– The Associated Press

ISTANBUL – Sue Bird was happy to be playing basketball again.

Bird left the U.S. women’s Olympic team last Sunday after learning that her stepfather had died of a heart attack. After spending last week mourning with her family, she joined the team in Turkey on Saturday.

“It’s been emotional. Obviously he wasn’t my father, but has been in my life for 16 years. He meant so much to my mom,” said Bird, fighting through tears. “These things are tough. It’s good to be back, everyone’s been so great. In a way even though I’m not with my biological family, this is an extension. They make me laugh and I don’t have to think about anything else so it’s really nice.”

Bird fondly remembered the man who had been a huge part of her basketball career from her high school days at Christ the King in New York to her college years at Connecticut.

“He was always around. He was the kind of guy who was very infectious and always in a good mood,” she said. “He literally never was in a bad mood. Always wanting to be friends with everyone, supporting everyone. Forget me, he thought these guys were his daughters as well. That’s the way he treated everyone. He was great for my mom. They were very good for each other, good companions, she’s going to miss him a lot and we all are.”

Bird arrived in Turkey at 6 a.m. and didn’t look jet-lagged at all. She played 19 minutes, scoring eight points and dishing out five assists in the Americans’ 109-55 rout of Croatia.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” U.S. Coach Geno Auriemma said. “That’s why I didn’t start her, wanted her to get into the game at her own pace. Sue’s not ever not ready to play. So I’m not surprised where she came out and played well, hit some shots.”

Bird entered four minutes into the game and her first play was a nifty no-look pass to Tamika Catchings, but she couldn’t convert the shot. Bird then hit a 3-pointer a few minutes later as the U.S. went on a 24-3 run to take a 38-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.

With the two-time Olympian back, the offense was clicking.

“Sue’s one of those exceptionally efficient players,” Auriemma said. “She doesn’t waste a lot of motions, no wasted dribbles, no unnecessary passes, nothing that doesn’t lead to something. I’m not surprised that when she’s in the game things happen rather crisply. We’re only going to get better this being her first time back.”

The Americans overwhelmed Croatia, building a 62-23 halftime advantage in which they shot 57 percent from the field. Sylvia Fowles scored 15 points and Candace Parker added 14 to lead a balanced U.S. offense.

IOC PRESIDENT Jacques Rogge won’t budge: There will be no minute’s silence for the Israeli victims of the 1972 Munich massacre at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics.

Rogge rejected the latest calls for a special observance to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the murder of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches by Palestinian gunmen at the Munich Games.

“We feel that the opening ceremony is an atmosphere that is not fit to remember such a tragic incident,” Rogge said.

The International Olympic Committee has come under pressure from politicians in the United States, Israel and Germany to pay tribute to the slain Israelis during Friday’s ceremony.

Rogge said the IOC will honor them at a reception in London during the games on Aug. 6. He said IOC officials will also attend a ceremony in Germany on the anniversary of the attack on Sept. 5 at the military airfield of Furstenfeldbruck where most of the Israelis died.

THE IOC has cleared a marathon runner born in what is now South Sudan to compete under the Olympic flag.

U.S.-based Guor Marial — a former refugee — will be allowed to take part in the Olympics as an independent athlete.

South Sudan gained independence last year after breaking away from Sudan but doesn’t yet have a recognized Olympic body.

Marial moved to the United States as a child, and even though he has permanent residence in the U.S., he isn’t yet an American citizen. That meant he was unable to compete for the United States, South Sudan or Sudan, the IOC said, despite qualifying for the Olympics last year when he ran a time of 2 hours, 14 minutes, 32 seconds at the Twin Cities Marathon in Minnesota.

AMERICAN RUNNER Crystal Cox was stripped of her gold medal from the 1,600-meter relay at the 2004 Athens Olympics, while the IOC put off a decision on whether to disqualify the U.S. team.

Cox admitted in 2010 to using anabolic steroids and accepted a four-year suspension and disqualification of her results from 2001-04.

The IOC said it is up to the rules of the International Association of Athletics Federations whether to disqualify the entire U.S. team.

If the U.S. is stripped of the victory, Russia would move from silver to gold and Jamaica from bronze to silver. Britain would get the bronze.

In a separate case dating back 12 years, the IOC reallocated the medals removed from the U.S. men’s 1,600 relay team from the Sydney Games because of admitted doping by the late Antonio Pettigrew.

In the Pettigrew case, the IOC stripped the U.S. team — including Michael Johnson — of the relay medals in 2008 but had postponed reallocating the medals pending any information from the BALCO doping investigation in the U.S.

The IOC decided Saturday to elevate Nigeria to the gold, with Jamaica moving up from bronze to silver and the Bahamas from fourth to bronze.