Off Track ..... Crash scars can't sap triathlon champ Allen

Despite chipped teeth, a bent thumb and a deep scar on her chin, triathlete Kate Allen is grinning just as widely as when she won the Olympic gold for Austria in Athens four years ago.

Allen, 38, looked to be out of contention for the Beijing Games when she was knocked off her bike in an April race, cutting up her face and tearing a tendon in her thumb. She still cannot grip a water bottle with her right hand.

The physical and psychological blows of the fall at a New Zealand World Cup race were tough, but Allen clawed back and scraped the 8th ranking she needed at the Vancouver World Championship in June to qualify for Austria's 2008 team.