U.S. athletes laden with gold after Pan Am Games

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- As usual, U.S. athletes have dominated the Pan American Games. They've won more golds than most nations have medals, broken records, and some even have qualified for the Olympics.

So what's next?

For American athletes in non-Olympic sports such as men's softball, the competitive season ended on a water-soaked field here after losing the gold medal game to Canada. For others, the Pan Ams were the first step toward qualifying for the 2004 Olympics, while a few booked their passage to Athens.

The women's water polo team, fresh off its world championship victory in Spain, went undefeated here en route to winning the gold and earning an automatic berth in the Athens Games.

"It feels awesome," goalkeeper Jackie Frank said. "It has always been my dream to go to the Olympics."

Modern pentathletes Anita Allen and Vaho Iagoravoshili qualified for the Olympics by winning their respective competitions. Boxers Aaron Garcia, Juan McPherson and Jason Estrada clinched spots for the nation in 2004. The equestrian show jumping and men's water polo teams will compete in Greece, and American shooters earned 11 quota slots for the Olympics.

The U.S. women's softball team extended its winning streak to 51 straight in Pam Ams play, winning the gold as Cat Osterman pitched a perfect game in the final. U.S. basketball teams comprised of college stars had mixed results: the women won the silver, the men didn't medal for the first time since 1971. The baseball team lost to Cuba in the final.

But in fencing, the men's foil team beat Cuba for the first time since '71 to win the gold.

Americans ran away with the medals race. Only Cuba, Brazil and Canada have won more overall medals than Team USA has golds.

"I think the results are pretty much speaking for themselves," U.S. women's swimming coach Bill Rose said. "How can they do any better?"

Rose meant the U.S. swimmers, who won 21 golds, but his comments carry over to the performance of Team USA as a whole.

From archery to weightlifting, Americans won golds and set records.

Jennifer Nichols set two games marks and won the archery individual gold medal. Gymnast Nastia Liukin left Santo Domingo with more medals than any other woman: five, including two golds. Tara Nott, a 2000 Olympic gold medalist, won the women's 48-kilogram weightlifting class and tied her own Pan Ams record with a lift of 170.86 pounds.

Not everything has gone smoothly for the Americans, however. Sprinter Mickey Grimes tested positive for the stimulant ephedrine and was stripped of two gold medals he won.

"I understand that athletes need to take responsibility for everything we put in our bodies," Grimes said in a statement released through the U.S. Olympic Committee. "I made a mistake and I know that my action carries with it a penalty.

"I sincerely regret letting down the U.S. delegation and my country, and I look forward to representing my country in the future."

Grimes was tested after he won the men's 100 meters in 10.10 seconds on Aug. 6.

An ephedrine positive carries a maximum penalty of disqualification from the meet and a public warning. The United States also forfeited the 400-meter relay gold; Grimes was the leadoff runner.

The U.S. team at the Pan Ams was a mixture of veterans looking to make it back to the Olympics and youngsters competing abroad for the first time.

"One out of every six members of our team here has already competed in the Olympics and brought that Olympic experience into the Pan American Games," USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said. "For the younger athletes, this is an important opportunity to gain international experience in a world-class multisport setting. There's nothing quite like this experience."

That experience paid off in many ways, some inspiring.

When a driving rainstorm threatened to postpone the men's softball gold medal game, thus forcing the U.S. team to forfeit because it was flying home that night, the team members went onto the soaking field and used foam cups and cardboard to try to make it playable. They lost to Canada, but were happy they got to play.

"There's was no way we were going to go home not having played for gold," first baseman Mike Dryer said.

Greco-Roman wrestler Rulon Gardner, a star at the 2000 Olympics, lost the gold medal match to Cuba's Mijian Lopez in the heavyweight class. Gardner had a toe amputated last year after a snowmobiling accident when he became lost in the Wyoming wilderness. He hopes to build off his silver medal here and make the Olympics in 2004.

"In the past I've had setbacks before big competitions," Gardner said. "I want to win the worlds this year and I want to win the Olympics next year. From where I started a year ago, this is outstanding, phenomenal, perfect."

Carrie Boudreau didn't win a medal, but was a winner for competing. She planned her chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer around the Pan Ams. Her hair fell out about a week before she arrived in the Caribbean. She wore a blue bandanna with stars on it and with American stripes in the back while lifting, and finished seventh in her weight class.

"I feel wonderful," she said. "I was a little drained when I got done competing, but I lifted five kilos more in each lift than I had in training. I was so happy about my performance and just being on the platform. It was like I won, like I had won a medal."