Venus crushes Russian to grab Olympic gold

SYDNEY — Venus Williams went from winning Grand Slam titles to an Olympic gold medal without missing a stroke.

The hard-hitting Williams crumpled Elena Dementieva of Russia 6-2, 6-4 in just 58 minutes to take the Olympic women's singles championship.

Williams extended her streak of consecutive singles victories to 32 and became the only player other than Steffi Graf to win Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Olympics in the same year.

"I guess I've graduated to a different level where I can be like some of the greats," Williams said.

CYCLING: Shifting gears from the Tour de France to Olympic road racing proved too tough for Lance Armstrong.

The two-time Tour winner was 13th in the men's road race, well behind gold medalist and former Tour champion Jan Ullrich of Germany. Ullrich completed the 148-mile course in 5 hours, 29 minutes, 8 seconds. The top American, George Hincapie, finished eighth.

Armstrong still has a medal chance in Saturday's individual time trial, a stronger event for him than road racing.

TAEKWONDO: Kay Poe reached the Olympics because her best friend gave up her spot on the U.S. team. Once Poe was in Sydney, a fighter from Denmark knocked her right back out of medal contention.

Hanne Hoegh Poulsen upset Poe 4-3 in a first-round flyweight match.

Poe was the world's top-ranked flyweight going into the U.S. trials last spring. Then she dislocated a kneecap in the semifinals, leaving her unable to compete in the finals against her best friend, Esther Kim.

Kim decided to forfeit the match, giving the more-accomplished Poe a chance to go to the Olympics. On Wednesday, Kim watched Poe's loss from the stands.

"We are all proud of her," Kim said. "She hasn't let anyone down."

GYMNASTICS: The flap over whether all-around gymnastics winner Andreea Raducan of Romania gets her gold medal back will last at least another day.

Raducan was stripped of her medal because she took over-the-counter medicine containing a banned stimulant. Romanian officials said the penalty was unfair because the 16-year-old was only trying to cure a cold and took the drug on doctor's orders.

After a 4 1/2-hour hearing Wednesday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said it would rule on Raducan's case by Thursday.