The International Gay Lesbian Football Association tournament is scheduled to take place June 14-21 next year. The city held the first ever Gay Soccer tournament in 1997.

"In addition to promoting good sportsmanship, it affirms our city's reputation as being inclusive and tolerant. We look forward to welcoming the world to our nation's capital," Fenty said.

This year, the Gay Soccer World Championship was hosted in London, with 40 teams representing 13 countries. The English side Stonewall Lions beat Argentinean side SAF Gay 5-0 in the men's final.

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By Adnan Nawaz

The entire continent celebrated as Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia won the women's 10,000m in the Bird's Nest Stadium, and then, on day eight, there was more glory for Africa to enjoy as Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry took gold while setting a new world record in the women's 200m backstroke.

It had been a long wait for Africa, but when triumph was finally achieved there was great evidence of continental solidarity among the African media here in Beijing.

It got me wondering, is there a greater sense of continental kinship in Africa than anywhere else in the world?

I asked a few of my fellow journalists whether they thought African solidarity was a greater force than European solidarity. African journalists certainly agreed with that premise, whereas European journalists were a bit more reluctant to agree, although often after a few minutes conversation, they too seemed to grudgingly accept that it might possibly be true.

What do you think? For example, imagine you're watching the final of the 1500m and the competitor from your own country comes fourth in an agonisingly close blanket finish. You're obviously disappointed, but would you take any solace from the fact that a runner from your own continent actually won gold in the event?

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Aged 12 years and 10 months, Guedia is the youngest athlete competing at the 2008 Games and she can count the number of times she's competed in an Olympic-sized pool on one hand.

'It is a bit overwhelming. I'm little,' said Guedia in lilting French, fiddling with the green, red and yellow-beaded 'Africa' necklace she wears as a lucky charm.

She will be up against swimmers of all ages in the women's 50 metres freestyle on Friday, including 41-year-old Dara Torres who has already won silver for the United States in the 4x100 freestyle relay.

'To be here at my age is amazing. I'm proud,' Guedia told Reuters at the athletes' village, where the volleyball players and weightlifters strolling by dwarf her tiny, girlish frame.

Nicknamed 'Champion' by her excited schoolfriends in Cameroon, Guedia still trains in the same 22-metre hotel pool that she first learned to swim in, aged 8.

The outdoor pool is the biggest available in Douala, Cameroon's biggest city, where her family lives. Before arriving in Beijing, Guedia had only swum in a 50-metre pool the day she competed in the 2007 African Games in Algiers.

Not that a lack of legroom has ever held her back.

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"We continue to stress our defense and really work hard at that end of the floor," U.S. coach Anne Donovan said.

Katie Smith (2000) and Nikki McCray (1996) held the record for highest field goal percentage, each going 6-for-6 from the field.

"Another record?" Leslie said with a smile. "Oh well, records are meant to be broken. It feels good, but we just wanted to get the win. We wanted to come out and perform well."

The U.S. plays Spain next on Friday.

"They are getting better each game, and what you can expect from Spain is -- they are athletic, they play with a lot of passion and energy and feed off it," U.S. coach Anne Donovan said. "We've played them quite a bit through the years and we know we'll have to play well to move on to the next game."

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Born to a Togolese father and resident in France, Boukpeti has been to Togo only once, as a baby.

Boukpeti, 27, who chose to compete for Togo in Beijing when it became clear he was too old for France, said he now had a "very good reason" to visit the African nation after stunning the field and spectators at the Olympics.

The first non-European male kayaker to win an Olympic slalom medal, Boukpeti – the world number 56 in his sport – received by far the biggest cheers from the packed crowd.

"We are very pleased with Benjamin Boukpeti's achievement," said Eloi Salakoffi, director of sport at Togo's Sport and Leisure Ministry.

"We will have to make sure he is suitably honoured," said Salakoffi, adding Togo would do all it could to arrange for Boukpeti to visit the country to celebrate.

"I've never heard of this person, but having a compatriot win a medal at the Olympic Games is a real honour for us," said Yves Gbetounou, a high school science student in the capital Lome.

Boukpeti's Olympic medal victory was a rare sporting success for Togo.

The national football team made it to the World Cup finals in Germany in 2006 only to go on strike over pay and almost miss a match, causing the coach to walk out.

A year later the sports minister, football officials, fans and journalists were killed in a helicopter crash in Sierra Leone after an African Nations Cup qualifying match.

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Had forward Charlie Davies’ last-minute header off a Dax McCarty free kick been just a couple of inches lower, the U.S. might have tied Nigeria and earned a place in the quarterfinals of the Olympic men's soccer tournament.

But the ball clanged off the bar at the Workers’ Stadium in Beijing and rebounded away, taking with it American hopes as Nigeria survived to win the match, 2-1, in front of 48,096.

That result, combined with the Netherlands’ 1-0 victory over Japan, sent the Dutch and the Nigerians through to the last eight and ended U.S. participation in the tournament.

The American team’s hopes were dealt an early blow when defender Michael Orozco was ejected by German referee Wolfgang Starg for throwing an elbow into a Nigerian player just three minutes into the match. The foul occurred at midfield and was totally unnecessary.

The red card caused Coach Peter Nowak’s side to have to play short-handed for 87 minutes plus stoppage time. It was too great a wall to climb, even in China.

But the Americans gave it everything they had. Goalkeeper Brad Guzan was in phenomenal form, time and again making world-class saves.

There was nothing he could do about Nigeria’s two goals, however. The first came in the 39th minute when Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi, Nigeria’s liveliest player, got around defender Michael Parkhurst to the right of the American net and then provided the pass that left Promise Isaac with the simplest tap-in for the goal.

The second came in the 79th minute and again Parkhurst was the unfortunate victim, this time slipping and falling in the penalty area while trying to tackle the ball away from Victor Obinna, who curled a shot past Guzan at the far post.

The U.S., playing inspired soccer considering it was exhausted from having to make up for Orozco’s absence, managed to pull a goal back in the 88th minute on a penalty kick by Chivas USA midfielder Sacha Kljestan after Nigeria goalkeeper Ambruse Vanzekin had fouled Maurice Edu.

The Americans kept pressuring Nigeria in search of the tying goal that would have sent them into the quarterfinals at the expense of the Dutch, but their luck ran out when Davies’ header sailed just a little too high and hit the crossbar instead of the back of the net.

Overall, Nigeria outshot the U.S., 20-8, but it had only a 5-4 advantage in shots on target.

The U.S. finished with four points after defeating Japan, 1-0, and tying the Netherlands, 2-2, and while the team did not make it out of the group play, its performance in the tournament was worthy of a quarterfinal place.

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An ambassador for African-American swimmers, Jones wanted to shatter stereotypes one lap at a time, eager to spread his message that, yeah, black kids can swim, too.

He also wanted to help out a buddy on his own personal mission.

Jones accomplished both by helping the 4X100 freestyle relay team win the gold medal in a comeback for the ages. In a race soaked with drama and subplots, the Americans shattered the world record they had set just hours earlier in the prelims, blistering through the water in 3 minutes, 8.24 seconds.

Trailing after three legs, anchor Jason Lezak erased a huge gap to overtake and out-touch French world record holder Alain Bernard to set off a wild celebration. A few days after Bernard declared his team would "smash" the Americans in the finals, the U.S. team authored a stunning chapter in these Olympics.

"We beat a team in most people's mind was not beatable," said U.S. coach Eddie Reese. "It was amazing. (Lezak's leg) had to be the best ever and it was the best ever. That's the kind of anchor you dream of."

Jones became the second African-American swimmer to win a gold medal as the team kept Michael Phelps' quest for an unprecedented eight golds alive. But it was Lezak's fastest split in history at 46.06 seconds and mad dash in the final frenzied moments when he hunted down Bernard after being behind by more than eight-tenths of a second that had everyone buzzing.

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By Thomas Boswell

For seven years, China has dreamed of orchestrating every detail, athletic and political, of its glorious Opening Ceremonies to the Olympics. Now, one lean 1,500-meter runner from the United States, chosen by his teammates in an act of open defiance, may steal the show. Lopez Lomong, one of the Sudanese "Lost Boys" and a member of the anti-genocide group Team Darfur, has been chosen by his 595 U.S. Olympic teammates to carry our flag on Friday. What, we couldn't find a Tibetan monk on the team?

What a coincidence. Just hours before U.S. team captains met to decide on the flag carrier, Chinese officials rescinded the visa of Joey Cheek, a speedskating gold medalist who carried the U.S. flag at the Closing Ceremonies at the 2006 Winter Games and later co-founded Team Darfur. After that slap at Cheek, U.S. athletes here had almost nothing to say on the topic. One even referred to the subject as "the question they warned us about."

Perhaps they didn't answer individually. But the entire U.S. team gave its answer -- as a group and in capital letters -- with Lomong's selection. You jerk Cheek's visa. We put Lomong in your face. And do it proudly.

You have to hand it to the Chinese Communist Party: They certainly know how to muzzle Americans. Cheek, a Princeton grad, might have held a seminar. Four billion people around the world will see Lomong carrying our flag.

Far more than that, untold millions of people, in the next few days, will hear Lomong's life story, in his own words. In a half-hour monologue here on Friday, just 10 hours before he was to carry the flag, Lomong told a tale of grief, endurance, redemption and almost unimaginable hardship that captures in human terms every aspect of the Darfur tragedy. And without Lomong saying a single "controversial" political word, he highlighted China's culpability by cynically supporting the Sudanese regime as partner in the vast oil company PetroChina

When U.S. Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth was asked if the selection of Lomong was an expression by U.S. athletes about their views on China's human rights abuses, Ueberroth said: "The athletes can answer that better themselves. But either way, it's fine. Either way it's good. Lopez earned the right to carry the flag. You [media] folks can go with it. We'll get out of your way."

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