CANSECO CLAIMS STEROIDS ABUNDANT.(SPORTS) - The Cincinnati Post (Cincinnati, OH)

Byline: Compiled from Post news services

Jose Canseco claims 85 percent of major league baseball players are taking steroids.

''There would be no baseball left if they drug-tested everyone today,'' he said Friday during an interview with Fox Sports Net.

Canseco, who announced his retirement earlier in the week, refused to say if he took steroids.

''It's completely restructured the game as we know it,'' he said. ''That's why guys are hitting 50 or 60 or 75 home runs.''

During an interview with the Associated Press on Friday, Canseco refused to answer questions about steroids use, saying he would give details in a book he is writing.

''Basically what it's going to be is the true story of my life - good and bad, the ups and downs,'' Canseco said. ''I'll name names and discuss basically everything and everybody involved in it. There are a million things I could talk about.''

BLACK DIES - Joe Black, the Brooklyn Dodgers right-hander who became the first black pitcher to win a World Series game, died Friday of prostate cancer.

Black, 78, beat the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the 1952 World Series, five years after teammate Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier. Black also lost twice in the series. He pitched for the Reds in 1955 and '56.

SABATHIA ROBBED - Cleveland Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia was robbed at gunpoint early Friday morning at a downtown hotel by a group of men, who stole his necklace, earrings and wallet.

''It's a life-altering situation,'' a shaken, but uninjured Sabathia said. ''It was totally my fault. There's nobody to blame but me.''

C'MON HILLARY! BE A SPORT AND LOOSEN UP.(SPOTLIGHT)(Column) - Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)

Byline: MARY WINTER

Hillary Clinton sits cross-legged on the plush carpet of her White House office. She's wearing blue jeans, her hair's in a ponytail and Socks is at her side, busy licking his furry chest.

An aide drops off a speech, and the first lady issues a melodious 'Okey-dokey, artichokey!'

The president appears and gives her a peck on the cheek.

She beams.

'What's up, Buttercup?' Mrs. Clinton asks her main squeeze.

Is this the kind of behavior Americans want from a first lady?

I think it is.

At least, I think it's what they want from Hillary Clinton.

In two words, they want her to lighten up.

Mrs. Clinton's nosediving popularity has little to do with Whitewater or Travelgate. Her albatross is her goody-two-shoes, Harvard-educated, no-hair-out-of-place image.

The reason polls show 47% of Americans think she's a liar may be because she comes across as a bit cold and stuffy.

I think Mrs. Clinton's image needs a slight adjustment.

And given that over the years I've become somewhat of an expert at spotting others' flaws, I offer the following suggestions on how Mrs. Clinton might reverse those pesky popularity polls:

* Buy a red Porsche.

* Get caught sending slightly flirtatious e-mail to Norman Schwartzkopf.

* Rollerblade down Pennsylvania Avenue in a unitard on the next sunny afternoon.

Just think of the photo ops.

Recall how many times we've seen the president jogging, playing golf, going duck hunting.

Those events don't just happen. They're carefully orchestrated by Mr. Clinton's handlers so voters see what a 'regular' fella our man in the White House is.

What's good for for the goose is good for the gander. Mrs. Clinton should get involved in some kind of sport, and let the voting public see her in the act.

The more flab she shows, the better. Cellulite, not a Wellesley College degree, is what the rest of us can relate to.

* Become a Boy Scout leader.

* Pull out a Little Debbie snack cake at the next big press conference. Unwrap it, bite into it with gusto, and remark that croissants just don't cut it with you.

* Throw a 'Come as Phil Gramm' party at Camp David.

* Take a class in feng shui and fill the White House with red tulips.

* Learn topiary and mold White House bushes into busts of America's forefathers.

The point of such grand-standing activities, of course, is to draw attention to Mrs. Clinton's softer side, to her sense of whimsy and playfulness.

According to a Newsweek cover story, there is a 'goofy' side of Hillary Clinton that wears necklaces of blinky Christmas lights; that uses expressions such as 'Okey-dokey, artichokey' and genuinely enjoys making wreaths with Martha Stewart.

So break the mold, Mrs. Clinton.

You're neither Barbara Bush nor Nancy Reagan. You're a great role model for this generation of women, and millions, including me, admire you for blazing a thorny trail and for calling America on the carpet for neglecting its children.

Now, it's time to loosen your collar.

Okey-dokey, artichokey?

Sprinter Carlos remains survivor.(Sports) - The Seattle Times (Seattle, WA)

Byline: Jerry Brewer; Times staff Columnist

Here was John Carlos, an unapologetic crusader, feeling vulnerable. He looked at his mother, Violis, and tiptoed toward the one question he had spent four decades trying to ask.

This was 2008, 40 years after Carlos had lifted his black-gloved fist into the air at the Mexico City Olympics, teaming with Tommie Smith to make perhaps the most shocking political statement in sports history. Carlos summoned his courage again as he peered into Mom's eyes.

'Were you ashamed?' he asked.

'I was never ashamed,' Violis said. 'I never was, and I never will be ashamed of you. But I was afraid I'd get a call in the middle of the night saying that they'd killed you.'

The son replied: 'Mom, they can kill me. But they can't kill what I stand for.'

That's John Carlos in an anecdote. He's not just a character in a frozen, polarizing moment from 43 years ago. He's an ordinary man -- a high-school guidance counselor -- with extraordinary conviction, a keen sense of humanity and the defiance to make the rigid and the apathetic uncomfortable.

He has written a book with Dave Zirin to explain his dauntless life. He's on a tour promoting 'The John Carlos Story,' and he'll be here at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Northwest African American Museum. Carlos, 66, is as sharp as ever. He's as passionate as ever, too. When he talks, he sounds neither arrogant because he made history nor bitter because he was ostracized for it. Instead, his desire for equality remains his unobstructed focus. And when you ask about his life, he's unabashedly honest.

'If I'm pissed off at anything about my life, I'm pissed off at myself for not making things easier for my family,' said Carlos, whose first wife, Kim, committed suicide in 1977. 'I lost my first wife in this thing. But I'll never be bitter toward anyone -- not for the criticisms or the death threats or anything. If I'm bitter, they win.'

Carlos' book is captivating because it is real and searing. He's not an athlete looking to praise himself or sugarcoat his legacy. It's as objective as an autobiography can be. You feel history come to life, but you also realize Carlos is very much living in the present.

'I don't feel embraced, I feel like a survivor, like I survived cancer,' Carlos says in a blunt-yet-poetic introduction. 'It's like if you are sick, and no one wants to be around you, and when you're well, everyone who thought you would go down for good doesn't even want to make eye contact. It was almost like we were on a deserted island. ... But we survived.'

In a telephone interview last week, Carlos admitted he had spent 43 years wondering one thing: 'Why me?'

He had to possess courage to take a stand. But he had to have the talent to get to the stand. Carlos originally wanted to be an Olympic swimmer, but he soon realized that, during those times, African-American athletes didn't have the proper training to become elite swimmers. So he turned to track. At the 1968 Olympics, he took the bronze medal in the 200 meters. Smith won the race, and Australian Peter Norman finished second.

The three decided to make a statement on the medal stand. They all wore Olympic Project for Human Rights badges. Smith and Carlos didn't wear shoes -- just black socks -- to symbolize black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf around his neck, and Carlos opted to unzip his tracksuit top to represent blue-collar workers and to wear a necklace of beads to represent those who had been murdered and lynched.

But the most enduring part of the protest happened when the national anthem began. Smith and Carlos raised their black-gloved fists -- Smith with his right hand, Carlos with his left -- and they lowered their heads.

'People tried to make it a black thing,' Carlos said. 'They called it a 'black power salute.' It wasn't a black thing. It was for human rights.'

Why me? Carlos ponders it every day. 'When I get before God, that's the only time I'm going to get the answer,' he says.

He doesn't ask the question with regret, however. No, he's proud he had the strength and social consciousness at such a young age to take a stand. The moment defines his life, but in some ways, it was no different than when, as a teen, Carlos set a tree on fire in the courtyard of the public-housing projects in Harlem where his family lived. He did it because a caterpillar infestation was preventing his mother from sitting under the trees in the courtyard, and the building manager had ignored the problem.

'If I've got to take a whuppin' for something I believe in, I'll take that whuppin',' Carlos says.

No shame. No fear. No regrets.

He survived.

Jerry Brewer: 206-464-2277 or jbrewer@seattletimes.com

CAPTION(S):

AP file photo: Extending gloved fists, U.S. athletes Tommie Smith, center, and John Carlos stare downward in poltical protest during the 1968 Mexico City Games. (0343658442)

Sports Briefs - Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque)

Hampton pleads guilty to DWI charges

CABOT, Ark. - Dan Hampton, who will be inducted into the ProFootball Hall of Fame this summer, has been sentenced to a week injail after pleading guilty last month to drunken-driving charges.

The former Chicago Bears' defensive end also was fined $1,000 andordered to attend alcohol education courses. The arrest was hissecond for DWI in five years.

Hampton's lawyer, Hubert Alexander, said his client hadn't decidedwhen to serve the jail time or attend the classes. He has until theend of this month to pay the fine. The plea and sentence took placeApril 30 but was not disclosed until Friday because Alexander wishedto avoid publicity.

The 44-year-old Hampton, who also played at Arkansas, was draftedby the Bears No. 4 overall in 1979 and was All-Pro in 1981, 1983,1985-86. He retired in 1990.

Former MSU star shot at

LANSING, Mich. - An unidentified gunman fired at least three shotsinto the passenger-side windows of a sport utility vehicle driven byformer Michigan State star basketball player Jason Richardson, policesay.

Richardson, who now plays for the NBA's Golden State Warriors, andfive passengers were not hurt during the shooting early Thursday at aLansing intersection, authorities told The Lansing State Journal fora story Friday.

The shooting took place about 2:30 a.m. Thursday at a stoplightnear downtown Lansing, police said.

Lansing police Detective Sgt. Noel Garcia said the department isinvestigating the incident but had no suspects. Witnesses said therewere three people in the shooter's car.

Sol releases Watson

MIAMI - The Miami Sol cut former Iowa player Jerica Watson, athird-round draft choice, as the WNBA got down to its roster limit of11 on Friday.

Watson, a 6-foot forward, was the 45th pick overall in lastmonth's draft. She had played in all four of Miami's exhibitiongames, averaging 10.8 minutes, two points and two rebounds.

At Iowa, Watson led the Big Ten in rebounding last season (9.4)and averaged 13.3 points a game.

Borton takes over Gophers

MINNEAPOLIS - Pam Borton became the new women's basketball coachat Minnesota on Friday.

Borton, an associate coach at Boston College, agreed to a five-year contract that pays $150,000 annually. She succeeds BrendaOldfield, who left to become the coach at Maryland.

The program still faces NCAA sanctions. The NCAA is expected toannounce its ruling soon.

Woods to skip Kemper

DUBLIN, Ohio - Tiger Woods will skip the Kemper Open to rest forthe U.S. Open.

Woods had strongly considered playing his first Kemper Open, eventhough it would have been his fourth straight tournament - and justtwo weeks before the U.S. Open.

'I don't feel that I can play Kemper and get ready for the Open atthe same time,' Woods said. 'I don't have enough energy for that.'

Eagles playbook stolen

PHILADELPHIA - A Philadelphia Eagles playbook was stolen from thecar of linebacker Shawn Barber.

Barber told police Thursday his 2002 Cadillac was ransackedbetween midnight and 6 a.m. A briefcase with jewelry, cash and theplaybook was stolen.

Several Eagles have been victimized in the past few days. Theburglaries occurred in the outdoor parking lot of the Residence Inn,near the Philadelphia International Airport, where some Eagles arehoused temporarily during offseason training.

Bond set for robbers

CLEVELAND - Bond was set at $50,000 Friday for two former collegebasketball players charged with robbing Cleveland Indians pitcherC.C. Sabathia.

Damon Stringer and Jamaal Harris did not enter a plea when theyappeared in Cleveland Municipal Court.

The former teammates at Cleveland State University face three to10 years in prison if convicted of aggravated robbery and kidnapping.

Sabathia and his cousin, Jomar Connors, of Vallejo, Calif., wererobbed at gunpoint after midnight May 17 at a downtown hotel, wherethey attended a party.

Sabathia was robbed of $44,102 in cash and jewelry, including anecklace and earrings. No one was injured.

Italian scales Everest

KATMANDU, Nepal - A 66-year-old Italian man scaled Mount Evereston Friday, becoming the oldest person to climb the world's highestmountain.

Curnis broke the record set by Japanese climber Tomiyasu Ishikawa,of Nagoya, who scaled the peak last week at the age of 65 years andfive months, according to the China Tibet Mountaineering Association.

Last week, 63-year-old Japanese climber Tamae Watanabe became theoldest woman to scale the peak.

Plane lands in parking lot

ANAHEIM, Calif. - A small plane crash-landed Friday in a parkinglot outside the Anaheim Angels' stadium, just hours before the teamplayed the Minnesota Twins.

The pilot and a passenger, who were not immediately identified,walked away from the crumpled single-engine Cessna 150.

Sports in 60 seconds.(Sports) - Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)

Badgers' concussed Ball won't start camp:

Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema says star running back Montee Ball won't be ready for camp after suffering a concussion during a street fight. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, Bielema said during a taping of a show at WISC-TV studios in Madison on Thursday that Ball won't be ready when practice begins Monday. The Badgers open the season at home Sept. 1 against Northern Iowa. Bielema gave no indication Ball would suffer any long-term problems. He said Ball's absence will spare last year's Heisman Trophy finalist hits and give other backs more repetitions. Police said five men knocked Ball down as he was walking near campus early Wednesday. The men kicked him in the head and chest before fleeing.

-- Despite its lopsided loss to Alabama in last January's BCS national title game, LSU will open the 2012 season ranked No. 1 in at least one poll. LSU sits atop the USA Today Top 25 coaches poll released Thursday, with Alabama second and Southern California third.

Young looks for deal in hate-crime case:

Detroit Tigers outfielder Delmon Young is trying to work out a deal with prosecutors in New York in his hate-crime harassment case, his lawyer said Thursday. Young appeared briefly in a Manhattan court Thursday for an update on the misdemeanor case. He's accused of yelling anti-Jewish epithets at a group of tourists, tussling with them and tackling one to the ground in April, when the Tigers were in town to play the New York Yankees. His lawyer, Daniel J. Ollen, said after court that he and prosecutors are discussing a potential 'disposition that's acceptable to both parties.' The Manhattan district attorney's office said only that prosecutors aren't making an offer at the moment. The 26-year-old Young was standing outside the team hotel in New York when a panhandler, wearing a yarmulke and a Star of David necklace, approached a group of about four Chicago tourists standing nearby, police said. Young started yelling anti-Semitic epithets, though it wasn't clear at whom he was shouting, and got into a scuffle with the Chicago group, police said. Major League Baseball suspended Young for seven days without pay after the confrontation. Young is free on $5,000 bond and due back in court Nov. 7.

Cleveland Browns sale gets closer:

Here's one to make Cleveland fans shake their heads: A partial owner of the hated Pittsburgh Steelers is buying the Browns. A person with knowledge of the sale told The Associated Press on Thursday that Browns owner Randy Lerner has reached a deal to sell the team to Tennessee truck-stop magnate Jimmy Haslam III -- a minority stockholder in the rival Steelers. While the papers have been signed, the NFL still must approve the sale. Approval from 24 of the 32 teams is required, and no date has been set for a vote because the sale has not been presented to the league yet. The person said approval is expected by the end of September.

Etc.:

A sampling of the treasure trove that had been untouched for 100 years in an Ohio attic was sold during the National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore. The 37 baseball cards featuring the likes of Hall of Famers Ty Cobb, Cy Young and Honus Wagner fetched $566,132 in brisk online and live bidding. They were expected to bring about $500,000.

-- Former NBA guard and Kentucky assistant coach Rod Strickland was arrested near the Kentucky campus in Lexington, Ky., and charged with driving on a DUI suspended license.

-- Ohio State running back Bri'onte Dunn, a 19-year-old incoming freshman, has pleaded innocent to a disorderly conduct charge after a weekend arrest in Alliance, Ohio, resulted in police finding marijuana in the car he was driving.

-- Nearly a year after promising to impose harsher sanctions on the most egregious rule-breakers, NCAA leaders in Indianapolis endorsed a proposal Thursday that would make schools subject to the same crippling penalties just handed to Penn State. The measure includes postseason bans of up to four years, fines that could stretch into the millions and suspensions for head coaches. A final vote on the sweeping overhaul will not occur before the board of directors' October meeting.

-- Cpl. Royce Denny, an Arkansas State Police trooper who found a gun and marijuana during a traffic stop of then-Arkansas State running back Michael Dyer has been fired.

-- Chicago Rush wide receiver Reggie Gray and center Billy Eisenhardt were selected to the Arena Football League's second-team all-arena offense.

Being a professional athlete brings the money and the prestige, but it also means being a public figure, especially in the eyes of criminals: Dangers run rampant for sports stars. - Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL)

Byline: Fred Mitchell

Jul. 15--Antoine Walker's life-threatening experience with gun-toting intruders at his River North home last week is the latest example of a scary trend in professional sports: Athletes are becoming increasingly frequent victims of street crime.

Criminals, after all, go where the money is, and pro athletes in the major sports reside in an extremely exclusive income bracket.

Last week three masked men entered Walker's posh River North residence through the garage, held a gun to his head, duct-taped his ankles and wrists and robbed him of cash, jewelry and his black Mercedes.

Walker escaped without serious injury, and the Mercedes and some of his jewelry have been recovered. But the emotional scars will linger, in part because Walker has been victimized before. In July 2000, he and former Kentucky teammate Nazr Mohammed, a fellow South Sider, were among five people robbed at gunpoint of cash and a $55,000 watch outside a restaurant on West Roosevelt Road. The diamond and platinum Cartier watch was Walker's.

'Any time your life is threatened, obviously you're going to be hurt by it,' Walker said.

Walker, a Miami Heat forward from Mt. Carmel High School, stands 6 feet 9 inches and is listed at 245 pounds, but his size and strength didn't intimidate well-armed attackers on either occasion.

'I'm not Superman,' Walker said.

The Bulls and Bears employ full-time security personnel to look after players' safety on the road, and to warn them away from spots where trouble might find them in their home cities. Major League Baseball maintains security offices in each league city for essentially the same purpose.

But athletes are basically on their own when they're at home or out and about socially.

Cubs outfielder Cliff Floyd, who grew up in south suburban Markham, empathizes with Walker.

'I know exactly where he's from and I know some of the places he hangs out,' Floyd said. 'Being a Chicago native, it's sad. You want the best for your city, where you come from. You want to see the crime go down. This shows you that times have changed.

'I don't think you can live paranoid. The most important thing for me, for a lot of us, is our families. They're more vulnerable than we are.'

Bull's-eye off the field

Sports history is replete with instances of athletes as victims of violence dating to 1932, when former Cubs infielder Billy Jurges was shot in his hotel room by a jilted girlfriend. Seventeen years later the Phillies' Eddie Waitkus, also a former Cub, was shot in Chicago by a young woman named Ruth Ann Steinhagen.

In 1978, Angels outfielder Lyman Bostock was shot and killed while visiting family in his native Gary, an innocent bystander in a domestic dispute.

More recently Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia and his cousin were robbed at gunpoint of $44,000 worth of jewelry and cash at a Cleveland hotel in 2002. That same year, Giants receiver Tim Carter was carjacked outside a New Jersey movie complex and robbed of his BMW and $10,000 worth of jewelry.

NBA guard Stephon Marbury, then with the New Jersey Nets, was robbed of a $150,000 diamond necklace as he waited in his Bentley for a light to change in Manhattan in 2000. Gary Payton, then with the Seattle Sonics, was relieved of $30,000 worth of cash and jewelry in his native Oakland.

Being an athlete obviously doesn't ensure safe passage on the nation's streets.

'You've got to be careful where you go, who is around, what you do, how you dress, what you have on. You have to be cognizant of all that,' Cubs outfielder Jacque Jones said. 'There are certain situations where a guy could take it the wrong way, like [wearing] a lot of jewelry or flashy clothes or whatever.'

Floyd agrees.

'The more you see things happen, the more you say to yourself: 'Should I wear this chain today? Should I drive this car today, or should I take off the [fancy] rims?' It makes you think about it, but then it goes back to wanting to enjoy the things that you worked so hard to do. So it's a double-edged sword. Sometimes it's a choice of life over death,' Floyd said.

White Sox shortstop Juan Uribe was exonerated following an alleged shooting incident in his native Dominican Republic last winter. Uribe's agent, Martin Arburua, suggested Uribe, his brother and a bodyguard were the victims of an extortion scheme, that the shooting incident 'probably didn't happen,' but countryman Sammy Sosa said Uribe should not have put himself at such high risk.

'As a baseball player and being at the level you are, you need to be surrounded by good people. Good people who can tell you, 'Go to this place, don't go to that place,'' Sosa said.

Sosa speaks from experience; he and his brother had a large amount of cash stolen from them in a Caracas hotel lobby in 2002. Sosa's agent, Adam Katz, called the amount 'insignificant ... maybe $1,000' at the time, but published reports put the figure at $20,000.

'If you go out by yourself and you punch somebody, you have to pay that guy for life,' Sosa said. 'You shoot somebody and you're in trouble. That never happens to me because I'm surrounded by good people. I would rather pay a bodyguard $1,000 and know that when I go out to a place, I'm going to have a good time and I won't be thinking about something happening to me. I will have somebody taking care of my back.'

Can't be careful enough

Being safe in public and safe in their homes or hotel rooms are two different concerns for high-profile athletes.

'My girl might get tired of hearing it, but I'm telling her all the time: 'When you come in the garage, keep your head on a swivel when you're coming down the alley. Keep your head on a swivel when you are taking the kids out,'' Floyd said.

'I mean, I can get out of the car and if I see someone coming after me, I can run. But she can't leave our two kids. I always tell her that her situation is much different than mine. 'Be home before dark, lock the door and put the alarm on.''

But athletes and their families can't lock out the outside world completely.

'You have people coming into your house that you don't think about: the cleaning lady, the dry cleaner who comes in and gets my clothes,' Floyd said. 'I have the plumber coming in. There are a lot of things you have to think about. They know your routine. You have to trust them at some point.'

Cubs reliever Bob Howry was involved in an incident last month when a fan ran onto the field and approached him after he'd given up a go-ahead home run against Colorado in a game at Wrigley Field. Security subdued 24-year-old Brent Kowalkoski before he reached Howry.

'When you hear about something like [the attack on Walker], it makes you think about it a little bit more,' Howry said. 'More than anything, you're concerned about your family and you want them to be safe. There are only so many precautions you can take. If somebody wants to do something bad enough, I don't know if there's anything you can do to really stop them.'

Additional security has been accompanying Giants slugger Barry Bonds as he approaches Henry Aaron's home run record, and MLB security spokesman Kevin Teenan said 'it's safe to say' they'll be with Bonds as his Giants visit Wrigley Field this week.

Chicago-based agents such as Henry Thomas, Mark Bartelstein, Keith Kreiter and Fletcher Smith advise their clients to be wary of all their many acquaintances, some of whom might not have their best interests at heart.

Walker is moving out of his River North residence following last week's attack, but he says Chicago will remain his off-season home.

'I wish 'Toine the best and I hope everything works out,' Floyd said. 'I hope everything calms down and he can get back to his life. Why should something like this happen to a person?'

fmitchell@tribune.com

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'Before, I ran from danger and death. Now, I run for sport.' U.S. flagbearer's tales of survival harrowing.(Sports) - Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)

Byline: Clay Latimer, Rocky Mountain News

Lopez Lomong couldn't help himself.

He had to see it.

He had to go back to the place in Africa where his parents buried him 17 years ago, certain their second son was dead after Sudanese soldiers dragged him out of a church.

'They'd made a funeral for me,' Lomong said. 'They had this pile of stones and things like that. They'd buried some of my childhood stuff. Symbols. A necklace. Other things from me.'

Lomong, an assistant cross country coach at the Air Force Academy, will carry the American flag during Opening Ceremonies today for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Last month, he qualified for a spot on the U.S. track and field team, finishing second in the 1,500-meter run in Eugene, Ore.

Very quickly, the 23-year-old has become a symbol of the American dream, a man who found unimagined opportunity in a welcoming land.

For some, that might be an overwhelming burden. But it won't unnerve Lomong, who overnight went from a happy 6-year-old to one of more than 20,000 'Lost Boys of Sudan,' never knowing a moment of safety as he walked through thousands of miles of desert, grasslands and forests. Battling starvation, death squads and lions, Lomong made it to a refugee camp in Kenya, where his ordeal continued for another decade.

Lomong had no one else but the Lost Boys - until he arrived in 2001 in Tully, N.Y., with the help of his adoptive parents, Robert and Barbara Rogers, and started a running career that took him to Northern Arizona University, Colorado Springs and eventually Beijing.

'Becoming an American citizen was a big step,' Lomong said. 'I was seeing everything and said, 'Now, I'm not just one of the Lost Boys, I'm an American. I'm just like any other American out there with my rights, and I can compete for the country that I want to compete for because I have my passport.' It's just payback for the people that helped me through my childhood and coming to the U.S.

'Before, I ran from danger and death. Now, I run for sport.'

The day that changed everything began innocently enough. One moment, Lomong was focused on Mass in the village of Kimotong in southern Sudan; the next, the militia was bursting through the church doors. After ordering everyone else to lie down, soldiers rounded up the children, loaded them on a truck and hauled them off to a prison camp.

Hundreds of boys sat in cramped rooms, pawns in Sudan's long-running civil war between the Arab north and Black African south of the country, where Lomong's family farmed and raised cattle.

Fearful of being turned into government soldiers, Lomong and three other boys crawled through a small hole in a fence three days later, then ran barefoot for three days.

'We kept running and running,' he said. 'We didn't know where we were going, but the whole time they were telling me, 'We're going to go and see your mom,' and I was excited about that.'

At one point, the two older boys carried Lomong on their backs. On the third day, they unknowingly crossed the border, encountering another group of soldiers - the Kenya Border Patrol.

An estimated 2 million died in Sudan's Second Civil War - it's described by the International Rescue Committee as one of the bloodiest wars of the 20th century - and thousands of children were forced into labor or turned into soldiers.

The Lost Boys escaped, but at a devastating cost. They saw friends snatched and eaten alive by lions, drop dead from thirst and hunger, turn violently sick from eating raw animal flesh. They saw others go mad, haunted by the Janjaweed, the Arab horsemen who wiped out villages and then rode away with young women, eventually turning them into concubines.

Lomong was fortunate; the Border Patrol took him to a the Kakuma Refugee Camp, a sprawling slum of 70,000 men, women and children, where he settled in to wait.

'I'm 6. I don't have parents at that point. I was like, I'm going to live my own way to just survive.'

Orphaned and alone, the Lost Boys formed new families. They listened to one another's troubles, shared food, played soccer and ran around the camp to blot out the hunger and boredom.

'Life in a refugee camp is a hustle . . . you've got to get your own food, work just to survive. We had one meal a day,' Lomong said.

'I wanted to go to school, but we had no books or pens or paper. We learned to write in the sand.'

As Lomong got older, he helped take care of the younger children.

'For kids who came there older, they probably had more stress about missing their family. For me, I was brainwashed and said, 'This is my home. This is where I will grow up,' ' he said.

One day in 2000, Lomong ran five miles to a local village, where he paid five shillings to watch the Sydney Olympics on a black- and-white television. The money came from his job shoveling dirt at the camp, but it was worth it when he saw Michael Johnson win the 400-meter dash and then accept the gold medal, The Star-Spangled Banner playing in the background. During his daily runs around the camp, he imagined racing against Johnson.

'It gave me a dream,' he said. 'I said, that's what I want to do.'

In 2001, a Catholic Charities official came to the refugee camp and said there were opportunities to come to the United States. Inspired, Lomong wrote his life story and sent it to the American embassy in Kenya; officials were moved and set up an interview.

'I thought the U.S. is next to heaven, and I wanted to be part of that,' he said.

Shortly before 9/11, Lomong boarded a plane to New York, still wondering about the fate of his biological family.

Two years later, he received an unusual phone call. It was his mother. Incredulous that she was alive, Lomong and Rita Namana exchanged information during several phone calls. Rita told him she lived in a modest apartment near the Kenyan capital of Nairobi with his two younger brothers and a sister. His father, Awei, had returned to Sudan to farm, she said.

Then, one day they realized they'd been at the same camp at the same time.

'We started crying,' Lomong said. 'For 12 years, I thought they were dead and they thought I was dead.'

After developing into a high school track and cross country star, Lomong enrolled at Northern Arizona, the first member of his family to attend college. A month before he became a U.S. citizen, he won the 1,500 meters at the 2007 NCAA championships.

Meanwhile, he continued to send $200 a month to his mother and phone his family in Kenya several times a week.

But Lomong never had been reunited with them - until last Christmas, when he returned to Kenya, unsure of what to expect after 16 years.

'I had no pictures. I didn't know what they looked like,' he said. 'It was so long ago, and I was just 6.'

But Lomong didn't end his trip in Kenya. He insisted on going back to Kimotong, to the cemetery where his family 'buried' him so many years ago.

'I went to the graveyard where they held a funeral for me and had made a little pile of stones,' he said. 'We had to dig me out. We dissected a goat and blessed it and did some ritual stuff.

'And they brought me back to life.'

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