LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Chuck Farneth may be the happiest competitor at this year's ESPN Great Outdoor Games. No matter what happens during his event — One Fish Fly Fishing — Farneth will leave Lake Placid a contented man.

Last year's GO Games put a smile on Farneth's face that has rarely disappeared in the last 12 months. Nobody was more surprised than Farneth when he earned the gold medal in 2001 with a 16-inch trout. Farneth used the resulting publicity from the first place performance to launch a dream in his hometown of Little Rock, Ark.

Farneth's non-profit Christian corporation entitled Outdoor Legacy is a men's ministry that combines Christian teachings with fly fishing to reach men, fathers and sons and fatherless boys.

Farneth is also the only person in the 12-angler field who has competed all three years in the Fly Fishing event.

"I'm a little more relaxed this year," Farneth said. "I've already hit the peak. I've got nothing to lose this year. Winning the gold medal was an awesome privilege and opportunity. A lot of good things have come from that for me."

Don't misunderstand. Farneth would love to earn another medal and assure himself a spot in the 2003 GO Games. But achieving that dream of OutdoorLegacy and the every day rewards coming from it are more than enough to sustain Farneth's smile for many more months to come.

Overheard

"Last year, (Jerry) Miculek was hotter than a two-dollar pistol and when he's hot and throwing lead down range…you better watch him"
— Jack Robertson, Target Sport Organizer

Well-cast line

Ken Christ was impressed by the 12 anglers in the Casting portion of the One-Fish Fly Fishing event.

Christ, the only amateur to compete in the upcoming Bass Fishing event, was on hand to watch as the fly casters tested their skills in distance and accuracy casting.

In the accuracy portion of the event the anglers cast an almost weightless fly at four sets of floating targets. It can be a tough competition on a calm day, but even more so when the wind is blowing.

In this case, the wind blew 17 miles per hour, creating white caps on Mirror Lake but some of the anglers were still hitting the mark.

"I don't know how these guys are doing that,'' Christ said. "I don't fly fish, but in this wind, I couldn't hit that target with a 1/2 ounce jig.''

Part-time athlete, full-time hero

Bruce Piatt of Montvale, N.J., a competitor in the Rifle Competition, was a rescue worker in the World Trade Center tragedy. He is a police officer in New Jersey.

Sweeping Gold

If David Bolstad sweeps gold this year in three timber events, he will be considered the greatest Timber athlete of all time. Organizers predict Bolstad will be hungry for a gold medal in Men's Endurance, Hot Saw and Springboard.

The Hot Saw is the only event he has never medaled in, but he comes into the competition as the number one seed.

Overheard

"He's a predator."
— Lori-Ann Murphy on Carter Andrews after he scored a 700 in the Accuracy Casting Competition

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It is a whole new game in this year's Shotgun competition in the ESPN Great Outdoor Games.

The Grid is gone. The new game features shooters going head-to-head with a flurry of targets that move in hundreds of possibilities.

No one knows where the target is coming from and they are released randomly at three-second intervals by a computer-generated program. It's still a game of shooting, but it's also becoming a game of reloading, since shooters will have to shoot and reload quickly before the next target appears.

Some shooters are taking the reloading part of the game seriously too.

For instance, David McHugh has gone through four shotguns, making modifications for quick reloads in the Shotgun competition.