At least two athletes will have ties to Bourbon County when the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, which begin August 8 in Beijing, China.

Shalane Flanagan, 27, an American distance runner is daughter-in-law of Carol Edwards, who grew up in Uniontown. Charles Klenklen is her grandfather-in-law and Joyce Tassi is also an in-law. Flanagan married Steve Edwards, Carol's son and Tassi's nephew, in October 2005.

Flanagan won the 10,000 meters in the 2008 Olympic Trials and was third in the 5,000 meters. She holds the American record in the 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 meters.

According to the USA Track & Field's Web site, Flanagan won the 10,000M at the Olympic Trials in 31:34.81. She had only run this event for the first time in when she set the American record of 30:34.49 on May 4 in Palo Alto, Calif., shattering the previous record by 17 seconds.

Flanagan's other American records are 14:44.80 in the 5,000 and 8:33.25 in the 3,000 meters indoors. She set both those records last year.

The other athlete with local ties is Noni Wharemate, 26, who has been named to the New Zealand women's basketball team.

Wharemate played at Fort Scott Community College in the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons and, it could be argued, is the best women's player the program has ever had.

Wharemate, a 5' 8" forward, and Australian point guard Kia Dowell, were both recruited by then-head coach Nathan Daume. While they were here, the Greyhounds were 45-20, winning 24 games in 2001-02, which is the second-highest total in FSCC women's history. The 'Hounds made it to the Region VI Tournament quarterfinals in 2001 and to the semifinals in 2002. FSCC has advanced to the Region VI quarters only once since then.

Wharemate was an All-Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division Second Team pick in 2000-01. In 2001-02, she was a First Team All-Region VI and a First Team All-KJCCC-East player as well as Eastern Division Co-Most Valuable player.

For her FSCC career, Wharemate averaged 11.9 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists. She and Dowell transferred to the University of Texas-El Paso for 2002-03. That year, Wharemate averaged 6.4 points and 2.0 rebounds as a reserve. In her senior year, she averaged 9.6 points, second on the team, and 3.1 rebounds.

Since then, Wharemate has played semiprofessionally and made several appearances on New Zealand national teams, including the Commonwealth Games silver-medal winning squad in 2006. She played this past season for the Christchurch Sirens in the Women's National Basketball League. Christchurch was the first New Zealand team to play in the Australian league. Despite suffering a back injury in October that caused her to miss half the season, Wharemate averaged 9.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.0 rebounds for the Sirens.

More about Flanagan here

More about Wharemate here