Medal Stand: Four Lance Armstrong Teammates Withdraw Names From Olympic Consideration

A lap around the track of the weekend’s Olympic news:

Cycling

In somewhat of a surprise, four U.S. cyclists took their names of out consideration for the Summer Games, and all four are former teammates of Lance Armstrong. Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie, Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie asked that they not be considered for the road cycling team in London. Their request came before the team was announced on Friday, but was not made public until USA Cycling put out a short statement Saturday.

“USA Cycling will not speculate on the reasoning behind their requests and will not have further comment,” the statement said. “Any questions related to their decision should be directed to the individual athletes.”

All four spent time as a teammate of Lance Armstrong, who had new doping charges brought against him by the USADA last week.

The five riders USA Cycling will send to London are Taylor Phinney, Tejay van Garderen, Chris Horner, Timmy Duggan and Tyler Farrar.

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The final three slots on the U.S. Olympic cycling team were decided Saturday. Connor Fields won the men’s BMX trials, earning an automatic spot on the three-man team for the London Games. The 19-year old is joined by Nic Long (the discretionary pick), David Herman (who had already qualified by leading USA Cycling’s power rankings, Arielle Martin (automatic bid for the women’s team by leading the power rankings) and Alise Post (discretionary pick).

2012 U.S. Olympic Team for BMX
Men
David Herman (Wheat Ridge, Colo./Free Agent-Rockstar)
Connor Fields (Henderson, Nev./Chase BMX)
Nic Long (Lakeside, Calif./Haro Bikes)

Women
Arielle Martin (Spanaway, Wash./Intense BMX)
Alise Post (Saint Cloud, Minn./Redline)

Beach Volleyball

The American duo of Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal are headed to the 2012 Summer Olympics after beating Latvia in the quarterfinals of an FIVB Grand Slam event in Rome on Sunday, the final event of a two-year qualifying process. Gibb and Rosenthal will join the rest of the U.S. Olympic beach volleyball team, which already qualified: Defending Olympic gold medalists Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser, with Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, two-time defending Olympic champions, and first-timers April Ross and Jennifer Kessy.

Diving

The U.S. Olympic diving team trials are under way in Seattle, beginning Sunday and going until June 24, with the country’s best divers competing for 14 spots at the 2012 Olympics. The finals don’t beging until Thursday (full schedule here), but Abby Johnston and Kelci Bryant have early leads over Kassidy Cook and Christina Loukas after the 3-meter synchronized semifinals.

Women’s Soccer

In a tune-up for London, the U.S. Women’s National Team rolled through Japan, 4-1, at the Volvo Winners Cup in Halmstad, Sweden, on Monday. THe U.S. had gone winless in three straight matches against Japan, dating back to the final of the 2011 World Cup. The USWNT will be going for their third straight Olympic gold medal in London, and their fourth in five Games of the sports’ inclusion.

Equestrian

Hope you’re sitting down, because it’s Olympic show-jumping news!

Eight riders punched their proverbial tickets to London over the weekend including a horse-jumping phenom (there are horse-jumping phenoms). Reed Kessler, just 17 years old, secured her spot in the Summer Games, and let the world know through Twitter, obviously.

Kessler will be joined by veterans McLain Ward, Beezie Madden and Rich Fellers.

In dressage, Jan Ebeling (riding a horse owned by Mitt Romney’s wife), Steffen Peters and Tina Konyot all qualified for London. The fourth-place finisher, Adrienne Lyle, is also set to compete as an individual rider (and not count toward the team score), pending final notification from the International Equestrian Federation.