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An experienced athletics team featuring seven current world champions and a host of medals favourites will represent the United States in August's Beijing Olympics, USA Track & Field announced.

The 126-member squad includes Athens 2004 Olympic gold medallists Jeremy Wariner (400m, pictured) and Shawn Crawford (200m), double world champions Tyson Gay and Bernard Lagat and individual world winners Wariner, Allyson Felix (women's 200m), Brad Walker (pole vault), Reese Hoffa (shot put) and Kerron Clement (400m hurdles).

Collectively, the team has 15 Olympic medallists, 31 world championships medallist and 10 US record holders. The latter include javelin thrower Breaux Greer who was added to the team under a USATF rule that allows the selection of an injured athlete who competed in the US Olympic Trials but did not reach the final and has the qualifying standard.

Greer - who has a shoulder injury - finished 17th in qualifying.

USATF president Bill Roe called the squad one of the United States' best.

"This Olympic team is one of our strongest ever, with more medal-winning experience in a wider range of events, from sprints to distances and field events, than we've had in many decades," Roe said.

"While it would take an incredible performance to match our medal counts of recent championships, we certainly feel that this team has what it takes to again top the medal tables."

The United States won 25 athletics medals at the 2004 Athens Games, eight of them gold. It had a championships-high 26 medals at the 2007 worlds, including 14 gold.

The US team:

Men

100m: Tyson Gay, Walter Dix, Darvis Patton

200m: Dix, Shawn Crawford, Wallace Spearmon Jr

400m: LaShawn Merritt, Jeremy Wariner, David Neville

800m: Nick Symmonds, Andrew Wheating, Christian Smith

1,500m: Bernard Lagat, Leonel Manzano, Lopez Lomong.

5,000m: Lagat, Matt Tegenkamp, Ian DobsoN

10,000m: Abdi Abdirahman, Galen Rupp, Jorge Torres

Marathon: Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein, Brian Sell

3,000m steeplechase: Anthony Famiglietti, Billy Nelson, Josh McAdams

110m hurdles: David Oliver, Terrence Trammell, David Payne

400m hurdles: Bershawn Jackson, Kerron Clement, Angelo Taylor

20 km race walk: Kevin Eastler

50 km race walk: Philip Dunn

Decathlon: Bryan Clay, Trey Hardee, Tom Pappas

High jump: Jesse Williams, Andra Manson, Dusty Jonas

Pole vault: Derek Miles, Jeff Hartwig, Brad Walker

Long jump: Trevell Quinley, Brian Johnson, Miguel Pate

Triple jump: Aarik Wilson, Kenta Bell, Rafeeq Curry

Shot put: Reese Hoffa, Christian Cantwell, Adam Nelson

Discus: Ian Waltz, Michael Robertson, Casey Malone

Hammer throw: A.G. Kruger

Javelin throw: Leigh Smith, Mike Hazle, Breaux Greer

4x100m relay pool: Gay, Dix, Patton, Travis Padgett, Rodney Martin, Leroy Dixon plus anyone already on the roster in an individual event

4x400m relay pool: Merritt, Wariner, Neville, Reggie Witherspoon, Calvin Smith, Darold Williamson plus anyone already on the roster in an individual event.

Women

100m: Muna Lee, Torri Edwards, Lauryn Williams

200m: Allyson Felix, Lee, Marshevet Hooker

400m: Sanya Richards, Mary Wineberg, Dee Dee Trotter

800m: Hazel Clark, Alice Schmidt, Nicole Teter

1,500m: Shannon Rowbury, Erin Donahue, Christin Wurth-Thomas

5,000m: Kara Goucher, Jen Rhines, Shalane Flanagan

10,000m: Flanagan, Goucher, Amy Begley

Marathon: Deena Kastor, Magdalena Lewy Boulet, Blake Russell

3,000m steeplechase: Anna Willard, Lindsey Anderson, Jenny Barringer

100m hurdles: Lolo Jones, Damu Cherry, Dawn Harper

400m hurdles: Tiffany Ross-Williams, Queen Harrison, Sheena Tosta

20 km race walk: Joanne Dow

Heptathlon: Hyleas Fountain, Jackie Johnson, Diana Pickler

High jump: Chaunte Howard, Amy Acuff, Sharon Day

Pole vault: Jen Stuczynski, April Steiner, Erica Bartolina

Long jump: Brittney Reese, Grace Upshaw, Funmi Jimoh

Triple jump: Shani Marks, Erica McLain

Shot put: Michelle Carter, Kristin Heaston, Jillian Camarena

Discus: Aretha Thurmond, Suzy Powell-Roos, Stephanie Trafton Brown

Hammer throw: Jessica Cosby, Amber Campbell, Loree Smith

Javelin throw: Kara Patterson, Kim Kreiner

4x100m relay pool: Lee, Edwards, Lauryn Williams, Angela Williams, Mechelle Lewis, LaShaunte'a Moore plus anyone already on the roster in an individual event

4x400m relay pool: Richards, Wineberg, Trotter, Monique Henderson, Natasha Hastings, Ebonie Floyd plus anyone already on the roster in an individual event

Reuters