updated 6:14 p.m. ET July 16, 2004

Following a yearlong battle on the trails and another with calculators, Sue Haywood filled the lone women’s spot on the U.S. Olympic mountain biking team Friday.

Haywood finished one point ahead of Mary McConneloug in the international standings for the year that ended Monday, according to USA Cycling.

Haywood’s nomination completes the team of 18 cyclists the United States is sending to the Athens Games in road, track and mountain disciplines.

“Sue has a history of getting stronger and faster as the year goes on,” said Steve Johnson, USA Cycling’s Olympic team leader. “She’s a legitimate medal contender. And she’s seen the course in Athens already... that hopefully gives her a leg up.”

Officially, the International Cycling Union came up with a different point total for the cyclists. While it did not publish rankings on Monday, that total would have shown McConneloug 14 points ahead of Haywood.

But USA Cycling nominated Haywood because the UCI didn’t credit her with 15 points she earned at a race in Idaho last summer.

“Those results were never forwarded to the UCI and when somebody pointed it out to us, it was after Dec. 31 and they said they couldn’t go back and add them,” Johnson said. “We did an accounting of all our races and know they should be included in the standings.”

Haywood, of Davis, W.Va., said she was relieved the wait was finally over.

“That feeling I’ve had all week in the pit of my stomach has been replaced by elation,” Haywood said. “Mathematically, I’d always felt I’d gotten it by one point, but when there was this talk of philosophical interpretation of the UCI rankings I really, really started to worry.”

American officials had expected to receive updated world standings from the UCI on Monday, yet those numbers never arrived until Thursday because of an unexplained glitch.

That delay was significant because Haywood scored 120 points in a race held July 13, 2003. Points remain on a rider’s international ranking for exactly one year; the 120 would have counted on Monday, but were purged when the glitch was fixed and the calculation was made Thursday by the UCI.

McConneloug was traveling in Austria Friday and not immediately available for comment.

“It’s disappointing if the chief objective of USA Cycling is to send the athlete with the best chance of success,” said Jennifer Miller, a spokeswoman for McConneloug’s Seven Cycles team. “The head-to-head results bear out overwhelmingly that Mary is our best chance.”

Miller said McConneloug was “blindsided” by USA Cycling giving Haywood 15 points from the Idaho race.

It’s still undecided if McConneloug will appeal the decision, Miller said.

Haywood is ranked fourth in the world, well behind Norway’s Gunn-Rita Dahle — a winner of 10 straight international races. She’s an overwhelming gold medal favorite and considered by some as the top overall women’s cyclist in the world.

McConneloug is ranked No. 2 and Canada’s Alison Sydor is No. 3 worldwide by the UCI.

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