Oprah Winfrey To Host Olympic Athletes On 23rd Season Premiere Of Her Talk Show

Chicago, IL (CNS) - There will be more gold-medal moments than even Oprah can pack in a one-hour show, when the Queen of Talk Shows welcomes 150 Olympic athletes to "The Oprah Winfrey" show for the premiere of her 23rd season.

Celebrity News Service originally heard that Oprah was trying to arrange for a September 11 show with the Olympic heroes, but the show will now air September 8 as the season premiere. The show will be taped next Wednesday in Chicago's Millennium Park.

Gold medalists Michael Phelps, Nastia Liukin, Kobe Bryant, Misty May-Treanor, Kerri Walsh and 150 other U.S. Olympic team members will join Oprah for what her production company is calling a "welcome-home celebration." They are saying it is also a bid for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Games.

Many of the Olympic athletes, Phelps especially, have been on a whirlwind media tour following the end of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Phelps spent Friday in Orlando, where he rode through the park with Mickey Mouse as part of "America's Homecoming Parade."