Amanda Beard: Nude again

BEIJING -- So much for tennis player Ashley Harkleroad getting all the attention for posing nude in Playboy.

Amanda Beard, who'd already gone the Playboy cover girl route, wasn't going to stand by and let that happen.

Kidding aside, Beard is quite savvy, and she's using the Olympic platform for maximum impact. She unveiled her naked, anti-fur campaign poster for PETA on Wednesday morning at a function just outside the athletes' village. Originally, the launch was planned for a hotel conference room but officials locked it down, citing security concerns.

The poster says:

BE COMFORTABLE
IN YOUR OWN SKIN.
DON'T WEAR FUR.

And Beard isn't wearing fur in the photo -- or anything else.

Beard wasn't at swim practice at the Water Cube early Wednesday evening. In fact, most of the U.S. swimmers weren't there. But her former coach, Dave Salo of USC, was on the deck.

Salo coached Beard when she qualified for her first Olympic team in 1996 at age 14 and again this past spring in advance of the Beijing Games. Beard left Salo to train with Cyndi Gallagher at UCLA, but she remains close with Salo.

When we asked him about the poster, he shrugged and smiled: "When they get older ... I don't have any control. When she was 14, it was a little easier."

Somewhere, that cute (and, yes, furry) teddy bear, the one Beard used to carry around on the way to the starting blocks, is blushing.

-- Lisa Dillman

Updated at 11:05 with the additional information about Cyndi Gallagher.

Photo: Amanda Beard signs her autograph after unveiling her nude poster for People for the Ethical Treatment of Aminals at the Olympic Village in Beijing on Wednesday. Credit: Jewel Sama / AFP/Getty Images

U.S. swim teams name captains for Beijing

Five-time Olympian Dara Torres, four-time Olympian Amanda Beard and Natalie Coughlin, who won five medals four years ago in Athens, are the newly elected captains of the U.S. Olympic women’s swimming team.

Three-time Olympians Erik Vendt and Jason Lezak, along with two-time Olympian Brendan Hansen, will captain the men's team in Beijing.

The captains were announced Wednesday after team members voted. The U.S. swimmers are training in Singapore and will leave on Monday for Beijing. The Olympic swim competition begins on Aug. 9.

Photo: Dara Torres, right, hugs Natalie Coughlin after the women's 100-meter freestyle semifinal at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials in Omaha on July 3. Credit: Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press Photo

Morning wrap-up

Jordan Hasay goes the extra metric mile

At 41, Torres rules the pool

Sprinter John Capel gets his life back on track

Highlights of Day 6 at U.S. Olympic swim trials

The best of Friday's blog

Kitjajima weighs in on Hansen's failure

Elliott responds to comments on Morgan Hamm

Orange County, all the time

Let's hear it for the 40-plus set

Photo: Jordan Hasay set a national high school record during Friday's 1,500 meter race in Eugene. Credit: Paul Buck/EPA.

Beard makes the team

Rebecca Soni won the 200-meter breaststroke a few minutes ago at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials in Omaha, but Lisa Dillman reports that gold medalist Amanda Beard is going to Beijing too. It will be Beard's fourth Summer Games.

Soni won with a time of 2 minutes 22.60 seconds — just off Beard’s U.S. record of 2:22.44, which was set in 2004. Beard finished second in 2:25.13, holding off Caitlin Leverenz by less than a second.

-- Debbie Goffa

Good Morning, Omaha

OMAHA -- It was getting almost dull, almost sleepy in the mixed zone this morning. Could have been the rote quotes for the fifth straight morning ("I tried to take it a little easy") or the byproduct of eating the biggest breakfast in recent years (note to self: hold the side of pancakes next time).

Then Amanda Beard came through and stepped up to the microphone. Or tried to do so.

"What happened to this thing?" she said, examining the microphone, which towered above her head. "A boy backstroker?"

OK, on to the prelim swim. Beard, of UCLA's Team Bruin, had the third-fastest qualifying time in the 200-meter breaststroke, 2:26.86, trailing two of her former Trojan Swim club

Amanda at the Improv

OMAHA -- Giddy on Monday, joking around with reporters. Goofy on Tuesday morning, clowning around on the pool deck with old Orange Country friend Kaitlin Sandeno before their morning heat in the 200 individual medley, almost treating the U.S. Olympic swim trials like an age-group meet.

Clearly, Amanda Beard is enjoying life in Omaha, despite an active schedule, the final of the 100-meter breaststroke tonight and then the semifinals of the 200 individual medley. This trials is where she will sink or swim.

"You know what's funny. I'm 26, so I'm not an old lady," Beard said. "But walking around the pool deck, I'm an old lady. I look at [17-year-old] Caitlin Leverenz and she was like five when I was swimming in '96. That makes me feel old."

Relief arrived in the form of 41-year-old Dara Torres, who showed up at the trials.

"I know, 'Dara, finally you're here,' " Beard said, joking.

Said Torres, on Tuesday: "And I was wondering why she gave me a long hug and was happy to see me."

-- Lisa Dillman

Photo: Amanda Beard stretches before her semifinal heat of the 100 meter breaststroke on Monday. Credit: Jamie Squire / Getty Images