The U.S. Olympic Committee has picked SJSU as the team processing center for the 600 or so athletes it will send to the Beijing Games next summer, the Mercury News has learned. The school will become a mini-Olympic village, with athletes sleeping in dormitories and training on campus before departing to China, multiple sources said.

Details are expected to be unveiled Tuesday in a news conference at San Jose State. USOC and San Jose university and city representatives declined to comment.

The sources said the center is expected to open in mid- to late July next year. It will take three weeks to handle the athletes and an additional 300 coaches, staff and administrators.

The school was seen as an ideal location to process the Olympians because of its proximity to San Francisco's airport, its security and its abundance of sports facilities. USOC officials also were familiar with SJSU after holding the 2003 Titan Games — a competition featuring combat sports and weightlifting — at the Event Center.

The 2008 Summer Olympics are scheduled to begin Aug. 8, a historic event for China and international sports.

The brief stop at the processing center is the traditional start of the whirlwind journey to the world's biggest sports party. All athletes, from NBA stars to the most obscure pentathletes, will undergo the same routine.

The NBA players, though, might stay at the Fairmont, but the majority will be housed at the Campus Village residence in the southeast corner of SJSU.

It takes about a day to process each athlete. Teams arrive together in the afternoon and are sized for team apparel and rings. Then they hit the "shopping mall," which is the highlight of the stay.

Athletes can expect to collect about $1,300 worth of free clothing, if the experience of the 1996 Olympians in Atlanta is any indication. In past years, athletes got shopping carts to fill with sweatsuits, shirts, shoes, hats, luggage, blazers and extras such as neck pillows for their long flights.

The athletes are expected to spend the next morning attending a briefing on Chinese customs, media training and rules about conduct (don't wear Mickey Mouse ears during the opening ceremony).

In the past they also had medical and dental evaluations and had team photos taken. After the Olympians pack their loot, the USOC transports it overseas.

The delegation will fly to Beijing from San Francisco International Airport.

Some teams could stay here for up to four days, sources said.

Although SJSU no longer has a track, athletes could use the ones at Stanford, San Jose City College or any number of San Jose high schools.

Despite being located in the heart of downtown, the school is usually quiet during the summer. It will provide athletes with a respite before they head to their pressure-filled competitions.

The USOC began sending its athletes through a central processing center in the 1970s.