OLYMPICS NOTEBOOK: LEWIS: JONES IN BAD SPOT EX-OLYMPIC CHAMP WONDERS ABOUT HER DRIVE FOR FIVE.

Byline: Karen Crouse Staff Writer

SYDNEY, Australia - Carl Lewis, who once won four gold medals in one Olympics, says Marion Jones never should be in the position of trying to win five golds at the Sydney Games.

``It's unfair that her camp or her people put her in that situation - to have to run two relays,'' Lewis said Friday.

Jones is attempting to win golds in the 100 and 200 meters, 400 and 1,600 relays and the long jump. The two relays will be contested on the final full day of track and field, and Jones is inexperienced at running the long relay.

``It was a lot easier for me because it was in Los Angeles,'' said Lewis, who won golds in the 100 and 200 plus 400 relay and long jump in 1984. ``I knew the city well. We just parked ourselves somewhere and drove to the stadium. Things were totally different in Barcelona (in 1992) and in Seoul (in 1988). It's nice when you're able to navigate around and the people speak English.''

Lewis won't make any predictions on how Jones, 24, will fare.

``I don't want to put any pressure on her,'' he said of the Thousand Oaks High graduate. ``It's not fair. There's too much pressure.''

--U-turn required: Alonzo Mourning is going to try to help deliver his second child and a gold medal to the U.S. basketball team in quick succession.

The NBA star's wife, Tracy, is in Miami preparing for the birth next week of a daughter. Mourning said today he is going to fly home for the birth and then make the 10,000-mile trip back to Sydney.

``I do trust my teammates will be able to hold down the fort until I get back,'' quipped Mourning, who expects to miss two games in the round- robin tournament.

The Americans, who have dubbed themselves ``The Young Dream Team,'' are heavily favored to win it all, with or without Mourning.

--Brown's feat: Larry Brown, now the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, is assisting head coach Rudy Tomjanovich in Sydney.

Brown, who played on the gold-medal winning U.S. team in 1964, is the first man to appear in the Olympics as both a coach and a competitor.

He would have earned the distinction in 1980 if not for the U.S.-led Olympic boycott.

``I never imagined I'd be an Olympic player, much less an Olympic coach,'' the former UCLA coach said. ``I'm just very thankful I have the opportunity to be a part of this.''

Brown chuckled at how things have changed since he wore the red, white and blue. In 1964, he said, the U.S. Olympians were housed in spartan Navy barracks and ate in a mess hall and practiced even on days they had a game.

The 2000 Olympic team held its training camp in Hawaii and stayed at a posh hotel where for $50 you could summon someone to draw your bath.

``I wish a lot more kids would have this chance . . . particularly one,'' Brown said, taking a gibe at Allen Iverson, his temperamental guard in Philadelphia.

- Karen Crouse

--Houston's problem: U.S. basketball guard Allan Houston may miss the Americans' first Olympic game after jamming his right wrist during practice. It's the same wrist the New York Knicks star needed surgery on three years ago.

``I'm not as worried or nervous as I was yesterday,'' Houston said after sitting out most of the U.S. team's two-hour practice. ``It felt like I stretched the scar tissue.''

Houston, who was scheduled to have his wrist X-rayed, said he would wait and see whether the wrist would keep him out of Sunday's U.S. team opener against China.

--Plane, trains and . . .: For some Olympic athletes, getting to where they're trying to go may seem almost as stressful as their competitions.

Continuing transportation problems just a day before the Sydney Games' opening ceremony are similar to those endured in Atlanta four years ago, U.S. Olympic Committee vice president Sandy Baldwin said Thursday.

``We've had drivers get lost,'' she said. ``We've had athletes standing on street corners. This morning, the women's water polo players missed a scrimmage because their driver took them to the wrong university.''

Thursday, a Ukranian cyclist was knocked off her bike by a car as she rode back to the athletes village after training. The 24-year-old cyclist, who was not identified, was treated at a local hospital for a shoulder injury and released, a police spokeswoman said.

--A ring to it: Suzanne Leathers won't get a gold medal at the Sydney Olympics, so she settled for an Olympic ring.

A gold wedding ring.

Leathers, an alternate on the first U.S. Olympic women's weight lifting team, married her coach, Don McCauley, in a suburban Sydney gambling casino - a straight-out-of-Vegas Olympic moment more the result of happenstance than planning.

``We wanted to get married and we've spent a long time trying for the Olympics,'' said Leathers. ``The people we are with all the time were all going to be here, so we said, `Why not Sydney?' ''

Leathers was given away by U.S. coach Michael Cohen with U.S. Olympic weight lifters Cheryl Haworth, Robin Goad and Cara Heads-Lane serving as bridesmaids. U.S. men's alternate Mike Martin was one of the groomsmen.