Summer Olympics 2000 Wild week ends in controversy

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Wednesday, September 27
Wild week ends in controversy
Associated Press

SYDNEY, Australia -- Part tragedy, part comedy, all mystery, the Sydney Games will be remembered for the wackiest gymnastics meet in history.

Bela Karolyi sat in the stands, but was still the focal point for an American team that flopped. A doctor prescribed two cold pills that cost Romanian pixie Andreea Raducan one of her two gold medals. An equipment man set the vault too low, and turned the women's all-around into a dangerous exhibition with a dubious result.

It all made Russian diva Svetlana Khorkina and her wild mood swings seem tranquil.

"It was strange," said Nadia Comaneci, who took her sport to a new level with her seven perfect 10s in 1976. "I sure haven't seen one weirder than this."

For instance, consider the Short Vault Caper.

Eighteen gymnasts blundered their way through a series of vaults in the women's all-around that looked more like junior high stuff than the mark of true Olympians. Almost all of them figured it was nerves, jitters or pressure taking its toll.

Not until half the gymnasts were through did Australia's Allana Slater question something everyone takes for granted -- the way the apparatus is set up.

"She said, `That doesn't look right,"' Aussie coach Peggy Liddick said. "We're usually like, 'Yeah, shut up and get back in line.' But she was right this time."

The vault was set 5 centimeters -- 1.97 inches -- too low. Suddenly, there were explanations for Khorkina's crash-landing on her knees and American champion Elise Ray's two awful vaults after a wretched warmup jump.

"I've never seen anything like it, even at a little, local meet," U.S. women's program coordinator Kathy Kelly said. "It's bizarre, is what it is."

All the gymnasts were given the option of going over, but Khorkina declined. The favorite's night ruined by the vault, she also fell off the uneven bars. She finished the meet in tears and in 11th place -- her delicate psyche and her place in the standings too damaged to repair.

Almost without notice, Raducan, the 4-foot-10 Romanian darling, made it through the flawed vault unscathed and went on to win the gold.

She won the meet, but her troubles were still to come. Five days later, the IOC stripped her medal, saying a doctor had prescribed her a common, over-the-counter cold medicine containing the banned substance pseudoephedrine.

The IOC conceded the substance had no effect on Raducan other than to cure a bug that was going around on the Romanian team. But drugs are a big issue at this year's games, and rules must be followed. Raducan was the first gymnast to have a medal stripped and the doctor is more or less out of a job through 2004.

"I can't imagine what Andreea feels like," said Comaneci, the last Romanian champion. "I don't know what's going to happen to the doctor. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes. We feel bad for him, too."

Raducan appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, a last-ditch effort to get her gold medal back. A hearing was scheduled for Wednesday. In the meantime, Romanian national television reported that Romania had returned its other two women's all-around medals in protest.

Finally, there were the Americans, shut out of men's and women's medals for the first time since 1972. And only four years after the American women won gold, no less.

Their failure came in contrast to the success of other countries that took unfamiliar spots on the awards podium. South Korea, Spain, Poland and Latvia, which wasn't even a country 10 years ago, all won medals and had great survival stories to tell about the Strange Sydney Games.

"It was certainly an interesting games," said Ray's coach, Kelli Hill. "We had some high points, some low points and certainly some strange points. Some of the things I saw this week were really unbelievable."

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