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Hometown athletes: West

Men's volleyball team improves, but still no medal

10:53 am | Sunday, August 29 | In the clash with the Russian team, the Americans had numerous chances in the first two sets but lost all the critical points.

Kayakers fail to advance

9:00 am | Thursday, August 26 | U.S. kayaker Kathryn Colin ended her competitive career Thursday after she and partner Lauren Spalding failed to advance to the finals of the women's K-2 500m flatwater race at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

McDonald just short of equestrian bronze

3:15 pm | Wednesday, August 25 | Former show jumping rider Debbie McDonald of Hailey, Idaho finshed fourth Wednesday aboard Brentina, her trusty mare, just missing an Olympic bronze medal in equestrian dressage.

Lindquist finishes ninth in triathlon

11:18 am | Wednesday, August 25 | Barb Lindquist, who lives and trains on the Idaho-Wyoming border, finished ninth in the triathlon Wednesday on a postcard kind of day at the Summer Olympics.

Kayak team fails to advance

9:08 am | Wednesday, August 25 | The hopes for a set of Olympic medals ended Wednesday for the two-man kayak team of Andrew Bussey and Jeffrey Smoke, who competed in the semifinal round of the K-2 1,000 meter flatwater race.

Ward upsets Russian to stay in boxing medal hunt

11:20 pm | Tuesday, August 24 | It’s no fun to be an American boxer at the 2004 Olympics but light-heavyweight Andre Ward made a lonely last stand Tuesday in a hostile arena and put U.S. humiliation on hold for at least awhile with a gutsy upset of two-time world-champion Evgeny Makarenko.

Amidst the glitz and sand, U.S. stars shine brightest

10:13 pm | Tuesday, August 24 | As in Atlanta and Sydney, beach volleyball finally became the place to be at the Olympics on Tuesday night, with a packed house, celebrities and a party atmosphere, Misty May and Kerri Walsh put an exclamation point on their total domination of the sport.

Clay takes decathlon silver

8:44 pm | Tuesday, August 24 | By decathlon standards, 73 points is absolutely minuscule, but to Bryan Clay, 73 points meant the world.

Wood vows to improve at Beijing Games

7:45 pm | Tuesday, August 24 | Sgt. Oscar Wood has assigned himself mental marching orders after being knocked out of the Olympics -- he plans to use the mat as his classroom as he aims for the 2006 Games in Beijing.

Rulon Gardner rules day one of wrestling

6:31 pm | Tuesday, August 24 | Rulon Gardner swept all three of his matches Tuesday to reach the 264.5-pound Greco-Roman wrestling semifinals - four years after snapping Russian legend Alexander Karelin's 13-year unbeaten international streak in Sydney.

Colin, Spalding advance to kayak semifinals

10:58 am | Tuesday, August 24 | U.S. kayakers Kathryn Colin and Lauren Spalding beat two boats in the preliminary round of the two-woman kayak 500-meter flatwater competition Tuesday to advance to the semifinals at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Career-best day puts Clay third in decathlon

7:47 pm | Monday, August 23 | Hawaii's Bryan Clay has registered the best first-day decathlon score of his life, and while he stands in third place, his bid for an Olympic medal is no sure thing.

Colorado's Malone finishes 7th in discus

7:20 pm | Monday, August 23 | American Casey Malone was in no rush to leave Olympic Stadium on Monday night after finishing seventh in the final of the men's discus throw.

U.S. completes softball domination

3:36 pm | Monday, August 23 | Team USA concluded its domination at the Athens Olympics by defeating Australia 5-1 on Monday, giving coach Mike Candrea a gold medal just five weeks after his wife, Sue, died of a brain aneurysm.

2-man kayakers down but not out

2:41 pm | Monday, August 23 | A seventh-place finish for kayakers Andrew Bussey and Jeffrey Smoke in the preliminary two-man kayak flatwater 1,000-meter competition Monday means the two will advance to Wednesday's semifinals.

Rittman part of gold-medal softball team

2:18 pm | Monday, August 23 | New Mexico State graduate John Rittman is a world champion coach. His U.S. softball team - he's an assistant coach - beat Australia 5-1 on Monday to win its third gold medal in as many Olympics.

Idaho's McDonald moves up to 4th in dressage

10:31 am | Monday, August 23 | In the second of three stages of individual dressage grand prix competition, Debbie McDonald moved from fifth to fourth place among the 25 entries in Monday's competition.

U.S. men's beach volleyball team loses

12:32 pm | Sunday, August 22 | Stein Metzger and Dax Holdren, the last American men left in beach volleyball, lost in the quarterfinals Sunday ending a run of gold medals in the event for the U.S.

Wrestler's long journey finally reaches Olympics

11:59 am | Sunday, August 22 | Ten years ago, Oscar Wood was the can't-miss phenom in United States high school wrestling, but after an unexpectedly long, difficult decade, he's finally reached the Olympics.

Lott-Hogan fades to 20th in heptathlon

6:21 pm | Saturday, August 21 | Tiffany Lott-Hogan of Springville, Utah, a Brigham Young University graduate, faltered in the 800 meters, the final event of the heptathlon, and finished 20th in the 34-athlete worldwide field.

Perez fails to advance in triple jump

6:13 pm | Saturday, August 21 | Yuliana Perez's performance was down but her spirit was up after failing to qualify for the finals in the women's Olympic triple jump Saturday night.

Idaho equestrian sparks U.S. to bronze

2:26 pm | Saturday, August 21 | Debbie McDonald of Hailey, Idaho, keyed the United States' bronze medal finish in the equestrian grand prix team dressage competition that concluded Saturday at the Summer Olympics.

Poor discus effort leaves Rome baffled

1:13 pm | Saturday, August 21 | American discus thrower Jarred Rome picked a bad time to have one of his worst meets of the year and the most frustrating part is he doesn't know why it happened.

Malone advances to discus finals

10:32 am | Saturday, August 21 | Casey Malone, an assistant track and field coach at the University of Colorado, became the only American to survive qualifying in the discus throw Saturday at the Summer Olympics.

Lott-Hogan gets second chance in heptathlon

8:05 pm | Friday, August 20 | After a strong start in the women's Olympic heptathlon Friday, U.S. fans were stunned to see Tiffany Lott-Hogan's heat of the 200-meter dash go off with her stranded in the starting blocks.

Metzger advances in men's beach volleyball

3:56 pm | Friday, August 20 | Even though Stein Metzger struggled with the sun, lack of energy and his own play, his teammate's effort was good enough Friday to advance them to the quarterfinals in men's beach volleyball.

Poor start costs Schoeman gold in 50-freestyle

3:46 pm | Friday, August 20 | Roland Schoeman, 24, finishes the 2004 Games with a bronze, a silver and a gold, which he won Sunday when he and his fellow South Africans took the 4x100 freestyle relay in world record time. He won silver in the 100 freestyle.

Ailing Parker fails to advance in hammer

11:11 am | Friday, August 20 | James Parker landed in Athens earlier this week and immediately got sick - and he didn't feel any better after Friday's performance in the Olympic hammer throw.

Smallish decathlete says big gains in reach

3:25 pm | Thursday, August 19 | At 5-foot-11, 174 pounds, Bryan Clay might be easy to overlook by decathlon standards; Clay says that would be a mistake.

Schoeman qualifies first in 50 freestyle

3:17 pm | Thursday, August 19 | Former University of Arizona swimmer Roland Schoeman of South Africa established himself as a strong candidate for a third medal at these Olympic Games by swimming the fastest time in the men's 50-meter freestyle semifinals Thursday night.

Arizona shooter fades to seventh

12:05 pm | Thursday, August 19 | Adam Saathoff ended his Olympic shooting career on a disappointing note, finishing in a three-way tie for seventh place in the men's 10-meter Running Target Thursday.

Schoeman just short of freestyle gold

6:19 pm | Wednesday, August 18 | In a drama-filled Olympic 100-meter freestyle race Wednesday night not decided until the final meter, Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands, the defending Olympic champion, edged out University of Arizona alumnus Roland Schoeman of South Africa.

Arizona shooter hits running targets

9:50 am | Wednesday, August 18 | Adam Saathoff is tied for second after Wednesday's first round of Olympic 10-meter running target competition.

Arpin, Canada nip U.S. in women's water polo

9:42 am | Wednesday, August 18 | Marie Luc Arpin has played in hundreds of water polo games since her first at age 11, but never one resembling Wednesday's at the Olympic Aquatic Centre, when Canada ralled to edge the United States, 6-5.

American swimmers buoyed by upset over Australians

10:31 pm | Tuesday, August 17 | Klete Keller, who snow skis when he says he isn’t sky-diving, held off Ian Thorpe and a mounting wave of uncertainty about American fortunes Tuesday in dramatic finish to the 800 freestyle relay.

200 individual medley fits Beard perfectly

10:19 pm | Tuesday, August 17 | Amanda Beard is at her third Olympics, but the 200 individual medley might as well be a new pair of shoes.

Women go 2-0; leisurely beach pace a test

8:33 pm | Tuesday, August 17 | On a typical weekend AVP pro beach volleyball tournament, Kerri Walsh and Misty May would finish their second match about four hours into the first day; here at the Olympics, they won their second match on the fourth “day” of the leisurely competition.

Oregon fencer wins gold after late invitation to Games

7:02 pm | Tuesday, August 17 | In what might be the biggest underdog story of these Summer Games, 19-year-old Mariel Zagunis won the women's individual saber Tuesday night.

Oregon fencer learns painful Olympic lesson

6:03 pm | Tuesday, August 17 | Cody Mattern and his U.S. fencing coach, Michael Marx, aren’t big fans of Hungarian nemesis Ivan Kovacs -- ovacs eliminated Marx from a previous Olympic tournament, and on Tuesday he was at it again, taking out Mattern in the men’s individual epee at the Summer Games.

U.S. duo defeated in beach volleyball

3:49 pm | Tuesday, August 17 | History repeated itself for Stein Metzger and Dax Holdren Tuesday, as Norway's Iver Horrem and Bjorn Maaseide came back from a one-set deficit Tuesday to beat the USA's duo, 14-21, 21-16, 16-14, at the Olympic Beach Volleyball Centre.

Oregon fencer ousted in first round

3:35 pm | Tuesday, August 17 | Seth Kelsey was more nervous than he should have been, and it cost him his Olympic dream, at least for now, when the 1999 graduate of Oregon Episcopal School in Portland dropped his first-round bout in men's individual epee Tuesday.

S. African swim record has U.S. roots

11:29 am | Tuesday, August 17 | Frank Busch found his interests both delightfully and distressingly split Sunday night at the Aquatic Centre outdoor pool for the Olympic 4 x 100-meter freestyle relay.

Wilson's lofty hopes take unexpected tumble

6:54 pm | Monday, August 16 | American Ellen Wilson entered her second Olympics with lofty hopes of a top-seven finish, perhaps even a medal, in judo; instead, she was thrown for a loss, dropping both of her matches.

Ariz. runner ready to chase Ethiopians

4:07 pm | Monday, August 16 | For the past four years, Abdirahman has lugged a videotape of Billy Mills' stunning upset 10,000-meter triumph at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in his luggage.

Utah heptathlete thrives on event's togetherness

2:04 pm | Monday, August 16 | Injuries, missteps, false starts, fouls and mess-ups of varied descriptions have all been part of this event over the years.

U.S. softball coach teaches deeper lesson

1:37 pm | Monday, August 16 | Coach Mike Candrea publicly analyzes life without his wife, who died suddenly last month from a brain aneurysm.

Odamura eager for Canada softball win

9:20 am | Monday, August 16 | Next up for Canada's softball team is Japan on Tuesday and then Team USA on Wednesday.

Men’s volleyball takes positives out of loss to Italy

7:39 pm | Sunday, August 15 | Despite having lost to Italy on Sunday, Clay Stanley says the match proved that he and his U.S. men's volleyball teammates "can play with any team."

Metzger, Holdren hold off Australians

7:21 pm | Sunday, August 15 | Stein Metzger had several reasons to draw what he termed "extreme satisfaction" from his Olympic beach volleyball debut, not all having to do with victory: In a match that was as close and competitive as possible, Metzger and part-ner Dax Holdren slipped past Australia's Andrew Schacht and Joshua Slack 22-24, 24-22 and 15-13.

Ping, Reed out of table tennis contention

11:04 am | Sunday, August 15 | Minutes after losing four matches to Singapore in women's doubles table tennis Sunday, 17-year-old Whitney Ping looked and sounded disappointed.

Cyclist says she's ready to compete

4:00 pm | Saturday, August 14 | United States cyclist Kristin Armstrong gets to compete twice Sunday - in her first Olympic road race in the afternoon and again at night in an arbitration case against USA Cycling.

Net supremacy at the beach

10:27 pm | Thursday, August 12 | Beach vollyeball teammates Kerri Walsh and Misty May should provide some of the more exciting action during the Athens Olympics.

Diver aching for Olympic opportunity

7:57 pm | Thursday, August 12 | Kimiko Soldati's right shoulder is aching - again - but the 30-year-old, Longmont diver vows it won't affect her Olympic performance.

McCartney steps up to the spotlight

7:06 pm | Thursday, August 12 | In the last-name world of elite road cycling, where severa U.S. names are synonymous with the Tour de France, he’s just Jason -- Jason McCartney, the Hawaiian-born rider whose training includes the dusty gravel roads outside his home in Coralville, Iowa.