Olympics roundup: U.S. track has World's Greatest Athlete and a bushel of medals

LONDON -- Instead of one victory lap, Ashton Eaton got four.

His Olympic gold medal in the decathlon was all but sealed when he reached the last event, the 1,500 meters, where he simply needed to finish in an average time to win the event on Thursday night.

The world-record holder cruised over the four laps, crossed the line and -- even as exhausted as he was -- started celebrating.

Eaton finished the two-day competition with 8,869 points to defeat fellow American Trey Hardee by 198. It's the first time the Americans have gone 1-2 in the Olympic decathlon since Milton Gray Campbell and Rafer Johnson in 1956.

"That's what Trey and I really, really wanted," said Eaton, who's from Eugene, Ore.

Especially this year, on the 100th anniversary of the event. At the 1912 Olympics, Jim Thorpe won the inaugural title.

Thanks to Eaton, the decathlon gold is staying in the United States. Eaton joins 2008 winner Bryan Clay and, of course, Bruce Jenner, in earning the honor as "The World's Greatest Athlete."

Even Usain Bolt, the star of the night with his victory in the 200 meters, was impressed.

"I'm a great athlete, but to do 10 events, especially the 1,500 -- I've got to give it to him," Bolt said.

Though the warm-and-sunny conditions in London were far better than the rain, wind and cold at U.S. Olympic trials in Oregon where Eaton broke the record earlier this summer, he fell short of the mark by 170 points.

Not that it mattered. His goal was simply to win a medal, not eclipse his world mark of 9,039 points.

"I'm satisfied," Eaton said as he struggled to put his accomplishment into words.

So Hardee did that for him.

Given that Eaton is just 24 and heading into his prime, Hardee's not sure anyone is going to catch up to him anytime soon.

"It's safe to say my reign is over," said Hardee, a two-time world champion. "I still think my best decathlon is ahead of me, but Ashton's are, too.

"As the days and weeks and months and years pass, I think Ashton and I will look back on this and realize how special it really is and what this really meant."

Eaton was consistent throughout the schedule. He started off by breaking Bill Toomey's 44-year-old Olympic record in the decathlon 100-meter dash and took off from there. He also scored the most points in the long jump and 400 meters.

His only lackluster event was the discus, where he finished 22nd and lost points to the field. But it really didn't matter as he built his lead back up in the pole vault, where he wound up third.

While Bolt won his fifth career gold on the track, the Americans were piling them up in other corners of the stadium.

The U.S. also went 1-2 in the triple jump (Christian Taylor and Will Clay), raising the U.S. total to 24 medals, one more than what they won in Beijing, with three days to go.

"There was one world record established: David Rudisha of Kenya won the 800 meters in 1 minute, 40.91 seconds, improving his own standard by 0.10.

Hoping to hone in on a little slice of the Bolt magic, Rudisha served up the prospect of a showdown over 400 meters against the Jamaican, who used to run that distance but abandoned it because it was too much of a grind.

Bolt was more than happy to handicap that potential race.

"I think if I train, I can take Rudisha over 400 meters," he said.

Former TCU sprinter Doc Patton will run in today's preliminaries of the men's 4x100 relay, joining Jeff Demps, Trell Kimmons and Ryan Bailey. Demps and Kimmons have no Olympic experience. The Americans likely are saving top sprinters Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay for Saturday's final.

Women's basketball: The U.S. faced its first Olympic halftime deficit in 12 years as it reach the gold medal game for the fifth straight time. The Americans used their defensive pressure to rally for an 86-73 win over Australia. Behind 6-foot-8 Liz Cambage, the Australians shot 61 percent and led 47-43 at halftime. The Americans will play France, which routed Russia 81-64, in Saturday's final.

Women's volleyball: The Americans advanced to the final with a 25-20, 25-22, 25-22 victory over South Korea behind Destinee Hooker's 24 points. The U.S. will play for its first Olympic title Saturday against Brazil, which swept Japan.

Boxing: American teenager Claressa Shields won the first middleweight gold medal in women's Olympic boxing. The 17-year-old Shields, from Flint, Mich., defeated Russian opponent Nadezda Torlopova 19-12.

Women's water polo: Maggie Steffens scored five times and the U.S. beat Spain 8-5 to win gold for the first time.

Diving : Chen Ruolin of China won the women's 10-meter platform gold, easily defending her title from Beijing.

Chen totaled 422.30 points during the five-dive final, winning by a 55.80-point margin. She earlier won gold in the 10-meter synchronized and swept the platform events for the second consecutive games.

China has won six of seven diving gold medals with only the men's platform remaining.

Brittany Broben, a 16-year-old from Australia competing in her first Olympics, took the silver at 366.50. Pandelela Pamg of Malaysia was third.

2004 cycling gold: The IOC is set to formally strip American cyclist Tyler Hamilton of his gold from the 2004 Athens Games and reassign the medals after his admission of doping, according to an Olympic official familiar with the case.

With the eight-year deadline approaching, the official told The Associated Press the IOC executive board will meet today to readjust the standings from the road race time trial and award the gold to retired Russian rider Viatcheslav Ekimov.

Dressage: Charlotte Dujardin of Britain won the individual dressage gold medal on Valegro.

Swimming: Eva Risztov of Hungary led most of the way in a grueling open water marathon at Hyde Park, holding off a desperate bid to chase her down by American Haley Anderson.

The big crowd was hoping for a gold medal from world champion Keri-anne Payne, but the British swimmer finished fourth.

Risztov beat Anderson by four-tenths of a second after nearly two hours of racing around The Serpentine. The winner climbed out of the water, smiling and looking fresh. She even flexed for the big crowd.

Risztov retired from swimming after the 2004 Olympics, upset with her results and tired of the pool. She eventually decided to give open water a try, and it sure worked out in a big way.

Martina Grimaldi of Italy got the bronze in the 10-kilometer race.

Synchronized Swimming: Russia led the technical routine of the team event -- as expected.

Russia has won this event at the past three Olympics. Featuring Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina, the pair that won the duet Tuesday, it collected a near-perfect 98.1 points.

The favorites competed to a Russian dance routine composed by Denis Garnizov, as Prince William's wife, Kate, looked on from the crowd.

China was next with 97.0 points and Spain finished third with 96.2 points.

Medals will be handed out after Friday's free routines, with points from both days added up.

Canoe Sprint: The quartet of Tate Smith, Dave Smith, Murray Stewart and Jacob Clear gave Australia a lift with a surprising wire-to-wire win in the men's 1,000-meter K-4.

It was Australia's first team gold in canoe sprint -- and took its overall tally in London to six after wins by cyclist Anna Meares, 100-meter hurdler Sally Pearson and sailors Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen in the past three days.

Germany collected two more victories, with Tina Dietze and Franziska Weber taking the women's 500-meter K-2 and Peter Kretschmer and Kurt Kuschela winning the men's double canoe sprint 1,000.

Danuta Kozak won her second gold of the regatta for Hungary, grabbing the top spot in the women's single kayak 500-meter sprint.

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