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Sunday, September 17
U.S. women stumble in preliminaries
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- A slide off the balance beam, a step or
two off the mat and the U.S. women's gymnastics team knew one thing
for sure.
|  | | Amy Chow of the United States performs her floor exercise during the women's qualification competition at the SuperDome in Sydney. |
They're not in Atlanta anymore.
This is Australia -- the natives call it Oz -- a land half a world
away from home and even farther from the gold-medal success the
Americans enjoyed on their own turf in 1996.
The U.S. performances in the preliminary round of the Olympics
Sunday (Saturday night EDT) were far from awful. In fact, national
champion Elise Ray and two-time Olympian Amy Chow had a handful of nice moments.
But those two got little help from their teammates and left the
SuperDome in trouble. As a team, it wasn't championship stuff.
Team coordinator Bela Karolyi sensed it, sitting placidly in the
stands, knowing it would take more than one of his patented bear
hugs to set things right. Then again, maybe a little motivation
might have helped.
"Overall, we had a lot of mistakes," Karolyi said. "It's not
a real surprise. It's things we've seen before in practice and in
training. There were some strong efforts. We just have to sit down
and think about what it's going to take to get better."
The United States took the floor in the morning, then waited an
agonizing six hours before learning their spot was secure among the
top six, and in the team finals.
The world powerhouses, Russia and Romania, competed together in
the afternoon and showed everyone else what medal-winning
gymnastics was about. Led by current European champion Svetlana
Khorkina's grace and flair, Russia took the lead.
Romania was next, followed by China and Ukraine. Spain finished
fifth after a solid night session and the United States was in
sixth, avoiding by less than 0.4 points the ultimate humiliation of
missing the finals.
When finals begin Tuesday, the scores will be wiped clean and
the U.S. women will have a chance for a new start, something they
could desperately use after Sunday.
"The girls have worked out so well, they've warmed up well,"
coach Kelli Hill said. "I don't have anything to blame it on. I
have no idea what happened. We're going to figure it out and make
sure it doesn't happen again."
Considering their struggles since Atlanta, the U.S. women
figured they'd be going for the bronze this year, and after their
first day's performance, that would probably be considered a
victory.
"The bronze is still wide open," Karolyi said, confirming that
third place is America's goal.
Opening on the beam, traditionally its worst event, the team
stood in the corner with that deer-in-the-headlights look, watching
teammate Tasha Schwikert fidget nervously for about 5 minutes,
awaiting her cue from the judges.
The 15-year-old, last-minute replacement for injured Morgan
White scored a 9.237 and waited for the leaders to take over.
They never did.
Dominique Dawes, in her third Olympics, fell off the beam.
Later on the floor, Ray and Kristen Maloney each took huge steps
off the mat, costing precious tenths of points in a competition
where nothing can be spared.
Ray left the floor holding her left shoulder, but she continued.
"She said it didn't hurt after floor and she vaulted and did
bars beautifully," Hill said.
At the vault, it was Maloney's turn to get hurt. She landed on
her knees on her first jump, then walked back down the runway
crying and biting her lip. She stuck her second vault, a la Kerri
Strug in 1996, although the stakes weren't nearly as high.
"It hurt pretty bad," Maloney said. "I was scared because I
wasn't sure how it was going to feel to run down and vault again. I
just told myself I could do it and to relax."
Meanwhile, the home fans, who spurred America to victory in
Atlanta, were cheering wildly for the Australians this time, even
though their gymnasts could barely clear the vault on the first
rotation.
Aussie Allana Slater's hands slipped as she pushed off the
vault. She just made it over, then used her hands to keep from
falling forward and landing on her head.
Brooke Walker followed with a pair of jumps in which she brushed
her head on the backside of the vault both times. She actually
stuck her landing after the first vault and got a rousing ovation.
"It was fantastic, we could feel it all the way," Slater said.
"It's an amazing feeling to have the whole crowd behind you."
It turned out to be the crowd's only chance to see its home
team. Spain's rise pushed the Aussies into seventh and back to the
drawing board.
It means, at the very least, the United States won't face the
same fate it did at the world championships last year, when it
finished behind the unproven Australians.
It was that humbling week in China that brought Karolyi out of
retirement to turn this team around.
The project has had its ups and downs. Last week's departure of
White and her coach, Mary Lee Tracy, combined with an ankle injury
to Jamie Dantzscher, didn't make things any easier.
Dantzscher competed on the vault and floor and said the ankle
was feeling fine. Her scores -- a 9.325 on vault and 8.987 on floor
-- may have said otherwise.
Karolyi said lineup changes would occur if the Americans made it
to the finals.
"But we have to think about them," he said. "I don't want to
get into anybody's head right now."
He did, however, single out Chow as a surprising disappointment
for a quick hiccup on her uneven bars routine that earned a 9.4 and
dampened the Americans' strongest event.
"I was sitting here thinking, there's no explanation for
that," he said. "It's the last thing I expected today -- besides
all the other things."
Khorkina was the best gymnast through three sessions, amassing
39.005 points and establishing herself as a prime contender for the
all-around gold. Romania's Andreea Raducan was second.
The top American's were Ray and Chow, who finished in 13th and
14th place.
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ALSO SEE
Women's qualifying results
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