USA Gymnasts Receive Olympic Medals 10 Years Later

The celebration came 10 years late. So did the Olympic bronze medals. The flowers, the formal presentation, the recognition and warm reception in Hartford, Conn., on Wednesday night - none of it occurred on schedule.

In the decade since the U.S. gymnastics team finished in fourth place at the Summer Games in Sydney, the six team members grew up. They got degrees, careers, boyfriends and husbands. They encroached on, or sailed by, age 30.

Silver Spring's Dominique Dawes, the team's one-time veteran, performed on Broadway and received a Presidential appointment. Columbia's Elise Ray, the squad's former star, headlined Las Vegas shows and went into coaching.

It wasn't until this past April - when the International Olympic Committee disqualified the third-place Chinese because of an underage competitor - that they learned they would finally receive the medals they failed to bring back a decade earlier...More?

source: washingtonpost.com