Olympic athletes gather to mark anniversary
WASHINGTON -- Seven white balloons floated into a gray sky above U.S. Olympic Committee headquarters in one of several ceremonies in the sports world marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

At the complex in Colorado Springs, Colo., about 100 athletes and USOC members surrounded the Olympic flame, which was lit in the morning and will burn for 24 hours.

Flags were at half-staff, and two minutes of silence were observed. The balloons represented the four hijacked jetliners, the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon.

"We, like all Americans, felt the need to do something in remembrance of the heroes and the families that lost loved ones," USOC spokesman Jeff Howard said. "We advocate peace and goodwill and world unity and we just felt the need to just do something."

PGA Tour players observe moment of silence
PAOLI, Pa. -- With American flags waving in the wind on the greens, the PGA Tour observed a moment of silence followed by the national anthem Wednesday morning at the Pennsylvania Classic.

Marking the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks, the PGA Tour stopped play in the pro-am round at 8:46 a.m. -- the time of the first attack -- to honor the victims.

''That moment was special,'' said Chris DiMarco, the winner of the inaugural event in 2000 at Waynesborough Country Club. ''I watched it just before I teed off. That's what life is about. Last year united the country and made us a lot stronger.''

The American flags will remain in place on the greens throughout the tournament, and players also have traded their usual equipment company head covers for red, white and blue covers, and are wearing flag pins on the shirts.

DiMarco and the rest of the competitors played their last practice round Wednesday before the start of play Thursday.

Jets sit silently; Redskins donate $700,000 for relief
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- At 8:45 a.m, as they do every day, the New York Jets gathered for a team meeting. On this morning, Sept. 11, 2002, coach Herman Edwards began the proceedings differently.

He asked the players and coaches to hold a moment of silence.

"I think we as a country have grieved for all of the lost lives, and those who are trying to save lives, as well,'' Edwards said Wednesday. "Now what we have to do is grow from it and become stronger than we were.

"And we have to do what we do, which, for us, is prepare ourselves for a football game.''

A group of Washington Redskins players and team owner Dan Snyder's wife visited the Pentagon on Tuesday, presenting a check for $700,000 from the Redskins relief fund for assistance to victims' families.

Yankees dedicate monument to victims and heroes
NEW YORK -- Wednesday night, several miles from the World Trade Center site, the Yankees dedicated a monument to the victims and heroes of Sept. 11 in a ceremony at Yankee Stadium.

Also at Wednesday's ceremonies, which preceeded the Yankees' game against the Baltimore Orioles, an American flag recovered from the World Trade Center was presented by Marines. The same flag was flown at Yankee Stadium during Game 3 of the World Series last year.

"That's the place you really want to be at that time," Orioles relief pitcher Buddy Groom said. "The place is going to be packed."

The Harlem Boys Choir and Irish tenor Ronan Tynan performed, and at the end of the Star Spangled Banner, the bald eagle "Challenger," often a postseason guest of the Yankees, flied onto the field. There was also a fly-over by four Navy F-18 Hornets that recently returned from combat in Afghanistan.

All Major League Baseball games tonight paused in silence at 9:11 p.m. local time, with videotapes airing in memory of those who died in the attacks. During afternoon games, the moment of silence was scheduled for the seventh-inning stretch.

"I think it's important to play, for the same reason the president said it was important to try to get things back to normal," commissioner Bud Selig said. "It's a sensitive question, and I can see both sides. It's very personal. There's no right or wrong."

Chiefs to place memento from WTC's North Tower in locker room
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A small replica of a football found among the debris of the World Trade Center will take an honored place today in the locker room of the Kansas City Chiefs.

The item was found in the debris from the North Tower and bears the Chiefs logo.

"It was on a treadmill," Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil said. "It's a small Kansas City Chiefs carved football, gold and red, that's going to be on a trophy case."

Vermeil said a New York policeman found the item while looking through debris. The team is hoping to learn who owned it.

"He took it off and looked at it and thought about it for a day or two and said, 'You know, the Kansas City Chiefs might like to know that somebody in that building was a Chiefs fan,' " Vermeil said.

"This is going to be a symbol for our football team the whole year."

Redskins' Davis leads program for children of victims
WASHINGTON -- Redskins running back Stephen Davis has spearheaded a program inviting children of Sept. 11 victims to every home game this season while raising money for them, the Washington Post reports.

Davis is helping with a personal touch through his program, Rushing for Remembrance, in partnership with the Pentagon. Corporate sponsors donate $100 for each yard the tailback gains during the season, according to the Post. They meet Davis in his skybox after the game.

"I think we [professional athletes] can make a difference," said Davis, who has gotten Coca-Cola to donate a portion of its sales in the area toward the fund. "Football gives people the chance to get stuff off their minds for a while."

Gestures extend to England's horse racing world
English horse racing held a minute of silence at Doncaster, Epsom and Hereford. All jockeys were to wear black armbands.

At Hereford, there was a three-minute ceremony of prayers and silence as the entire day's racing was dedicated to the bond-trading firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost two-thirds of its New York employees in the World Trade Center.

Record-holding jump jockey Tony McCoy donated his riding fees and prize money to the Cantor Fitzgerald UK relief fund, which was set up to support families of the 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees who died.

Information from The Associated Press was included in these reports.