TOKYO -- Theyve set up the elite academy, set in motion the Gold Plan and expect Kohei Uchimura to deliver three medals of that color in Rio de Janeiro next month, all part of the Japanese Olympic Committees ambitious program leading into Tokyo 2020.Japan is sending 331 athletes to Rio, the countrys third-largest delegation at the Olympics after Tokyo in 1964 and Beijing in 2008, and has targeted 14 gold medals -- double its tally from London four years ago.Koji Murofushi, the 2004 Olympics hammer throw gold medalist who is now sports director for the 2020 Tokyo organizing committee, says Japans performance in Rio will be vital in paving the way for success on home soil in the subsequent Summer Games.Rio is a very important moment for us, Murofushi told The Associated Press. If the athletes do well in Rio, then more attention would be coming from the public, and then, throughout Tokyo 2020. So it is very important for athletes to compete well.Japan is anticipating strong performances in mens gymnastics with London gold medalist Kohei Uchimura projected to win three golds. Other gold medal hopefuls include wrestlers Saori Yoshida and Kaori Icho and swimmer Kosuke Hagino.The expectation is that success in Rio will carry over to Tokyo. Host countries have done well on the medal standings in recent editions.Japan has set an ambitious goal of third place on the table in Tokyo, a vast improvement on its 11th place at London in 2012.The goals are set out in the JOC Gold Plan, designed to improve Japans international competitiveness. A key component of that is the creation of a national youth development program called the JOC Elite Academy to identify and prepare young athletes for the Tokyo Olympics in four years.Those games are sure to have a different look than Rio. For starters, there could be five new sports added to the program under the International Olympic Committees new rules that allow a host city to propose sports.Baseball-softball, surfing, skateboarding, karate and sports climbing have been recommended for inclusion, with a decision expected from the IOC next month.While Murofushi welcomes the return of baseball and softball, which are hugely popular in Japan, the 41-year-old former Olympian says hes especially excited about new sports making a debut in Tokyo.I was a skateboarding kid too, Murofushi said. Think about the skateboarding kids doing tricks on the streets -- once they announce that in the Olympics there will be skateboarding, I know they will be so crazy and excited.While the 1964 Games were largely about Japan returning to the global stage as an economic power, 2020 will be a showcase of high-tech, safety and organizational efficiency.Tokyo is a very secure and safe city, Murofushi said. 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The players spoke Jan. 13 during a Major League Baseball Players Association conference call after Rodriguez sued the union and Major League Baseball to overturn an arbitrators decision suspending him for the 2014 season and post-season. Authentic Nike Shoes Wholesale China .C. -- After a listless first half, the Washington Wizards used a big third quarter run to beat the Charlotte Bobcats Bradley Beal scored 21 points and the Wizards used a 17-0 run in the third quarter to take control of what had been a close game and beat the Bobcats 97-83 on Tuesday night. Editors note: The 2016-17 college basketball season will be the Year of the Freshmen,?featuring what could be the best class weve ever seen. Over the next two weeks we will get familiar with the best of the best, examining who they are and where each of the top 10 prospects in the 2016 ESPN 100 came from.Read more: No. 10: Dukes Frank Jackson | No. 9: Kentuckys Malik Monk No. 8: Michigan States Miles Bridges | No. 7: Washingtons Markelle Fultz No. 6: Kentuckys DeAaron Fox | No. 5: Kentuckys Bam Adebayo No. 4: UCLAs Lonzo Ball | No. 3: Dukes Jayson Tatum No. 2: Kansas Josh Jackson | No. 1: Dukes Harry GilesSEATTLE -- His story says Jordan.His play screams LeBron.And when his playing career is all over, Washingtons Markelle Fultz wants to be in a category all his own. Not just listed among the all-time greats, but above them.My mindset is different from a lot of people, Fultz said. You ask people their goal and theyll say to make it to the NBA. My goal isnt just to make it there, its to be the best that ever played.Its not an outrageous vision to the 6-foot-4 native of Upper Marlboro, Maryland. He knows how far he has come in only three short years when, as a 10th-grader at perennial prep powerhouse DeMatha High School, he did not make the varsity roster. Now hes being projected as potentially a top-three pick in the 2017 NBA draft if he decides to bolt college after one season.His fast rise isnt the absurd piece in all of this. Fultz says its crazy the way people react to him now. It seems with every new interview theres a new way to critique a guy who has yet to play a college game.People go from why dont I smile, to the JV story, to just the way I play is awkward, Fultz said. Its been kind of weird, but Im used to it now.Ah, the JV story. Like Michael Jordan, Fultz didnt make varsity as a sophomore and ended up playing on the junior varsity team. He already has grown tired of having that story regurgitated time and again, but finally accepted that its going to be the story for the rest of my life.Washington coach Lorenzo Romar, for one, loves that story. Without it, this could have been an entirely different story for the Huskies. Had Fultz made varsity as a sophomore, theres a good chance a school closer to home would have noticed him first and Romar never would have been able to pry him from the East Coast.Instead, associate head coach Raphael Chillious arrived early to scout a varsity game when he noticed Fultz playing junior varsity. He played nearly every position on the floor and always seemed to make the play that was needed at the time.I called Lorenzo and told him, Coach, youre going to call me crazy, but this kid is 5-foot-9. If he grows hes going to be a NBA All-Star -- not a NBA player, an All-Star, Chillious said.Fultz did grow between his sophomore and junior years, prompting Romar to have the same giddy reaction the first time he saw Fultz play in person. Romar called Chillious and asked if they were being Punkd. Washington was the only major Division I school watching Fultz play, but it was clear to the Huskies that he was going to be a special talent.Fultz played everything from point guard to power forward, which is why many schools who ended up recruiting him late in the process viewed him as a wing.I thought, I dont care who has not offered him or what anybody says -- call him a 2 or a 3 -- that kid is an NBA point guard, Romar said. The way he moved, the feel he had. And, that game, I dont think he was playing hard. You could just see it.Everyone sees it now.What they didnt see is how all the small details worked together to get him to this point.Ebony Fultz, his mother, said she didnt have aa grandiose plan of grooming her son into an NBA player when she first sought out a basketball trainer when he was around 7.dddddddddddd She started taking to Keith Williams, a former high school classmate who taught basketball fundamentals to kids as young as 5.Her plan was simply to get Markelle involved in something he enjoyed to occupy his time. She wanted him active.The only thing she knew for sure is that she didnt want him to play football. She viewed it as too dangerous, although there was that one season she relented and Fultz played on the offensive line for the team at the Marlboro Boys & Girls Club. He dreamed of being a running back, but the coachs son got all the carries.She also enrolled him in karate classes, where he worked his way up to a green belt. He learned a lot of things he hopes to never use, stuff like if somebody tried to stab me, I could get a knife out of their hands.What stayed with him from karate was the self-discipline he learned, which ironically led him to stop the pursuit of a black belt. He wanted his focus, and all of his free time, to go toward basketball, so he left karate behind as he went to high school.Fultz always showed Williams he had a will to work hard. When he broke his right wrist playing on Williams 15-and-under AAU team, Fultz showed up the next day at the gym shooting and dribbling with his left hand. Williams helped Fultz cultivate his competitiveness.We definitely paid attention to rankings, and yeah we did kind of target guys, Williams said. We were playing in one tournament and a guy called me from Charlotte and was like, Hey, you want to play against the Atlanta Celtics? And I was like, Yeah. They got Kobi Simmons [who this season is a freshman at Arizona] on that team, they got another kid thats ranked really high. ... And so, yeah, we did target those kids.Now Seattle is a target for NBA scouts. Fultz has made the must-see list, as many teams have already been through to see him practice. What theyve learned is that Fultz is still holding on to that 10th-grade version of himself. He still views himself as an unknown entity just trying to make a name.That approach has endeared him to his Huskies teammates.Sophomore guard David Crisp was one of Fultzs hosts when he came on his official visit. As Fultz catapulted in the rankings before arriving on campus, Crisp expected a different person to arrive as well.When he came I knew they were saying this kid is going to be one-and-done, and when it got closer to him getting here I saw stuff [about Fultz] moving up, like he might be top five or the No. 1 pick, Crisp said. I was like, man he might be kinda cocky. Hes like really the opposite.Romar has held Fultz out from several early practices to rest him. When Fultz is on the sideline, its not unusual to see him filling water cups during breaks as if he were a team manager.He doesnt have that part of him that says, Im Markelle Fultz, who are you? Chillious said. That doesnt exist.Thats why Fultz has no desire to talk about the NBA right now. Hes just trying to lead the Huskies back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2011. Hes afraid that if he stops to think about the future, hell get passed by in the process by someone who was like him in the 10th grade.I want to make sure that Im not the one that lets up, because I know that some people let up that I passed now, I outworked them, Fultz said. I want to make sure that Im always working. Im trying to get in front of everybody so far ahead that theres no way they can catch me. 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