U.S. men’s relay team stripped of gold

The International Olympic Committee stripped gold medals Saturday from the U.S. men’s 1,600-meter relay team that competed at the 2000 Olympics in the aftermath of Antonio Pettigrew’s admission that he was doping at the time.

The IOC executive board disqualified the entire team, the fourth gold and sixth overall medal stripped from that U.S. track contingent in the past eight months for doping.

Five of Pettigrew’s teammates also lose their medals: Michael Johnson and twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison ran in the final; Jerome Young and Angelo Taylor ran in the preliminaries.

Phelps gears up

Michael Phelps is aiming to show the world something its “never seen” at the Beijing Olympics and surpass Mark Spitz’s record of seven golds at a single games.

Phelps, 23, won six golds at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and is aiming to surpass both that mark and the seven-gold effort of Spitz at the 1972 Munich games.

“What he did was the greatest Olympic performance of all time,” Phelps said. “I’m looking to do something different that the sport has never seen.”

Bolt will run 100, 200

Usain Bolt will enter the 100 and 200 meters at the Beijing Olympics, after all.

The Jamaican sprinter broke the world record in the 100 by finishing in 9.72 seconds May 31. But he had said he would leave it up to his coach, Glen Mills, to decide whether it made sense to compete in that event in addition to the 200, which had been considered Bolt’s specialty.

“I can confirm that Usain will run both the 100 and 200 in Beijing,” Bolt’s agent, Ricky Simms told the AP.

Hardy wants reduction

Swimmer Jessica Hardy will try to have her possible two-year suspension “reduced substantially” after a failed drug test cost her a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Hardy, 21, had withdrawn from the team nearly a month after she tested positive for a low level of clenbuterol, a prohibited anabolic agent, at the Olympic trials.

“She accepts the fact that the testing was properly done and the results properly reported,” her lawyer, Howard Jacobs, said.

He said investigations were trying to determine the source of the clenbuterol. “Jessica did not knowingly or intentionally take any banned substances,” Jacobs said.

Rogge optimistic

Despite the thorny issues of politics, pollution and media freedoms, IOC president Jacques Rogge said he has no regrets about holding the Olympics in China and predicted the “magic of the games” will take over once the competition begins.

The IOC has come under fire for failing to get China to live up to promises to improve its human rights record, clean up Beijing’s noxious smog and provide unfettered Internet access to the media.