The District’s Tyrieshia Douglas won convincingly Monday on the opening night of the first U.S. Olympic women’s boxing trials , taking an early step toward qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team that will compete in London.

With a 34-11 victory in the flyweight division over Latonya King, Douglas, a two-time U.S. champion, remains in the winners’ bracket at the week-long trials in Airway Heights, Wash. She will face 2011 Pan American Games representative Christina Cruz Tuesday night following Cruz’s 15-12 win over Virginia Fuchs.

No other local women won their opening bouts.

Baltimore’s Franchon Crews fell, 31-19, Claressa Shields, a 16-year-old up-and-coming middleweight from Flint, Mich. Alexandria’s Dara Shen, a late entrant, lost 34-9 in her opener to welterweight world champion Andrecia Wasson; and the District’s Asia Stevenson fell to N’yteeyah Sherman, 42-17, in the lightweight class despite taking an early lead. All remain alive in the hunt for Olympic slots, but will have to climb from the losers’ bracket.

Twenty-three women are competing in the event. Women’s boxing will appear on the Olympic program for the first time at the London Summer Games.

Carmelita Jeter was a naturally born athlete, but to become world class, she had to learn to run. That’s right: Even when Jeter won the bronze medal in the 100 meters at the 2007 world championships, sprint guru John Smith, who would later become her coach, said “She was just raw. No technique at all.”

Under Smith’s disciplined tutelage and with the aid of biomechanist Ralph Mann, Jeter began to take a more serious approach to sprinting. Mann’s computer simulations drove home the techniques Smith had been preaching.

“I was always teaching it,” Smith said. “But now I have data to sweeten up my information, and she’s the beneficiary of it.”

Jeter’s use of technology to get faster is the first chapter in Amy Shipley’s Profiles in Speed series, which will examine everything athletes are doing to get faster as the London Olympics approach.

More on Profiles in Speed

Story: Jeter goes high tech

Graphic: Taking technology in stride

Photos: Jeter’s profile in Speed

Series: See what’s upcoming in the Speed series

Opening ceremonies for the Summer Olympics will take place six months from today in London’s Olympic Stadium. As London organizers enter the stretch run of preparations for the Games, read about the biggest challenges they face here.

Security, transportation and spending head the list of concerns. Meantime, enthusiasm among the British public has yet to reach a fever pitch; a recent poll showed just 32 percent of residents were excited to be hosting the Games.

The U.S. men’s field hockey team scheduled to compete in an Olympic qualification tournament in New Delhi, India, next month pulled out of the event Tuesday because of a lack of player commitments, ending hopes that the United States would qualify its first Olympic men’s field hockey team since the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta — when the host country automatically got a bid.

The U.S. men were selected to attend the Feb. 18-26 event, the first of three Olympic qualifiers, after finishing fifth at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, last summer. But employment conflicts, injuries and player retirements gutted the roster.

“The decision has been made strategically with the very best outcome for our program in mind,” Terry Walsh, USA Field Hockey’s Technical Director of High Performance, said in a statement. “Unavailability of many of the senior players has left the Men’s program in a position where our best assembled team has a performance potential well below that required to be competitive in a tournament of this caliber.”

The United States men have played in just six Olympic field hockey tournaments, winning only one medal — a silver — back in 1932 when the Games were held in Los Angeles. At the ’96 Games, the team finished 0-5.

USA Field Hockey officials said they decided not to send a team of junior athletes because of the high-caliber of competition in the qualifying event.

“Much work and effort has taken place in recent years to develop a quality junior program,” USA Field Hockey Executive Director Steve Locke said in the statement. “I believe that in attending the tournament that will feature the world’s top ranked teams will only hinder the confidence and development of our junior men.”

The focus of the Senior Men’s program has now shifted to the FIH World League, set to make its debut in late 2012, according to USA Field Hockey. Participation in the World League is essential for future qualification prospects.

“The Board of Directors is in full support of the decision made to withdraw the team from the Olympic Qualifying Tournament,” said Pam Stuper, Chair, USA Field Hockey Board. “The decision was made with the best interest in mind of the athletes and long-term development of the Men’s National Team program.”

Laurel’s Thomas Hong barely missed a medal in the 500-meter short track speedskating event at the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria, finishing fourth in Thursday’s final.

Hong, 14, crossed the line in 42.782 seconds. South Korea’s Yoon Su-Min got the gold in 42.417; teammate Lim Hyo-Jun claimed the silver in 42.417 and China’s Xu Hongzhi got third in 42.637.

Hong, who trains with the Potomac Speedskating Club and is a freshman at Atholton High in Columbia, placed eighth in his other individual event, the 1000 meters, when he failed to finish the final. The South Korean Lim won the gold in that competition.

Rockville’s Michael and Rachel Parsons also finished fourth at the Youth Olympic Games, falling just short of a medal in ice dancing earlier this week.