22 athletes with Utah ties will compete in Beijing

BEIJING — Utah's contingent of Olympic athletes at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games looks like a mini-United Nations itself, with eight other countries represented besides the United States.

Of the 22 athletes who grew up, attended high school or college or played professionally in Utah, only 13 will compete for the United States.

The other nine will don the national colors of Australia, Canada, Germany, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden or Venezuela.

Here's a sport-by-sport listing of Utah's 2008 Olympians. ATHLETICS — What you know as track and field is known in Olympics circles as "athletics."

Two ex-collegiate runners with All-American credentials — Weber State's Lindsey Anderson and BYU's Josh McAdams — will compete for the United States in the 3,000-meter steeplechase events, with the women's race making its Olympic debut in Beijing.

Anderson, who last year set an NCAA record (since broken), finished second at the U.S. Olympic Trials earlier this summer. Anderson prepped at Morgan High and is an assistant coach at Weber State.

McAdams, who placed third at the Trials, won the 2006 NCAA outdoor title and the 2007 U.S. Outdoor and Pan American Games crowns. He continued to reside and train in Utah County after college.

Former Mountain View High and BYU discus thrower Nik Arrhenius, whose father earned a spot in the 1972 Munich Games with his native Sweden, is benefiting from dual citizenship. Winner of the 2007 NCAA individual discus title, Arrhenius performed well enough in European meets to earn a spot on the Swedish Olympic Team.

Zuzana Tomas, a Salt Lake resident and University of Utah instructor, will run for Slovakia in the women's marathon, set to begin early the morning of Aug. 17. Tomas also ran for the U. track team.

Former Olympic distance runner and current BYU cross country and track coach Ed Eyestone is in Beijing as a color analyst for NBC.

BASEBALL — Minor-league baseball in Salt Lake City supplied three members of the United States' gold-medal-winning team at the 2000 Sydney Games, with the team forwarding another foursome this summer to play for two different countries.

Two current Bees — pitcher Keith Jepsen and infielder Matt Brown — are part of the United States' roster compiled of top minor-leaguers. Brown also played for the Provo Angels (now the Orem Owlz), also part of the Los Angeles Angels' farm system.

Another pair of names familiar to Salt Lake baseball — outfielder Ryan Radmanovich and pitcher Steve Green — will compete for Canada in the eight-team Olympic event. Radmanovich was a member of the Buzz in 1997 and 1998, while Green played with the Stingers and Bees in 2001, '03 and '04.