Swoopes Added to Team; Baumann Has Qualifying Time

Sheryl Swoopes, a 1996 gold medalist and the WNBA’s leading scorer this season as a Houston Comet, was added to the U.S. Olympic basketball team Sunday.

Swoopes’ addition completes the 12-woman roster the United States will take to Sydney.

“Sheryl is one of the nation’s premier players and she brings speed, quickness and an offensive punch to this team,” said Karen Stromme, chairwoman of the committee that selected the team, in Colorado Springs.

Previously selected were Ruthie Bolton-Holifield, Teresa Edwards, Yolanda Griffith, Chamique Holdsclaw, Lisa Leslie, Nikki McCray, DeLisha Milton, Katie Smith, Dawn Staley, Natalie Williams and Kara Walters.

Swoopes averaged 13.0 points a game with the team that won the Olympic gold medal four years ago. During each of the past three years, she helped the Comets win the WNBA title, averaging 15.7 points.

She is averaging 22.5 points this WNBA season.

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Germany’s Dieter Baumann, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist at 5,000 meters, met the qualifying standard for the Sydney Games, two days after his drug suspension was lifted.

Baumann, who tested positive in October and November for the performance-enhancing drug nandrolone, ran the 5,000 in 13 minutes 18.78 seconds, at an international track and field meet in Nuremberg, Germany.

Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie won the race with the year’s best of 13:01.07.

The decision by the German federation to lift the suspension was seen as an indication he will be cleared when the International Amateur Athletic Federation’s legal panel releases its final report this week. But the IAAF, the sport’s world governing body, has cautioned it might challenge the ruling.

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Laura Kraut of Oconomowoc, Wis., leads the standings for the show jumping team of the U.S. equestrian team after the first phase of five trials in Gladstone, N.J.

She recorded a score of 4.75 faults on her mare Liberty at the $100,000 Rolex/U.S. Show Jumping Championship at U.S. equestrian team headquarters.

Next are Raymond Texel of Beverly Hills on Pershing with 8.5 faults and Margie Goldstein-Engle of Wellington, Fla., on Hidden Creek’s Perin with 9.25 faults.

The 12 top horse/rider combinations, down from 75 starters, will carry over their scores to five more trials in California in August.

The four team members will be announced Aug. 6.