About Competitions

Sunday, September 10, 2000

U.S. gymnasts optimistic

by Seattle Times staff and The Associated Press

Kristen Maloney has spent thousands of hours in the gym in the past 13 years. She's sweated and sacrificed, perfecting her routines with mind-numbing repetition.

She went home early from parties to make sure she got enough sleep. She did extra schoolwork before competitions so she wouldn't fall behind in class. She endured dozens of injuries, some serious.

She did all of it with the dream of representing her country in Sydney. But after operations on her shin and shoulder last fall, she wondered if it was all in vain.

"It was really hard for me," said the two-time national champion, who missed almost four months because of the operations. "I wasn't really sure if I'd make it back in time."

Well, she's back. With a dedication rarely seen in the gym, Maloney got into shape and now hopes to help the U.S. women's team return to the medals podium in Sydney.

A healthy Maloney is one reason the Americans are optimistic. Only nine months after finishing last in the medals round at the World Championships -- even once-lowly Australia placed higher -- the United States has regrouped and is again showing signs of being able to compete with the Russians, Romanians and Chinese.

With Bela Karolyi leading the way, the Americans have gotten stronger and tougher. They've increased the difficulty of routines that are now among the most challenging in the world.

Throw in a few members of the Magnificent Seven for a little star power, and the U.S. team is no longer the wimp it was at the world championships.

"It's like the sky and the earth," said Karolyi, who came out of retirement last fall to become the national team coordinator. "It's a big difference. A very big difference."

While the U.S. team has made up ground, the Romanians and the Russians remain favored. Defending world champion Romania is, as always, stocked with talent, led by Olympic bronze medalist Simona Amanar and reigning world champion Maria Olaru.

Russia, the silver medalist in Atlanta, heads to Sydney fresh from a victory at the European championships. Former world champion Svetlana Khorkina, written off after her 12th-place finish at last fall's world championships, won her fourth European title as well as golds on the uneven bars and balance beam.

"Gold is going to be a stretch, but I think this team can win a medal," said Mary Lee Tracy, the assistant U.S. coach in 1996. "The talent level is very competitive, so yeah, I think we do have a shot."

In the men's competition, the Americans hope to win their first team medal since the 1984 squad took gold. The United States was five points behind China at last year's World Championships, but less than 2. points behind third-place Belarus.

"We didn't have the difficulty. We didn't have hard enough skills in our routines," said Peter Kormann, the men's coach. "That is gone. We now will go to the Olympics with a very comparable difficulty to even China, the defending world champion. . . . We're going to be right in the mix."

The Americans could also end their all-around drought. An American man hasn't won an Olympic all-around medal since Peter Vidmar's silver in 1984, and the U.S. has yet to win one in a non-boycotted Olympics.

But Blaine Wilson, five-time national champion, finished just .001 points away from a bronze medal at last year's World Championships, and he's improved since then.

"He's way better than he was last year," teammate John Roethlisberger said. "I don't see too many people in the world beating him."

Wilson is the first American man to win five consecutive national titles since George Wheeler in 1937-41, back in the AAU days. Wilson is strongest on the still rings, but solid in every event.

Kormann is a coach who takes his job seriously, but not himself. In an atmosphere that would seem to inflate egos, he has suppressed his -- a bit different than Karolyi is perceived.

"Bela is like God," Kormann says, "and I'm like a janitor."

Kormann had quite a mess to clean up in 1995, when the men's program was near the bottom of a 10-year abyss, unwilling to train together and able to win only one individual medal over the span of two Olympics.

Kormann had spent 16 successful years as a college coach at Navy, then at Ohio State, where he won a national title in 1996.

"The best part about Pete is that he keeps driving it home that nobody else on that floor is better than you," said Wilson, who also had Kormann as a coach at Ohio State. "I get a lot of my thoughts from Pete. I walk out there and I don't care if the world champion is on the floor. He has to be as good as me on that given day or he's not beating me. That's the way Pete teaches it. And that's the way I always look at competition."

Instead of having to cancel training camps for lack of attendance, the way the U.S. did in the early 1990s, everybody shows up and works together. Dating to the 1996 Olympics, the U.S. hasn't finished lower than sixth in any major international competition.

But there have been no team medals yet. Without one in Sydney, it will be difficult to deem his stewardship a complete success. Of course, Kormann doesn't harp on the possibility of failing too often.

"I don't think we'd have had the success we've had so far without him," Roethlisberger said. "If we get to the awards podium, he'll be as big a part of it as anyone."

Copyright © 2001 The Seattle Times Company