As referenced in Wednesday's column, here are some excerpts from Jessica Mendoza's recent session at the Olympic Media Summit in Chicago, an event which brought together more than 120 athletes and more than 400 members of the media for pre-Olympic interviews.

While the entire session was interesting, the full transcript -- including an initial press conference with coach Mike Candrea, Mendoza and three other players -- covers 22 pages and more than 9,000 words. So here are some selected highlights:

Question: Athletes are saying athletes shouldn't be afraid to speak out, but then they're not speaking out. They're saying I don't want to talk about Darfur, or talk about Tibet. You are speaking out. Why is that?
Answer: Like I said earlier, I just feel like as an athlete I do have some visibility, and I feel like as long as it is in a positive, non-controversial manner, there's something I personally can do as an athlete to help so many causes.
That's just me. I'm a passionate person. It's hard for me. Personally, I love this sport; I also love other things, humanity being one of them.
When I talk about Darfur, there's nothing controversial in wanting to save human lives. And that, to me -- I can only control what I can do. When you talk about other athletes, I feel like everyone has that right to do what they believe in. If they believe not to speak, so be it.

Q: But implicit in supporting Darfur is saying that China is complicit in the genocide, and you are going to compete in that country. Save Darfur says that; everybody says that. How do you separate those two? China sells arms; gets oil. People are dying in Darfur from those arms. It's one thing to say you have to save humanity, but isn't part of the mission of doing that involve getting the Chinese to stop?
A: That might be a part of the mission, but I think for me, I have respect for the Olympic Games and for China being a host country. There's different implications that come into factor.
I have so much respect for what the Olympic Games mean. And for me it's always meant -- and this is why I truly love it so much -- is that it always has been a positive sort of platform.

Q: Other athletes are saying they're focused on training, they don't know, they don't care. Can you understand that? Or are those some of the people you'd like to take by the hand and say, look, you really should be paying attention?
A: I definitely -- even being here, I was talking to Abby Wambach earlier, from the soccer team. We were going back and forth talking about stuff. I love getting a chance being around so many athletes to talk about the issues.
But I completely understand what athletes are going through with training. I know for me, this is a dream I've had since I was six years old. We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that, yeah, it's a sport, but this is our lives.
So I respect the fact that, you know, if they just want to focus on their training. I'd just love to take them to dinner and talk to them about some other stuff, but if they've got stuff to do, I respect that, too.

Q: You talk a lot about Darfur. What about Tibet?
A: You know, I got involved with Darfur -- everything that happened there has really pulled at my heart. I also feel for what's happened in Tibet. I haven't gotten as politically involved in talking about it. A lot of it has been more recent. But for me, my focus kind of has remained in Darfur, because that's more of what I've really been researching and studying and just somehow got more involved in.
I'm also planning to possible go to Darfur after the Olympics to do a clinic. There's a few Olympians, and we've raised the money, and so we're thinking about doing that. But just as far as closer to home, I'm all about the kids, and especially those that don't have homes right now in Darfur.
So it's not just talking about it. I really want to go over there and make a difference.

Q: Could you explain to workaday people, everyday people, what's going on in Darfur? What do you want them to know?
A: I want them to know 400,000 people have been killed since 2003. What hits me even more, besides the fact it's been declared a genocide, is the fact that the women have been raped, and what the Janjaweed is doing to humanity over there. There's millions of children that have nowhere to call home. To me, it's unfathomable. And I think it's so easy to think, OK, this is happening so far from us, and unfortunately, Africa, with Rwanda and the history that have happened before, I find it just doesn't catch your attention like it should. 400,000 people have died and millions are being afflicted. Even talking with my own family and my own teammates, most people just don't know this is happening.
And I truly believe if people knew this was happening, they would hold those accountable for trying to make a difference.

Q: How tough to draw that line between what you believe and your belief in the sanctity of the Olympics?
A: To be honest with you guys, it's an incredibly tough line.
As you can tell, I'm pretty passionate about a lot of things. And I just want to be able to sit here and tell you everything, how I feel, and treat you all like friends and just talk to you about it. But unfortunately, I have 14 teammates and a whole lot more responsibilities than just myself and my personal beliefs. And in fairness to my teammates, too. We were on the bus yesterday on our way to Tennessee, and people are like, what's happening in Darfur? We heard you were in the New York Times. Is that in Africa?
Not to knock my team at all, and I'm not saying they're all like this, but this is how focused they are on the Olympics right now. A part of me wants to keep some of them that focused. I don't want to be selfish and make it all about the world. It's about the world for me, but that's not for everyone.

Q: Any way you would do anything or make any kind of statement while in China, or do you think you would not do that?
A: I don't have a plan. I said earlier, my first goal is to meet and talk with other athletes there, not just U.S. athletes, but athletes from all over the world. I'd like to be able to talk with even the Chinese athletes, get their opinion and their feedback. I feel like that's the best way to do things, to discuss rather than make too many statements or protests. Kind of unite together and discuss.
I talked about the United Nations. We have 200 countries, more than the United Nations even has. How cool is that? All these Olympians from so many countries in one room, and we can all sit at each other's tables and just talk peacefully. I wish the world could do that?

Q: If you were in an individual sport, would you be more inclined to share your personal views?
A: I think yes. If I was in a personal sport, I'm not saying I would tell you every single thing that I feel, but yes, definitely. I look around at my teammates, even the ones that are here today, and I don't want to take away from what they're here to do.

Q: Have you gotten any static from anyone about going to the forefront in this? You don't have to name names.
A: No, umm. I was actually laughing. Today -- there's been concerns, but jokingly. Coach Candrea, this morning, when I was getting whisked away to different things, was like, 'Hey, Mendoza. I don't want to see you in any headlines.' And that made me laugh, just because he knows me and he knows that I'm very passionate.
He also gets upset with me, though. I'll be on the bus, and it's always an election year when it's the Olympics. So I get the team like, 'OK, who feels this way. We've got like Barack over here, we've got Clinton over here, and McCain. Who's feeling McCain?' We're kind of getting everyone talking; the next thing you know, we have fights breaking out on the bus [laughing -- as she is throughout the rest of this answer]. And so, in '04, he'd just be like, 'Mendoza, no more politics! We're done with politics!'
I think that's probably because I'm doing it on the way to the game, and we don't want any inner turmoil.

ANAHEIM -- The Ducks didn't exactly solve their problems Friday night. They just sort of bulled past them.
Despite continuing to take penalties in bulk -- some of them truly ill-advised -- the Ducks rode the wave of emotion built on desperation to beat Dallas 5-2, keeping their reign as Stanley Cup champions alive for at least another 48 hours.
"Desperation is probably the descriptive word," said Ducks coach Randy Carlyle, explaining how the Ducks managed to play such an up-tempo game -- good for a combined 73 shots, 42 by Dallas -- in a rare case of back-to-back scheduling in the postseason.
It was a lot of fun to watch -- "I thought it was a pretty entertaining game ... We probably owed one to our fans," said goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere -- but less fun to coach.
"It probably wasn't one ... you'd bring to a coaches' seminar and say that's the way you'd want to play," said Carlyle, "but we're not going to critique a win."
Said Teemu Selanne, who scored one goal and seemed on the verge of a half-dozen others, "Obviously, the situation for both teams was not perfect. ... There's not much time to rest and regroup, but the playoffs, the intensity, you just have to fight through."
For those looking for signs this was a turning point, rather than a case of delaying the inevitable, signs were mixed.
On the cause-for-hope sign of the Anaheim ledger:
-- Corey Perry had a goal and an assist, playing in just his second game since suffering a lacerated tendon in his right quad that forced him to miss the last 12 games of the regular season, as well as the first three of the playoffs.
"(Thursday) night, I thought he was a little apprehensive and it didn't look like he had a lot of power early in the game, but I thought as the game got going he had a couple of shifts where he controlled the puck down low," said coach Randy Carlyle, "and did a lot of things with the puck. That's the kind of game you have to expect from Corey Perry. And then tonight was a goal scorer's goal. He shot the puck, and found a way to get us on the board early."
-- The Ducks finally won the special teams battle, scoring two power play goals in three chances -- including a particularly dazzling effort leading to a Ryan Getzlaf goal in the second period -- while giving up nothing in seven short-handed situations.
"They clicked tonight," Getzlaf said of the special-teams play. "That's one game, but that's what we need down the stretch. ... That's pretty much what the playoffs have been so far, so we've got to be ready."
-- On a clearly related note, they also had the edge in the goaltending battle. Jean-Sebastien Giguere was somewhere between strong and spectacular, giving Anaheim a clear advantage in net on a night when Dallas' Marty Turco let in one very soft goal (the first one, a five-hole shot by Perry) and generally looked like the postseason mortal he's been for most of his career, rather than the standout he'd been earlier in the series. "Outstanding," said Getzlaf. "He made those big saves and that makes all the difference in the world."
Agreed Selanne, "That's what this team needs. When he plays like that, we know we have a good chance to win."
On the other end, there are those penalties: Eleven of them, this time, leading to seven Dallas power plays. The Ducks got away with it Friday, but this is not a formula for long-term success.
"We just keep telling ourselves to play smart, disciplined hockey" sighed Selanne, "and then it's like a shorthand practice, a penalty-killing practice."
Dallas had three power plays in just the first period.
"We could have easily taken ourselves right out of the hockey game," said Carlyle, "without the effort of our penalty killers and goaltending. Hopefully those are things we can learn from, but it seems to be a long, hard lesson for our group."
There's also the fact that Selanne, who had a goal and generally was outstanding, probably could and should have had more, given all his chances. No one was more aware of that than the Finnish Flash.
"I have never missed so many opportunities in my life, not even when I played Pee Wee," said Selanne, who had a game-high eight shots. "It's really frustrating. ... I have to do better. I have to do better. I can't keep missing those chances. Even the previous game in Dallas, I could have had three goals. But hopefully, they come."
If they do, that would turn a question mark into a positive.
More to the point, it would greatly enhance the Ducks' chances of survival. A win Friday certainly increased those chances, and shift the pressure at least a little; Dallas figures to be desperate to win Sunday to avoid a Game 7 back in Anaheim on Tuesday.
Not that anyone on either side would ever admit to thinking that far ahead.

A quick summation of Friday's game:
First period
In a word, wild.
As has been their M.O. in this series, the Ducks start heading to the penalty box early -- Ryan Carter draws the first penalty just 2:57 in -- and often, but a wide-open (29 shots, 15 for Dallas) and rather testy (12 penalties, for 40 minutes) period ends tied at 1.
After the Ducks storm the net in the opening 90 seconds, the action evens out a bit until Corey Perry gives Anaheim a 1-0 lead at 8:25 on a breakaway after leaving (where else?) the penalty box -- a really, really soft goal for Marty Turco. But Dallas draws even with 1:33 left on a goal by Mattias Norstrom, who scores about as frequently as Halley's Comet visits. No, really. This was Norstrom's 43rd career playoff game, and his first postseason goal.
Second period
Chris Pronger takes an incredibly dumb penalty for roughing Jere Lehtinen just 2:04 in -- the whistle had blown, Lehtinen was standing in front of Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Pronger bowled him over. The Ducks kill the penalty, but it shifts momentum for a while. At the midpoint of the period, the Stars have an 11-3 advantage in shots.
But that's when Anaheim gets its first power play on an interference penalty by Mark Fistric. The Ducks keep the puck in the Dallas zone for the entire advantage, 80 seconds, , before Ryan Getzlaf sets up to the left of the net, waits, waits -- and beats Turco to the long side for a 2-1 lead at 11:03. That's the lead at intermission in a surprisingly wide-open game; the 56 shots through two periods (31-25 for Dallas) exceed the shot total for each of the previous three games.
Third period
The Ducks earn a two-man advantage in the first minute of the period, and need just 20 seconds to take advantage, as Teemu Selanne bangs home a rebound of a Chris Pronger shot at 48 seconds. Dallas cuts the lead to 3-2 at 4:41, however, as Mike Ribeiro -- who had failed to control the puck on an open-net opportunity back in the first period, just 12 seconds before Perry gave the Ducks their 1-0 lead -- is left with too much space and time to work from the left side of the net.
But the Ducks regain the two-goal lead at 12:05 on a goal by Sean O'Donnell, and when Todd Marchant adds an empty-netter with 1:24 left, both teams are free to figure out their itineraries for the trip back to Dallas for Game 6 on Sunday.
The final shot total is 42-31 in favor of Dallas. Shots aren't always an indication of the nature of a game, but in this case, the numbes perfectly reflect the wild, end-to-end nature of the game.

SAN ANTONIO — So I rolled — OK, flew — into San Antonio this evening, looking forward to nothing more than checking into my hotel, getting in a session in the fitness center and then having dinner on the Riverwalk before it gets too zany with the April part of March Madness.
One of those things — the fitness center part — went more or less as planned.
I arrived at my hotel to blank looks from the desk staff, which had no record of my reservation.
After much shuffling of paper, and more than a few visions of a.) spending five nights on a park bench, given that the Final Four tends to put a premium on hotel rooms, or b.) ending up either in a broom closet or some pay-by-the-hour type place on the edge of town, the hotel staff ultimately took my word for it that I should, indeed, have a room and somehow produced on. Not only that, it turned out to be a corner suite. The view isn’t much — a freeway on one side and most of the other major hotels on the other — but it sure as heck beats sharing a room with a mop.
So, after 45 minutes on the treadmill, it was time for a short trip down the Riverwalk. My intended destination was Boudros, a Riverwalk institution favored by the NBA beat-writer fraternity, but as I plowed through a sea of humanity (the “walk� part of the Riverwalk isn’t particularly wide in most places, so the going tends to be pretty slow), I began to have the idea that this quietest night of the Final Four weekend — after all, a lot of fans won’t be in until tomorrow — wasn’t particularly quiet at all. And indeed, when I finally made it to Boudros, I was told the wait for a table would be at least one hour. Plan B ended up being a barbecue place I’ve eaten at before (thanks to the Lakers-Spurs rivalry, I know San Antonio fairly well), where I ate at the bar (to avoid a half-hour wait) and marveled at two bartenders who seemed to be going at 78 rpm in a 33 1/3 rpm world. (Parents, please explain that reference to your kids.)
Oh, and while I was at dinner, my cell started singing the chorus of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.� The call — with an Indianapolis area code — turned out to be someone from the NCAA, apologizing for the hotel-room mix up. Since the situation had been resolved — and I ended up with a room larger than my apartment — I found it quite easy to be gracious.
That and the dinner both worked out OK, but the crowds already massed on the Riverwalk make me wonder. I’ve had a few Final Four veterans tell me this is their favorite site, because it’s compact and the Riverwalk — which really is quite charming for the most part —provides all your one-stop dining and sightseeing needs.
I’ll have a better idea of that in a few days, but I am sort of wondering if that compactness might be a curse as well as a blessing, at least when it comes to simply moving from point A to point B. On the other hand, if you want to have a chance to run into anyone and everyone in college basketball, this is clearly the place to be.