Mark Maloney on sports

This just in from the U.S. Olympic Committee …

The United States Equestrian Team successfully defended the Olympic gold medal in show jumping Monday at Hong Kong.

The team of McLain Ward (Brewster, N.Y.) on Sapphire, Laura Kraut (Wellington, Fla.) on Cedric, Will Simpson (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) on Carlsson vom Dach and Beezie Madden (Cazenovia, N.Y.) on Authentic emerged from a tiebreaker with Canada to take the title.

It is the third gold medal in the event for the United States and marks the first time that the Americans have won consecutive golds.

Karen O’Connor, listed as an Olympic alternate, has been moved up and now is scheduled to compete in her fourth Olympics.

O’Connor will ride Madiba in equestrian’s Three-Day Event at Hong Kong.

They replace Heidi White and Northern Spy, who was withdrawn “for veterinary reasons,” according to a news release from the U.S. Equestrian Federation.

Here’s how Team USA’s rider/horse combinations now appear in Eventing:

Rider/Age/Hometown/Horse/Age/Breed/Sex/Owner (in alphabetical order): 

Phillip Dutton/44/West Grove, PA/Connaught/15/Irish Sport Horse/G/Bruce Duchossois 

Becky Holder/39/Mendota Heights, MN/Courageous Comet/12/Thoroughbred/G/Becky and Thomas Holder, Jr. 

Gina Miles/34/Creston, CA/McKinlaigh/14/Irish Sport Horse/Gina Miles, Laura Coats and Thomas Schulz 

Karen O’Connor/50/The Plains, VA/Mandiba/9/Irish Thoroughbred/G/Joan Goswell 

Amy Tryon/38/Duvall, WA/Poggio II/16/Thoroughbred/G/Amy and Greg Tryon and Mark Hart 

Replacements in alphabetical order:  

Bruce Davidson, Jr./32/ Ocala, FL/BallyNoe Castle RM/8/Irish Thoroughbred/G/Carl and Cassandra Segal 

Phillip Dutton/44/West Grove, PA/Woodburn/13/Thoroughbred/G/Acorn Hill Farm 

Bonnie Mosser/45/Gordonsville, VA/Merloch/11/New Zealand Thoroughbred Cross/G/Bonnie Mosser, Margaret Egan

NBC-TV on Wednesday announced its 106-person on-air roster for the Beijing Olympics.

Bob Costas returns for his seventh Olympics as primetime host.

Lexington’s Tom Hammond will call the track and field action for a fifth consecutive Olympics. Dwight Stones, Carol Lewis and Lewis Johnson return as analysts. Ato Bolden and Ed Eyestone are new analysts. Bob Neumeier will be reporting, and Craig Masback will analyze the men’s marathon.

Kenny Rice of Lexington will handle equestrian play-by-play, with Melanie Smith-Taylor doing the analysis.

Former Cincinnati Bengals receiver Cris Collinsworth, now of Fort Thomas, will serve as Olympic correspondent, providing “on-the-scene” reports throughout Beijing.

Former Morehead resident Joe Magrane will serve as baseball analyst, with Eric Collins doing the play-by-play.

LaPorta heads USA Baseball roster

The U.S. Olympic baseball team was unveiled Wednesday. Davey Johnson is the manager.

Included on the roster is former Florida standout Matt LaPorta, the key cog in Milwaukee’s recent trade with Cleveland that brought C.C. Sabbathia to the National League.

The Team USA Roster

Name                                  Pos.   B/T   Ht.      Wt.      School                                Hometown

An Olympic beat writer needs your help in compiling a list of Kentucky connections in Beijing.

Tyson Gay (athletics) and Elaine Breeden (swimming) will represent Lexington. Caroline Burckle (Louisville) and Tayshaun Prince (UK) will be competing. UK, U of L and the Lexington Legends all have athletes who will be competing for other countries. Morehead State even has an executive chef assigned to the Games.

If you know of anyone with a “Kentucky connection” (native, resident, student, etc.) who will be attending the Olympics in an official capacity (athlete, coach, official, etc.), please e-mail me with the information. I plan to compile a list of Kentucky connections, to be published on or about Aug. 8, when the Games begin.

My e-mail address: mmaloney@herald-leader.com

Thanks for your assistance!

Mark

The U.S. Equestrian Federation on Monday named the horse and rider combinations that will compete in the Summer Olympics, which open Aug. 8. Although Beijing is the host city, equestrian events will be held in Hong Kong.

Phillip Dutton, a three-time Olympian for Australia and two-time gold-medalist, will make his U.S. Olympic debut aboard Connaught. Dutton and Connaught teamed to win the Rolex Three-Day Event earlier this year at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Other combinations selected: Becky Holder and Courageous Comet; Gina Miles and McKinlaigh; Amy Tryon and Poggio II; and Heidi White and Northern Spy.

Named as alternates: Buck Davidson and BallyNoe Castle; Dutton and Woodburn; Bonnie Mosser and Merloch; and Karen O’Connor and Mandiba.

While I was away at the (Oregon) track, Kentuckians made quite a splash in Nebraska’s waters.

Elaine Breeden (Lexington) won the U.S. Olympic Trials 200-meter butterfly and placed second in the 100 ‘fly. Also making the team, as part of the 4-x-200 relay, is Caroline Burckle (Louisville).

I spoke with Elaine today (July 12), via phone from Stanford University. That’s where Elaine just completed her sophomore year. Stanford also is home base for the Olympic swim team.

She says training is going well and she is focused on swimming well at Beijing. Her parents, Dan and Lenore, as well as sisters Kathleen and Caroline will travel to China’s “Water Cube” for Elaine’s races.

For the full interview, stay tuned to The Herald-Leader.

Meanwhile, an alert reader noted that Saturday (July 5) preliminary results from the Swim Trials were missing from at least one edition of the paper. That effectively cut out some noteworthy Kentucky results.

So, with apologies for being tardy, here’s what went down that session:

Nick Graves (Lexington), seeded 16th, moved up to 14th in the men’s 1,500 meters with a time of 15:31.58. Nick, out of Sayre High School, swims for Wildcat Aquatics and Florida State University.

Also in the 1,500, placing 23rd, was Clark Burckle (Louisville), Caroline’s brother. His time: 15:38.15.

The women’s 50-meter freestyle prelims included University of Kentucky twins Jenny and Heather Bradford. Jenny touched in 25.73 seconds, good for 21st. Heather, in 26.24, finished 54th.

3-Day Event hopefuls complete final test

At Norwood, N.C., Saturday (July 12), 10 of the 15 horses on the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s short list for Eventing competed in a mandatory show jump outing. Five other horses are preparing in England.

Rider and horse combinations with clean rounds over the Fork Stables course were: Phillip Dutton and Connaught (the winning combination in the Rolex Three-Day Event at the Kentucky Horse Park); Bonnie Mosser with Merloch; Buck Davidson aboard BallyNoe Castle RM (a.k.a. Reggie); Jennifer Wooten on The Good Witch; and Becky Holder atop Courageous Comet.

Dressage and cross country trials were held Friday.

The U.S. Olympic Event team will be named Monday.