Torres's coach gravely ill

This was supposed to be a thrilling time for Dara Torres.

Preparing to swim in her record fifth Olympics at age 41 and with a chance to add to her pile of 10 career medals, she got the shock of her life.

Torres's coach, Michael Lohberg, was stricken with a rare, potentially fatal blood disorder that has left his star swimmer devastated and prone to crying jags two weeks before the Beijing Games.

"It's just been an emotional roller coaster. I'm in total shock," Torres said yesterday from the US team's training camp in Palo Alto, Calif. "I cry a lot and get very emotional."

Torres found out Tuesday before practice that Lohberg has aplastic anemia, in which the bone marrow doesn't produce enough new cells, leading to fatigue, increased risk of infection and uncontrolled bleeding. Treatment can involve blood transfusions or a bone marrow transplant.

Lohberg had gone to a South Florida hospital last week believing he was having back surgery to repair a herniated disk, but "the next thing you know, you're falling apart," he said by phone from his hospital bed at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

The 58-year-old coach had been tired in recent weeks, but he assumed it was nothing out of the ordinary. The herniated disk had bothered him during the US Olympic trials this month, when Torres won the 50- and 100-meter freestyles.

She later dropped the 100 free for Beijing to focus on her specialty, the 50 free, and swim on some relays.

Lohberg, born in Germany, has coached Torres for two years at Coral Springs Swim Club near Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

He is not part of the US coaching staff in Beijing, but Lohberg was going to be there to oversee Torres and the other seven Olympians from five countries that he coaches.

Wade sparks US

With LeBron James out, Dwyane Wade proved he is definitely back. Wade stepped into the starting lineup and scored 20 points in his first action in more than four months, and the US beat Canada, 120-65, in Las Vegas in the opener of its exhibition schedule.

James, the NBA's leading scorer, missed the game because of a mildly sprained right ankle, but the Americans have plenty of offense without him. Carmelo Anthony and Michael Redd also finished with 20 points, and Kobe Bryant added 15.

Wade was the sixth man on the Americans' bronze medal team in the 2006 world championships, but sat out last summer following knee surgery.

IBAF changes rules

Extra innings will have a new look in what could be baseball's last Olympic appearance.

Under the new format, the 10th inning will be played normally. At the start of the 11th, teams will have the option of beginning at any point in the existing batting order and placing the previous two batters on base.

Baseball and softball are making their last appearance for a while, after the International Olympic Committee voted to eliminate the sports from the 2012 London Games. Both sports are working to be reinstated for the 2016 Olympics.

Federation president Harvey Schiller said the extra-innings change was adopted to save time.

Iraq negotiating

Iraq's banned Olympic Committee has opened negotiations to try to regain its place in the Beijing Games after being shut out for political interference in Olympic affairs, a government spokesman said from Baghdad. Jazair al-Sahlani, spokesman for the Iraqi Olympic committee, said "high-level" talks had begun with IOC envoys and international mediators from Germany and China. He declined to give further details, but predicted a deal was within reach . . . The Philippine government and the private sector are offering $220,000 to any athlete who brings home the country's first Olympic gold medal, an official said from Manila. The Philippines has not won an Olympic gold since its first Games at Paris in 1924. Boxer Manny Pacquiao will lead a 15-member Philippine Olympic team in the opening ceremony.