Witty to face Thomas for Oly spot

Speed skater Chris Witty will have to beat a challenger to keep her spot on the Olympic cycling team for the Sydney Games, her agent said Friday.

Agent Bill Stapleton said Tammy Thomas of Yazoo City, Miss., who was left off the three-member women's track team, is slated to race Witty sometime between Aug. 18-20. Rich Wanninger, spokesman for USA Cycling, said a site, date and time would be decided sometime Wednesday.

Sean Petty, the cycling team's director of athlete performance, said the showdown will take place at a sea-level track, probably in Blaine, Minn., or Frisco, Texas.

"It will be one ride each, just like it will be in Sydney," Petty said.

Petty said the track in Frisco might be better suited because it has better timing equipment and other racing equipment.

He said Thomas took her appeal to an arbitration board, which determined the race-off would be the best way to resolve the controversy.

Neither Witty, of Park City, nor Thomas could be reached for immediate comment. Witty was training with the U.S. speed skating team in Calgary, Alberta.

Witty was slated to race in Sydney in the 500-meter time trial, an event where she placed fourth at the 1998 world championships.

Thomas placed third last year at nationals in the event.

To choose the Olympic team this year, U.S. Cycling used a subjective selection criteria that considered two years of international racing performances.

Petty has said the goal was to take the most experienced top-level riders to Sydney. And Witty has been considered a potential medalist on the bike.

Witty won the silver medal in the 1,000 and the bronze in the 1,500 in the 1998 Nagano Olympics. She is trying to become the fourth person to win medals in both the summer and winter Olympics.

She was selected to the track cycling squad last month.

With a medal in Sydney, Witty would become the second American — and the first American woman — to win a medal in both summer and winter Olympics.

The first American was Eddie Eagan, a light heavyweight boxer who won a gold medal in 1920 and also rode on the gold-medal four-man bobsled team in 1932.