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James Li returned from Beijing, where he served as manager of the United States men's track and field team, on Aug. 28.

After sleeping for 12 hours, he drove straight to campus to help his Arizona Wildcats cross country team prepare for today's season opener at the George Kyte Invitational in Flagstaff.

"I'm still struggling with jet lag," he said.

The Star quizzed Li about the Olympics and this year's squad:

Q: For you, what was the highlight of the Olympics?

A: I'd say probably going to the Opening Ceremony. I think the moment you walk into that stadium, that was pretty amazing. I was with the U.S. delegation marching into the stadium, but they put us out at the National Indoor Arena, along with all the NBA players and all the other players. It was hot inside there.

We had to wait there for hours, so we didn't see any of the performances. But the moment you walk into that stadium on the march, that was kinda fun.

A: I got a chance to take a picture with LeBron James and Kobe (Bryant) and Coach K (basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski).

A: I'm definitely very proud of being with the American team. There were definitely pretty major disappointments. I think it's just the fact that we had some very very visible, high-profile mess-ups, I guess. And that probably gave everyone the feeling, including us, that was a terrible Olympic Games. There were times I felt pretty depressed over there. It almost felt like anything that could go wrong, went wrong.

A: We're still an extremely young team, but we get some of our freshmen from last year significantly better this year. We just had a time trial Saturday. I think we're definitely looking better, though I don't think it's quite to the same level we were two, three or four years ago. We had a great team then. We're hopefully shooting for somewhere i n the middle of the Pac-10 Conference. Our Tucson guy, Victor Zazueta, is looking really good.

A: We have two of the best high school distance runners in the state of Arizona — Hannah Moen and Hanna Hensen — plus Irine Lagat and Marrisa Urban. We're really happy with what's going on. We have a pretty good balance of seniors and young freshmen and sophomores on our team. Really for the first time in the last five or six years, our women's team is fairly deep and really is going to be pretty competitive.