US sport on trial at Olympic showcase

HISTORICALLY a meeting with the sparkle and tension of the Olympic Games, this year's US trials, starting today, are a test not only of America's best but of the sport itself.

In a setting less than three hours' drive from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO), alleged to be at the heart of a doping scandal which threatens to engulf the sport, the United States will pick its team for next month's Athens Olympics.

It is here that triple Olympic champion Marion Jones, returning after giving birth to her first child last year, will attempt to shake off a spring and early summer of disappointment and again make the US team in the 100m, 200m and long jump.