Greer makes US track roster for Beijing Olympics

[July 15, 2008]  HAUTACAM, France (AP) -- Javelin thrower Breaux Greer made the U.S. track and field team for the Beijing Games even though he failed to reach the final round at the Olympic trials.

Greer, an eight-time national champion, finished 17th at the trials this month, but he still joined Tyson Gay, Allyson Felix and Jeremy Wariner on the 126-member roster announced Monday by USA Track & Field.

He was placed on the team, the USATF said, based on a rule that allows for "the selection of an injured athlete who competed in the Olympic trials but did not final ... as long as another athlete is not displaced from the team."

Greer hurt his shoulder while winning a bronze medal at last year's world championships and hadn't thrown in competition until July 4 at the Olympic trials.

The men's javelin competition in Beijing begins Aug. 20.

"Will he be ready for the games? I don't know. His agent and his doctor seem to think so," said John Chaplin, the chair of U.S. men's track and field.

Greer did not immediately respond to an AP request for an interview.

Chaplin said Greer's agent submitted an injury appeal. Only two other male javelin throwers from the United States, Leigh Smith and Mike Hazle, had met the Olympic "A" qualifying standard of 268 feet, 4 inches, so if Greer hadn't been added to the roster, the country would have had only two representatives in the event, instead of the allotted three.

Only Greer could have taken that third spot.

"Since it didn't affect anybody, I said, 'OK, it affects no one.' I could have said, 'No,' too, you know," Chaplin said in a telephone interview. "But since he's the only 300-foot thrower we've got, and they're saying that it's repaired, and he'll be ready, I figured it's a very good gamble."

Monday's roster includes 15 Olympic medalists and 31 outdoor world championships medalists.

The United States topped the track and field medal table at the 2004 Athens Olympics with a total of 25. That was the country's largest haul since taking home 30 medals from the track at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Games.

The U.S. also led the medal table at the 2007 world championships in Osaka, Japan, with 26.

"This Olympic team is one of our strongest ever, with more medal-winning experience in a wider range of events, from sprints to distances and field events, than we've had in many decades," USATF president Bill Roe said. "While it would take an incredible performance to match our medal counts of recent championships, we certainly feel that this team has what it takes to again top the medal tables."

[Associated Press; By HOWARD FENDRICH]

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