Travel trouble: US Olympians face uncertain road to Beijing

By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer

DENVER (AP) — Making an Olympic team is hard enough. This winter, those who earn their spots on the U.S. squad will find it takes even more work to get to Beijing. Among the slow trickle of information coming out of China in advance of next February’s Olympics was news that, with only a handful of flights operating between the U.S. and China, American Olympians will most likely reach Beijing through a still-undetermined set of connecting flights that could more than double their travel time. As things stand this month, most of the 250 or so athletes will need to take a charter that connects them to Beijing-bound flights scheduled out of four cities, none of which are in North America.