Olympic ‘Events’ Kick Off With The Ups Ticket Relay

For the next two weeks, the Olympic dream team will wear brown uniforms instead of basketball shorts.

United Parcel Service begins delivering 3.8 million Olympic tickets today. That should add to the growing Olympic excitement but may frustrate those who aren’t home when the brown UPS truck pulls up.

The delivery of tickets should be complete by June 10, Olympic organizers said Thursday.

The first tickets will be shipped today to customers in three Atlanta suburbs - Alpharetta, Roswell and Marietta - that had an especially heavy volume of ticket orders.

The rest of Georgia will receive tickets beginning Saturday, and nationwide distribution starts Monday. In all, there are 311,000 orders to fill.

Hegg, Holden win time trials

Steve Hegg, an Olympic gold and silver medalist in 1984, stepped up his bid to represent the U.S. cycling team again by winning the national individual time trials in Concord, N.C.

It was the 13th national championship for Hegg, 32, America’s lone Olympic cycling gold medalist who is still competing.

It also was the third consecutive victory for Hegg in the five-race series to determine this year’s U.S. team for Atlanta, and it vaulted him into the lead with just one event left, a 137-mile road race Sunday in Charlotte.

“I won’t feel comfortable until it’s all over and the team has been announced,” Hegg said after his victory on a rolling, 18.4-mile course just north of Charlotte.

Earlier Thursday on the same course, Mari Holden won the women’s time trials to move from eighth place to fourth in the standings heading into their last event, a 61-mile road race Saturday in Boiling Springs.

DQ’d swimmer accepts fate

Kristine Quance, disqualified for an obscure violation during the Olympic swim trials, will not file a lawsuit for the chance to compete in the 400-meter individual medley at the Atlanta Games.

Quance qualified for the American team in the 100 breaststroke and the 200 medley, but was disqualified in a 400 IM preliminary race during the March trials for allegedly using an illegal stroke on a turn.

She won the race by nearly 5 seconds, but was disqualified for a violation rarely called at the world-class level.

“My attorneys believe we can win if we take this to federal court and I believe them,” a teary Quance said at a news conference in Los Angeles Thursday. “But I have a feeling if we take this all the way I won’t feel good about the win.”

Quance has been frustrated by U.S. Swimming’s lack of cooperation investigating her disqualification. But she chose to avoid a lawsuit because a legal victory would come at a price.

Her presence in the 400 IM would knock Whitney Metzler off the team because countries are allowed two swimmers in each event.

“The only way for me to win was for someone else to lose,” Quance said. “I couldn’t live with myself.”

Report: ‘88 fights rigged

A British journalist claims to have documents from the former East German secret police that show boxing matches in the 1988 Seoul Olympics were rigged by judges, USA Today reported today.

While the documents do not specifically cite United States star Roy Jones’ controversial 3-2 loss to South Korea’s Park Si-huh, author Andrew Jennings believes the evidence is clear.

“I think it’s a safe assumption Jones’ was one of the bribed fights,” said Jennings, author of “The New Lords of the Rings: Olympic Corruption and How to Buy Medals.” Jones, the IBF super middleweight champion, told the newspaper he wasn’t surprised by the revelation.

“When they made that decision the way they did, I knew there had to be a payoff,” said Jones, who is considering filing an appeal with the International Olympic Committee. “I kind of feel the U.S. amateur boxing federation should do it for me.”

Jennings said former East German Karl-Heinz Wehr, secretary general of the International Amateur Boxing Association, routinely reported to the East German secret police, known as Stasi.

Jennings wrote that records of one such debriefing note South Korean “organizers” paid boxing officials to ensure Korean fighters won. According to the book, judges were paid $300-$500 bribes to fix matches.