Track likely to spread medal wealth around

BEIJING, July 25 (UPI) -- Track and Field

Gold medals to be awarded: 47

Dates of competition: Aug. 15-24

Track and field, or athletics as it is known everywhere in the world except the United States, is the largest and most varied of the Olympic sports.

It also sees the most widespread participation since just about every nation on the planet can find at least one person capable of running a reasonably fast 100-meter dash.

American athletes won 25 track and field medals in Athens. The U.S. total for the entire Olympics was 102.

Among the highlights this year will be a bid by Tyson Gay to become the third straight American to win the 100. He ran the fastest 100 ever at the Olympic trials, a 9.68, although it will not count as a world record because he had a slight tailwind.

Defending champion Jeremy Wariner and LaShawn Merritt should battle in the 400.

The host nation expects hurdling hero Liu Xiang to win his second straight gold medal. David Oliver is the best American hope to challenge Liu in the 110-meter hurdles.

In 2004, 21 nations won a track and field gold medal and 36 countries won a medal of some sort. Included was Zersenay Tadesse of Eritera, who won his nation's first Olympic medal (a bronze in the 10,000 meters) since it became an independent country in 1993.