic, sports and cultural power. China plans to complete sports venues by 2007 — a year ahead of schedule.

“The tornado is blowing,” Yuan said of his athletes. “The old order is destroyed.”

Royal phone call

Thai boxer Manus Boonjumnong had just won a gold medal, and almost immediately he received a phone call of congratulations.

Boonjumnong cried as he held the cell phone in one hand and a picture of King Bhumibol Adulyadej — the man he was speaking to — in the other. He listened, only making short replies to his king.

“I fought for my king, who urged me to be strong in my final bout,” Boonjumnong said. “I dedicate the gold medal to my family and to all the people of Thailand. And, of course, to the king of Thailand.”

Boonjumnong pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the boxing competition, beating Cuba’s Yudel Johnson 17-11.