NEW YORK (AP) – Listening to fellow Olympian Vincent Hancock describe all the well-laid plans he’s followed as a teenager, Christopher Downs marveled at the differences in their paths as Army athletes.

“Wow, I was still looking for myself and what direction I was trying to take when he had already joined up at 17,” Downs said.

What they share are the fruits of opportunities they only could have found through their military service. So does Libby Callahan, who’s set to become the oldest American woman to compete at the Olympics. And Nathaniel Garcia, who had quit track for two years and now is headed to the Olympic trials.

“It’s very exciting just to be on the world stage, showing the American people, showing basically the world, that we can represent the USA and the Army in a bigger picture than a weapon and a rucksack,” Downs said.

These athletes from four different backgrounds, in four different events, are among the U.S. Olympic hopefuls who already represent the country with the Army.

Downs is a 33-year-old light heavyweight from Knoxville, Tenn., who has been boxing for only 41/2 years.

Hancock is a 19-year-old skeet shooter from Eatonton, Ga., who won a bronze medal at last year’s world championships.

Callahan is a 56-year-old from Columbia, S.C., who’s headed to her fourth Olympics to compete in sport pistol.

Garcia is a 26-year-old from Elgin, Texas, who runs the 400-meter hurdles.

Downs joined the Army never imagining it would lead to athletic glory. He just needed structure in his life.

He was working at the post office, talking to a co-worker who had been there for three decades.

“I was thinking to myself, ‘Wow, 30 years, doing the same thing. Clocking in, clocking out,”‘ Downs said. “There’s nothing wrong with that if that’s for you. I just knew it wasn’t for me.”

He called his introduction to boxing while serving in the Army a fluke.

He’d always been a fan of Muhammad Ali, but “I’d rather be on the outside of the ring and be a heckler.”

Even after going through military training, when he signed up to box one day, “I was more worried about getting hit in the face or hit in the stomach.”

But once he tried the sport, Downs fell in love.

He served in Iraq as a heavy weapons specialist in a platoon of 16 in which 11 soldiers received purple hearts after being wounded. When Downs was given the chance to come home early to join the Army’s World Class Athlete Program, he wasn’t sure he wanted to leave his men.

They persuaded him to go.

Home from Iraq in 2004, Downs had watched a young Olympic boxer named Rau’shee Warren.

“Now here I am on the same team,” Downs said, his voice full of wonder.

Like Downs, Hancock has had fans following his progress while they served in Iraq. His brother would monitor his results on the Internet.

Hancock enlisted between 11th and 12th grades, going through basic training that summer. His friends peppered him with questions when he returned.

How was it? Did you make a lot of friends? Was it really hard? Did you get beat up at all?

Hancock began training with the Army Marksmanship Unit in Fort Benning, Ga., during his senior year.

“The Army team, while I was growing up shooting, was the pinnacle of the shooting career,” he said. “All the people there on the team were the best of the best.”

His training workload more than doubled. He went from shooting 100 shells a day to as many as 300.

“It’s made it a lot easier having to know that the Army is there supporting me fully in every aspect,” Hancock said. “Not only the financial part. They have great coaches, great marksmen to help push me in my training, all the great gunsmiths there.”

Callahan, who joined the Army Reserve in 1985, is able to give her own support to other soldiers. She works as an instructor for M16 rifles and 9 mm pistols.

Callahan started entering police shooting competitions in 1980 and took up Olympic-style shooting several years after joining the Reserve. She made her first Olympics in 1992, then went again in 1996 and 2004. Her best finish was 19th in Athens.

“I didn’t realize that I could come this far, that I would come this far,” she said. “I just enjoyed competing, and look forward to the next competition as soon as I finish the one.”

If she were to finish in the top three in Beijing, Callahan would become the oldest woman to ever win an Olympic medal.

She wishes there weren’t quite so much fuss about her age.

“I don’t put any restrictions on myself or limitations when it comes to age,” Callahan said, “and I don’t let anybody else do that, either.”

Not long ago, Garcia thought he had his future figured out. Also a member of the Army Reserve, he was coaching hurdlers at Texas-Arlington after an injury-plagued college career at TCU.

Then he got an invitation to join the World Class Athlete Program.

Garcia wasn’t so sure what he’d gotten himself into when the coach seemed more interested in strength than speed. Bob Graf, who coaches high jump at the Air Force Academy, had him doing plyometrics and weightlifting.

“We actually got into it a little bit,” Garcia said. “Eventually, I sat back: ‘This is my coach. This is who the Army trusted to train me. They’re only going to give me the best.’

“So I decided, OK, let me sit back, let me be patient, shut my mouth, and just do what they tell me to do.”

Since then, he’s dropped more than a second off his personal-best time. Garcia ranks 13th among American men in the 400 hurdles, according to Track & Field News.

“As of this moment, I don’t know what I can do,” he said. “I can only get faster. Just training with him, that’s all I’ve been doing: faster and faster and faster.

“Right now, I’m in awe. I don’t know what to expect of myself. But I know it’s going to be great.”

AP-ES-06-17-08 1904EDT