Sheryl Swoopes may have played her last game.

The Seattle Storm waived the three-time WNBA MVP and three-time Olympic gold medalist a day before her 2009 contract would have become guaranteed. Swoopes is 37 and might now pursue something she's talked about since September — coaching and being a full-time mother.

Coach Brian Agler says the weekend move was made to clear space under the $803,000 salary cap.

"It was a very tough decision to release Sheryl," Agler said in a statement provided by the team yesterday. "Our free agency priorities, right now, are to secure depth both at the post and point guard positions."

Swoopes won four league championships with Houston before she signed with Seattle 11 months ago as a free agent.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

MUMME HAS CANCER

Former Kentucky and New Mexico State football coach Hal Mumme said he stubbornly waited until the conclusion of a stressful season to get tested for prostate cancer, despite the advice of team doctors and his cancer-surviving wife that he do it earlier.

With the biopsy on Jan. 9 confirming the worst fears from earlier blood tests, the coach said yesterday he considers himself fortunate that his delay was merely "stupid" rather than deadly.

Today, Mumme will undergo a procedure at the University of Kentucky's Markey Cancer Center that doctors believe will stop the disease before it spreads.

Mumme has been unemployed since New Mexico State fired him in December.

RUNNING

EMPIRE STATE WINNERS

Thomas Dold of Germany and Suzy Walsham of Singapore have repeated as winners of the Empire State Building Run-Up in New York City.

In his fourth consecutive victory, the 41-year-old Dold raced up the 86 flights in 10 minutes, 7 seconds. The course record is 9:33, set by Paul Crake in 2003.

Walsham, a native of Australia, marked her third consecutive win, climbing the 1,576 steps in 13 minutes, 27 seconds.

The race starts with a mad dash in the lobby and finishes on the observation deck.