2004 Olympics: Other Sports

11:50 PM CDT on Sunday, August 29, 2004

From Staff Reports

Rockwall skipper Paul Foerster, 40, has an Olympic gold medal from Athens to show off at the Rush Creek Yacht Club.

Foerster became a first-time father in November, days before he and crew Kevin Burnham of Miami literally sailed through the U.S. Olympic Trials for the 470 boat class.

Foerster, an engineer and University of Texas graduate, plotted out a rigorous training and racing schedule after winning the U.S. Trials, with an eye on exactly what would work at the Athens Olympics.

Burnham had left Olympic sailing after Foerster defeated him in the U.S. Trials for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Their decision to team up for Athens paid off.

Foerster, a two-time Olympic silver medalist, made this a golden year for his family – wife Carrie, and son Luke, who will turn 1 in November.

— Cathy Harasta

Tamika Catchings scored only one point in Saturday's gold-medal game against Australia, but that scarcely mattered to the Duncanville High product as she stood on the victory podium with her teammates.

For the tournament, Catchings, 25, averaged seven points and five rebounds while starting all eight games.

"It's been a dream come true," she said of her first Olympics. During a free afternoon early in the Games, she and several teammates even managed to visit a winery, where they took off their shoes and stomped grapes – although they say they didn't sample the final product.

— Brad Townsend

Though only 20, Jeremy Wariner established himself as one of the new stars of American track and field. Wariner, a Baylor sophomore last season, won the 400 meters in 44.0 seconds, the fastest in the world since another former Baylor runner, Michael Johnson, won the 2000 Olympics in 43.84 seconds.

Wariner added a second gold medal Saturday night as a member of the 4x400 relay team, which won by nearly five seconds in 2:55.74 – only .17 seconds off the Olympic record.

Wariner, who lives in Grand Prairie and graduated from Arlington Lamar, was the NCAA indoor and outdoor champion in the 400 and the 4x400 this year. He announced Saturday that he has decided to give up his remaining two years of collegiate eligibility to turn professional.

— Ken Stephens

Dana Vollmer returns to Granbury and her junior year of high school as a world record holder and Olympic gold medalist. The 16-year-old swam the third leg in the finals for the U.S. women's 4x200-meter freestyle relay, which won by a body length and shattered the old mark by more than two seconds.

The previous record was older than Vollmer. It was set on Aug. 18, 1987, by East Germany. She was born on Nov. 13 of that year.

"I'm just overwhelmed," she said of the experience.

Vollmer was also the only American woman to reach the finals in the individual 200 freestyle. She finished sixth with a personal best of 1 minute, 58.98 seconds. Vollmer, the second-youngest member of the U.S. swim team, hopes to qualify for four more Olympics. She would be 32 in 2020.

— Rachel Cohen

Doc Patton, who was born in Dallas and graduated from Lake Highlands before moving on to TCU, earned a silver medal as a member of the U.S. 4x100-meter relay team.

Patton spent most of August working with the U.S. team in Munich, Crete and Athens. In the Olympics, he ran the second leg of the relay in the preliminary round, then gave way for Olympic 100-meter champion Justin Gatlin to return to the lineup.

Patton burst onto the international scene last summer when he won a silver medal in the 200 and then a gold on the relay at the world championships in Paris. This year, he finished fourth in the 200 at the U.S. Olympic Trials but was nonetheless picked to run in the relay.

— Ken Stephens

Carly Patterson, 16, of Allen, made a huge impact on the Athens Games. She captured what many would identify as the most prestigious Summer Olympic championship – the women's all-around gymnastics gold medal.

Patterson left Athens with three medals, including silvers in the team event and the balance beam. The U.S. women gymnasts, who won no medals at the Sydney Games four years ago, collected six in Athens.

Life for Patterson will never be the same. She found out in a hurry that a pro athlete with major sponsors is in high demand. Personal appearances and TV gigs began to fill her schedule as soon as she won the all-around on Aug. 19. She is scheduled for Late Night With David Letterman and The Tonight Show this week.

"I've learned to write my name really fast," she said as she displayed her new way of signing autographs for fans – her signature above her drawing of the five-ring Olympic logo and the word "gold" on one side of the rings and the year " '04" on the other side.

Patterson is preparing for a post-Olympic tour that will feature many of the Athens stars. Her home gym, the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy in Plano, will serve as a rehearsal site in early September for the T.J. Maxx tour that will travel to 38 cities and close at American Airlines Center on Nov. 21.

— Cathy Harasta

Sara Lowe, 20, who grew up in DeSoto and now lives in Sunnyvale, Calif., is a member of the bronze-winning U.S. synchronized swimming team. In the team competition, Russia took the gold and Japan the silver.

Lowe became interested in the sport when her grandmother, Betty Molnar of Granbury, taught her some moves in an East Texas lake. At the age of 11, she joined the Pirouettes of Texas, an Irving synchronized swimming team.

In 1999, she and her mother, Cindy, moved to the Bay Area when Cindy got a job with a Stanford University research lab. Her father and brother joined them a year later. Lowe began training with the Santa Clara Aquamaids, the nation's top synchronized swimming team.

Lowe was the youngest of 29 competitors in the 1999 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. She was chosen for the U.S. Olympic team in 2003. This fall, she will attend Stanford, where she will compete on the synchronized swimming team. She plans to major in interior design or architecture.

— Thomas Huang