Olympics an encore for more

Perhaps in another era, the pounding U.S. soccer star Abby Wambach has dished out and received would have sent her to retirement by now. Four years ago, a broken leg just before the Beijing Games kept her at home. But once again, at age 32, Wambach is back, leading a team favored to win the gold medal in London.

She’s not alone. Of the USA’s 529-member team, 43% of the athletes are returning Olympians. Of the 228 encore Olympians, 76 are gold medalists.

Swimmer Michael Phelps leads the way with 16 Olympic medals. He needs three more to surpass Soviet gymnast Larysa Latynina and become the most decorated Olympian in history.

There are seven U.S. athletes who will compete in their fifth Olympics: high jumper Amy Acuff, 37; archer Khatuna Lorig, 38; volleyball player Danielle Scott-Arruda, 39; equestrians Phillip Dutton, 48, and Karen O’Connor, 54; and shooters Emil Milev, 44, and Kim Rhode, who turns 33 today.

Rhode can become the first U.S. athlete in an individual sport to win a medal in five consecutive Games. She’s expected to contend for a medal in two events — skeet and trap.

So why are Olympians increasingly going for the gold one more time?

“Depending on the sport, it probably has to do with better training methodologies,” said Alan Ashley, the U.S. Olympic Committee’s chief of sport performance. “They’re better able to sustain a longer career because of better sports science and medicine to keep you going.”

Wambach, who has struggled with Achilles tendinitis the last three years, isn’t exactly a shrinking violet when it comes to pain. During a 2007 World Cup game, a trainer stapled a gash on her head without using anesthesia.

But few injuries have been as painful as the Achilles. Wambach, who won Olympic gold in 2004 in the Athens Games, began to find some relief with trigger-point physical therapy.

“I want to keep playing until my legs last. That’s the bottom line,” she said. “There’s not many other things I can do that can make me happier. If I can somehow get this under control . . . then I’m not going to play until Kristine Lilly age (Lilly retired at 39 last year). But I’ll play as long as I keep getting asked to come back.”

Other athletes are returning for multiple Olympics because they have been able to manage the demands of high-level training with getting their college degree, Ashley said.

In some cases, “They’re turning it more into a business and they can sustain the level of training and competition,” Ashley said. “You do see a little bit longer careers, and frankly I think it’s awesome.”