andere Teams » going to home ground where hes bowled thou

BMX seems like a sport added to the Summer Games with American audiences and athletes in mind. Yet, no American has won gold in BMX Olympic cyclings short history.The United States was shut out entirely in 2012 after taking a silver and two bronze medals in BMXs debut in 2008.A strong, deep field of U.S. riders would like to make the jump at the Rio de Janiero Games.Its a U.S.-born sport. We should be doing (well) ... we need to bring home medals, said Corben Sharrah, who is headed to Rio after winning the U.S. Olympic trials. Understand the pressure, but dont let it get to you.As an athlete, do your own thing, have fun and ride the bike, he added.BMX, which stands for bicycle motocross, was born around the early 1970s in Southern California. In the Olympics, cyclists compete on a course of primarily finely-groomed dirt that winds down a roughly quarter-mile track, strewn with jumps and sharp turns. Eight riders gather at the starting gate set up at the top of a steep ramp.Olympian Alise Post, the top-ranked American in the womens world rankings, likened a BMX race to a cross between horse racing and a roller coaster ride . Its the kind of thrill-a-minute activity that should appeal to millennials.Everybody thats out there doing this has a very competitive, aggressive side, said the 25-year-old Post. Riding since she was 6, Post loves the adrenaline.Other riders in other countries started getting the rush too. Olympic organizers added BMX to the Beijing Games as a way to attract younger viewers and participants.At the elite level, BMX is the most competitive its ever been, said 23-year-old Connor Fields. BMX is so good, its insane.Fields, a strong medal contender, is going to his second Olympics after finishing seventh four years ago in London.Ever since it was announced it was put into the Olympics, the level of the sport has risen exponentially. All of a sudden, programs get created, money gets thrown at it, said Fields, referring to international growth.In the United States, cycling in general has not been a top funding priority, regardless of the discipline . Money distributed by the U.S. Olympic Committee typically goes to gymnastics, swimming, and track and field -- the sports that TV viewers typically watch in prime time.Getting shut out in London in 2012 didnt help the BMX program. Some crashes for U.S. riders led to bad luck, said USA Cycling president Derek Bouchard-Hall. Four years earlier, the United States took the bronze in the womens race, and the silver and bronze in the mens race after finishing within 1 second of gold-medal winner Maris Strombergs from Latvia.I dont think, with just two Olympics to go by, you can say this is a trend, said Bouchard-Hall when asked if the rest of the world had passed the United States in BMX.At the same time, many other countries are pouring resources into BMX because they view it as medal opportunities, Bouchard-Hall added.On the mens side, Strombergs is going for his third straight gold at Rio. Mariana Pajon, who won the womens gold in 2012, is such a star in her home country of Colombia that a track was named in her honor.And while the sport was invented by us and we were the best for a while, the competition has come up, Bouchard-Hall said. And its a sport where with a little tiny difference you go from first to fifth really quickly, and thats the game.So much can happen during a frantic race that nearly anyone who has qualified for one of the eight spots in a final has a chance to medal.Fields and Post might be favorites, but the three other BMX bikers on Team USA, including Sharrah, are contenders as well.Nic Long finished third at the world championships in May. On the womens side, Brooke Crain advanced to the finals in London, finishing eighth.Its the best possible team that the United States could field. All except Sharrah competed in London, where Sharrah was an alternate.We make do, work our butts off, said Jamie Staff, USA Cyclings BMX director, who is trying to cultivate a positive attitude.When Staff hears talk about the pressure on the United States to produce in BMX, he turns that into motivation.Some people look at it like that. I dont. I flip it over, Staff said. Compared to some nations, we are underfunded ... I see us as the underdogs, not the other teams.---AP Sports Writer Dave Skretta contributed to this story.---Online:AP Summer Games site: http://summergames.ap.org/ Carey Price Jersey . Pence singled in the winning run with no outs in the ninth inning to give the Giants a 7-6 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday. Artturi Lehkonen Jersey . Miikka Kiprusoff had just announced his retirement after a decade-long run in Calgary and it would be up to Berra and Ramo to fill the void. http://www.cheapcanadiensjerseyschina.com/jeff-petry-jersey/ . PETERSBURG, Fla. Paul Byron Jersey . SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. Charles Hudon Jersey . Galatasaray said in a statement on its website Monday that Mancini signed a three-year contract and will be paid 3.5 million euros for the upcoming season, with his salary upped to 4. There is an oddly long list of gadgets that were invented in Birmingham - it includes the microwave over, the electric kettle and the pacemaker - but if England could use one of them, the photocopier, to produce a facsimile of Ben Stokes to run out at Edgbaston, they undoubtedly would.Stokes absence from the side, after tearing his right calf while bowling in the second Investec Test at Old Trafford, forces England to make a change that could threaten the balance of their side. With no batsmen added to the squad, England will call on either Steven Finn or Jake Ball to replace Stokes unless the Edgbaston pitch looks especially spin friendly, in which case Adil Rashid may get another opportunity to perform at Test level.Any of these options undoubtedly weakens Englands batting line up which, with three out of the top five batsmen struggling to make runs this summer, has relied heavily on Alastair Cook and Joe Root to shore up their innings. But its with the ball in hand that Stokes will be more sorely missed, according to Stuart Broad.The way he likes the game to move forward, you need players like that in your team, said Broad. If Cookie and Rooty continue their form hes probably more of a loss with the ball, because hes not needed [with the bat].He does change the dynamic slightly. He bats at six and hes your fourth seamer but hell be replaced by a spinner or a frontline seamer so he does give a bit more depth in the batting. We do bat a long way down so thats not too much of a worry.While some may have considered Chris Woakes to be a slightly faded facsimile of Stokes before the start of the summer, he has proved to be as useful a Birmingham product as the microwave oven.After coming into the side as a straight replacement when Stokes was injured during the Sri Lanka series, Woakes has made himself invaluable to Englands pace attack in his own right taking 26 wickets at 13.84 in four Tests this season. And his half-century, scored after he came in as nightwatchman in the first innings at Old Trafford (following his maiden Test fifty against Sri Lanka at Lords) was compiled with a composure that - while differing to Stokes explosive shotmaking - stiffens the middle-to-lower order.After checking in and checking out several times Woakes - in English conditions at least - seems to belong as a resident in Englands house, rather than being a temporary visitor. Broad has noticed the difference, but says he and James Anderson have had little to do with the transformation.Maybe its the confidence of belonging, said Broad. Its hard to tell how much hes moved forward from South Africa in that the pitches over there are much flatter and the Kookaburra ball compared to the DDukes ball that hes bowled with for his whole career.ddddddddddddHe was under a bit of pressure after South Africa with people questioning whether he could make it as a Test match bowler but hed only played six or seven Test matches. I think I took my first five-fer in maybe my ninth Test match so I said to him look, youre not in a massive rush here. Youre a talented player. Dont feel like you have to get a five-fer every time you run on the field. Do what you do for Warwickshire: hit the top of off consistently and wickets will come for you.I think he showed that at Lords. He didnt get his wickets with his best balls actually, he picked up a few cheaper ones. Hes become very consistent in putting the batsmen under pressure and when your confidence is that high you feel like you can release the ball at full whack.Hes getting his fingers behind the ball and thats helping him get bounce. You give him the ball and hes got something more about him. You feel like hes there to take wickets and thats the confidence that I gained from that five-fer at the Oval in 2009. That I can do it, I can get Ricky Ponting out, Im not just a county bowler, I can step up to that next level. This summer has been Chris Woakes delivering that belief.With the series level at 1-1, England now return to the ground where the parochial crowd provides the most hostile atmosphere for visiting teams - just ask the Australians, who had nowhere to hide from the cacophony from the Eric Hollies stand last summer. The Barmy Army will be out in force at this Test, too, although Warwickshire have promoted the match heavily within the local Asian community and worked with Pakistan fan groups to encourage attendance.To maximise home advantage, Englands pace attack will turn to Woakes for advice; a further sign of his increase in stature within the side.This week I imagine Chris will be very influential on certain field placings for Edgbaston, said Broad. Does gully come into the game? Is it fourth slip? Do you need to bowl a bit fuller? Is the bouncer a good option? Does it reverse? Theres a lot that can change in six months of cricket so [well listen to] his experience of what Edgbaston has been like this summer.Edgbaston feels like our Gabba so to speak, in the way the crowd roar behind us and I think some of our results reflect that.Weve got Chris in form of his life going to home ground where hes bowled thousand