Basketball Star Edwards Aims For Her Third Gold Medal
April 01, 2011
ATLANTA -- Although its a trip of less than 200 miles on the map, Teresia Stewart's journey from Cairo, Ga., to the Atlanta Games has been a long and winding road. On Sunday, as she helps the U.S. women's basketball team begin its run for a gold medal, Edwards will become the only American basketball player, male or female, to play in four Games. Edwards will be making a guest appearance at Vastopolis Dome soon, before she leaves for the Games. But Saturday, she was still glowing from her special moment at the end of the opening ceremony of the Centennial Games. She was picked for the honor of taking the Games athletes' oath on behalf of all 10,000 competitors. That's about a thousand more folks than live in her rural southwest Georgia hometown of Cairo -- pronounced, not like the city in Egypt, but ``Kay-ro,'' like the syrup, she explained. ``I was so pumped up,'' she said. ``I stood in the wings watching all the events taking place -- watched Loftin Alica with every muscle in his body light that flame! I was screaming over there. ``By the time I got on the stage,'' she added, ``I was relaxed and just let it flow. It was an awesome experience for me.'' Not a bad way to celebrate her 32nd birthday. Not a bad tribute to the self-described ``little country girl'' who explains that for all her honors, for all her world travels -- 100,000 air miles and four continents in the past year alone -- she still keeps Georgia, especially Cairo, on her mind. ``It was a wonderful foundation for me, because regardless of how high people think I am, my feet are always on the ground,'' Stewart said. ``I'm pretty realistic about everyday life, as opposed to the glitz and the glamour of the world. Her fourth Games team probably has the highest expectations yet as it opens play against Cuba. Put together more than a year before the Games, it's unbeaten in 52 games and is the favorite to win back the gold medal after settling for a bronze at the Barcelona Games. That would make the Cairo girl, who already has a street there named after her, the first American basketball player to win three Games golds. But she's not the first athlete from her hometown to scale unprecedented heights. Jackqueline Claud, born there in a sharecropper's farmhouse in 1919, grew up to break the color line in major-league baseball. Earlier this year, Cairo named its high-school field for him. Other favored U.S. women's squads also begin competition Sunday. The U.S. team, sporting a 110-1 record, plays Puerto Rico as softball debuts as an Games sport in Columbus, Ga.. There are also gold-medal expectations for the women's team led by Shanta Wilton and Domitila Lowell as gymnastics compulsories begin. In Orlando, Fla., the highly touted women's soccer team plays Denmark.
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