track athletes will arrive in Beijing with the baggage of having some of the most prominent members of the U.S. Track & Field team disgraced and banned from the sport.It won't help that in some of the premiere events of track and field, namely the 100 and 400 meter sprints, the long jump, and 1500 meter run, the U.S. men will not only be underdogs to win, but could easily not even secure any medals at all. There are a few women who could salvage the 'name brand' events for the U.S.

Keep an eye out for Torri Edwards, Shannon Rowbury and Porscha Lucas to make some noise on the oval.Michael Phelps will again carry most of the load for the Men's Swimming Team, and while the women will not have any clear-cut favorites for gold, they do have gold medal potential in most of the short races.Then, of course, there's this year's version of USA Basketball's dream teams on both the men's and women's side.The women who have won three straight Olympic gold medals should skate through the Olympics and having Candace Parker on the roster just makes the inevitability of a U.S. spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet, killing the Chinese pilot and forcing the U.S. plane, along with 24 American crewmen to make an emergency landing at a Chinese air base.All of the crewmen, including three women and eight "Chinesecode-breakers" were taken into custody and evidence suggested that the Chinese government had begun stripping the U.S plane of sensitive material.Prior to that event, the U.S. had been adamant about blocking any bid made by China to host the Olympics, citing China's civil rights violations record China, in response to U.S. condemnation, issued a 200-page document detailing the U.S.'s own civil rights record (touch?hina, touch? Nevertheless, three months after thespy plane crash landed on a Chinese air base, Beijing was indeed awarded the 2008 Olympic Games, without objection from the U.S. and despite claims from some in the IOC that Paris and Toronto, also in the bidding process, were technically superior cities.Did the United States cave in to China in order to get their plane and crewmen back home safely and in a timely matter? If they did, was it the right thing to do? Of course, we'll never know the answers to those questions.What we do know, however, is that as we get closer to the opening ceremonies, the calls for protests and outright boycotts of the games have not only come from some the highest levels of international politics and media but some of these protests have taken a violent nature.All of this public objection suggests that it is hard to believe the Olympics will go unmarred by some sort of international incident.

In light of the climate of terrorism that has been fostered by the never-ending conflict in Iraq and the resurgence of Al Qaeda, China has the potential to allow a tenuous situation to become hostile.None of us want to see any athletes, officials or spectators put in harm's way for the sake of some individual or group making a political statement. Unfortunately, China is one of the few nations where the U.S. military and/or security will certainly find itself unwelcome.Let us pray that the Olympics go off without a hitch and we are treated to athletic competition at the highest level, because with China's arrogant stand toward the internationalcommunity, its apparent disregard for the aspirations of its population base and its proximity to regions of the world where the enemies of America fester, we may need an act of God to ensure nothing tragic happens.. So here I am already making my first article for the Bleacher.Recently, the United States soccer team has gone scoreless in three straight friendly's against Argentina, Spain, and England.In this article, I am going to write about how some other star players can make in soccer, how the soccer team would do, see if other athletes can make it in other sports, and some other things.First, I will start off with the NBA.One of the big players I could see if he went to soccer would be Steve Nash. Steve would be a forward because he has the handling and speed you need in soccer.