US to rely on youth and experience

Chicago: Six newcomers including high-scoring Sydney Leroux will join a veteran cast as the United States women's football team seeks its third consecutive Olympic gold medal, US Soccer said on Sunday.

The 18-member squad returns 11 players from the 2008 gold-medal winning Olympic side plus leading US scorer Abby Wambach, who missed the 2008 Games with a broken leg.

"The team is a mix of very experienced players and several new fresh faces," coach Pia Sundhage said in a statement.

Leroux, the newest of the fresh faces, has appeared in only nine games for the United States but has scored seven goals. She is the only player on the squad who did not play for the Americans in the 2011 World Cup and at age 22 is the team's youngest.

Versatile

"All the players are versatile, which is extremely important when you have just 16 field players on a roster," Sundhage said.

Defenders Kelley O'Hara, Amy LePeilbet and Becky Sauerbrunn, midfielder Megan Rapinoe and forward Alex Morgan also will be making their first Olympic appearance.

Goalkeeper Hope Solo and midfielders Shannon Boxx, Heather O'Reilly and Carli Lloyd are among the returnees from 2008. The United States has played in every Olympic women's final, winning gold in 1996, silver in 2000 and gold in the past two Olympics in 2004 and 2008.

The Americans defeated Brazil 1-0 on Lloyd's overtime goal in 2008.

Meanwhile, in a bid to have the best possible chance of a medal sweep in the 10,000 metres at the London Games, 14 Kenyan runners head to the United States to take part in their first Olympic trial outside of the east African nation.

Kenya's athletics chiefs decided to hold their Olympics 10,000m trials at the low altitude venue of Oregon at the IAAF Diamond League meeting on Friday.

The idea of switching venues away from the high altitude of Nairobi is to ensure the best athletes represent Kenya in London rather than the ones who adapt to the conditions best on the day, but then fail to bring home gold.