AMERICA'S OLYMPIC EFFORT HALFWAY COMPLETE
The United States has earned two start spots each for men and women at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Following is the usacycling.org report on the one women and one man who are the only Americans to so far automatically make the final cut to the Olympic Mountain Bike Team. 
The remaining one female and one male rider will be selected through a discretionary nomination process by the U.S. Olympic Committee. 
With no top three finishes by Americans at the World Championships or in a World Cup this season, two athletes have met the automatic nomination criteria for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team as a result of collective performances throughout the season.
 
Todd Wells (Durango, CO; GT) has met the automatic criteria for a nomination to the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team as the athlete with the best cumulative placing in his best three 2008 Mountain Bike World Cup events. Wells finished sixth at the World Cup in Vallnord, Andorra on May 31 to complement an 11th place effort in the season opener in Houffalize, Belgium on April 20. He then finished 13th at the most recent World Cup in Fort William Scotland on June 7. Wells’ sixth place finish in Andorra was the best result by a men’s American mountain bike athlete in World Cup competition this season.
 
Luna Chix rider Georgia Gould (Fort Collins, CO) met the criteria for an automatic nomination to the women’s squad as the athlete with the best cumulative placing in her three best 2008 Mountain Bike World Cup performances.  Gould had a pair of fifth place finishes in the season’s first and third World Cups respectively in Madrid and Houffalize. Her next best finish was an 11th place effort at the most recent world cup in Fort William.