The Lineup

DEPARTMENTS ...

4 Leading Off

12 Letters

No indifference to Broadway Joe

14 Catching Up With ...

17 Air and Space

Five days, 10 Olympic events, one sore butt

by Steve Rushin

21 Scorecard

• Baseball cap gross-out

• Tennis's tough-love coach

• Please, no: Bowe to fight again

• Sarah Hughes wants a date

35 Faces in the Crowd

110 The Life of Reilly

Michael Phelps, you can dry off now. Really

by Rick Reilly

INSIDE...

103 Baseball

• Twins southpaw dominates • Dodgers bullpen struggles

106 The NFL

• Steelers rookie QB pays off

108 College Football

• Tailback will carry Badgers

2004 OLYMPICS

38 Fast Company

Justin Gatlin won one of the swiftest 100 meters in history

by Tim Layden

44 Fall and Rise

With a huge comeback, Paul Hamm took gymnastics gold

by E.M. Swift

48 The Pepper Pot

Feisty gymnast Carly Patterson avenged her loss in the worlds

by E.M. Swift

50 On Top of the World

No question: The U.S. softball team is the greatest of all time

by Michael Farber

54 Flag Jumper

A Cuban nation-hopper competes for Sudan

by S.L. Price

58 Break Out the Bubbly

Michael Phelps's finest stroke may have been an act of kindness

by Kelli Anderson

62 Going Out with a Bang

The U.S. women's soccer team gave retiring stars a shot at gold

by Grant Wahl

69 Zone Pressed

Rabid Olympic journalists jostle across a no-man's land

by Richard Hoffer

Plus • Shot put (page 43)

• Men's basketball (page 47)

• Team handball (page 57)

• Eight-man rowing (page 61)

• Cycling time trial (page 65)

• Women's wrestling (page 66)

BASEBALL

74 The Quiet Warrior

Vladimir Guerrero only wants to talk about his large family

by Esmeralda Santiago

TENNIS

82 Jimbo

Thirty years after igniting tennis, Jimmy Connors is still a renegade

by Alexander Wolff

COVER

PHOTOGRAPH BY AL TIELEMANS

INSET PHOTOS: JOHN BIEVER (TRACK); PETER READ MILLER (PATTERSON); HEINZ KLUETMEIER (COUGHLIN); SIMON BRUTY (BEARD); TIMO JAAKONAHO/LEHTIKUVA/WIREIMAGE.COM (RHODE); LYNN JOHNSON (ZAGUNIS)

 

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SI.com

For more from the Athens Olympics, including schedules, a medal tracker and insider columns by SI writers, go to si.com/Olympics.

 

COLOR PHOTO

JOHN W. MCDONOUGH (TOP)

ME FIRST

Justin Gatlin leads the pack.

COLOR PHOTO

PHIL ELLSWORTH (BACKGROUND EXTENDED BY SI IMAGING)

 

ANGEL FOOD

Anaheim's Vladimir Guerrero bites on a pitch (page 74).