Olympics: Bay Area veterans named to U.S….
Bay Area veterans Alex Morgan, Christen Press, Kelley O’Hara and Julie Johnston have been named to the U.S. women’s soccer team Tuesday that is looking to become the first squad to win a World Cup and Olympic gold medal in consecutive years.
Coach Jill Ellis named 18 players to the Rio Games roster with the idea of grooming some newcomers for the 2019 World Cup. Morgan, 27, takes over at forward with the retirements of Abby Wambach and Amy Rodriguez.
The Americans open group play Aug. 3 against New Zealand in Belo Horizonte. They also face France and Colombia before the quarterfinals.
Four-time All-American Foluke Akinradewo of Stanford and setter Carli Lloyd of Cal have been named to the U.S. women’s Olympic volleyball team, coach Karch Kiraly announced.
Lloyd, the 2010 college player of the year who led the Bears to the NCAA championship against Penn State, is the team’s third setter.
Rory McIlroy called out golf for its lax drug-testing procedures and questioned the relevance of his sport being part of the Olympics, saying he wasn’t even sure he’d watch it on television. He called on golf’s major governing bodies to step up their anti-doping efforts, which he said are limited to a handful of urine tests each year.
“I could use HGH and get away with it, so I think blood testing is something that needs to happen in golf just to make sure that it is a clean sport going forward,” he said.