Staff and wire reports

Carl Swenson highlighted the list of 17 Americans named Tuesday to the U.S. Olympic cross country team for next month’s Turin Games.

The 35-year-old Swenson, a seven-year veteran of the U.S. team, is headed to his third and final Olympics before he retires from competitive skiing to begin law school later this year. Swenson didn’t compete in mountain biking last year to put all of his focus toward the Olympics.

He is a medal contender in the 50-kilometer race.

“This is the last go round for all these different things,” Swenson said. “It’s not hard to get out the door (to train), that’s for sure.”

The news Tuesday wasn’t as good for David Chamberlain of Bethel. The 1998 Bates College graduate was left off the U.S. Olympic team. Chamberlain finished fifth in the 30K freestyle and fourth in the 30K pursuit at the U.S. Olympic Trials earlier this month. He also had a pair of sixths in the 10K and 15K.

Kris Freeman, diagnosed with Type I diabetes in 2000, makes his second Olympic team after earning the top American finish in the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City with a 15th-place showing in the 20-kilometer pursuit.

Andrew Johnson and Torin Koos also are competing in their second Olympics, while 22-year-old Andrew Newell will make his debut. Koos and Newell, the two U.S. sprinters, have been competing in Europe since late last month under the direction of head cross country coach Trond Nystad and sprint coach Vidar Loefshus.

Koos, the 25-year-old son of a former U.S. biathlete, is coming off a victory in a sprint race in Oberstdorf, Germany. Newell placed second.

Assistant coach Pete Vordenberg and other members of the team left late last week after competing in the nationals at Soldier Hollow to meet up with their teammates for two more World Cup events leading into the Olympics.

Freeman won the men’s pursuit at nationals and Johnson, the defending U.S. pursuit champion, won the 30K freestyle.

Also named to the men’s side were James Southam and Flora, both of Anchorage. They finished third and fifth, respectively, in the 30K pursuit at the U.S. Cross Country Championships earlier this month at the cross country venue for the 2002 Olympics.

Rounding out the men’s roster are Chris Cook of Rhinelander, Wis., the national sprint champion; Justin Freeman, a Bates College graduate and Kris’ older brother, and Leif Zimmerman of Bozeman, Mont., also made their first Olympics.

On the women’s side, 32-year-old Wendy Wagner will compete in her second and last Olympics before calling it quits from World Cup competition this spring. Because of budget cuts by the U.S. Ski Team, Wagner has been funding her own way to races and estimates she will have spent approximately $15,000 of her own money between October and April.

She will have financial assistance for the Olympics.

Wagner is coming off her fifth national title after winning the women’s 20K pursuit in the U.S. championships.

Rebecca Dussault is headed to her first Olympics. Dussault, 25, was one of the top female prospects in cross country skiing in the late 1990s but retired and started a family with her high school sweetheart. They have a toddler son, Tabor. Dussault returned to competitive racing for the 2004 season and proceeded to win the SuperTour championship, earn her first points on the World Cup circuit and capture three U.S. titles.

Other women on the team are Abigail Larson, third in the 20K pursuit at nationals; Sarah Konrad, primarily a biathlete; Kikkan Randall of Anchorage, who won three national titles last week at the U.S. Cross Country Championships; pursuit national silver medalist Lindsey Weier of Mahtomedi, Minn., and Lindsay Williams of Hastings, Minn.

The Nordic combined and jumping teams, 11 athletes total, were named Monday.