The Women Go Flat OutRussia, the U.S. and Romania stand 1-2-3 heading into tomorrow night's team finalsby E.M. Swift
The U.S. women's gymnastics team, calm, composed and uncharacteristically chummy, took a large step toward capturing its first team gold medal yesterday by finishing ahead of the defending world champion Romanians in the compulsory portion of the competition, which accounts for 50% of the scoring. However, the Yanks were knocked down to second place in the overall standings by the always powerful Russians, who appeared in the last session of the day, making tomorrow night's optionals a three-way race between three of the top four countries at the last world championships.
Alexandra Marinescu
of Romania went parallel to the floor
photograph by
The U.S. women were, quite simply, astonishingly cool while nailing 23 out of 24 routines before 32,620 highly partisan fans at the Georgia Dome. The only misstep came on the balance beam, the Americans' second rotation, when 16-year-old Jaycie Phelps fell off. But Shannon Miller, who at 19 is the heart of this team, picked up the team by following that miscue with the best beam routine of the day, scoring 9.737. Fourteen-year-old Dominique Moceanu then responded with a solid 9.687, rendering Phelps's mistake meaningless, since the low score in each rotation is dropped.
After that it was like watching a videotape of gymnastics made easy. The U.S. women were virtually flawless in the floor exercises, outscoring the 12 other countries and sticking their landings like featherweight darts. "We've always been consistent in compulsories, so I'm not that surprised we did well," said Moceanu's coach, Bela Karolyi, who was restricted to the sidelines during the competition because it is his wife, Marta, who is the team's head coach. "What did surprise me was that we passed the Romanians by over half a point." The Russian women, led by Dina Kochetkova, were still to come, but no one, least of all the U.S. women, figured that this competition would go down to anything but the last rotation on Tuesday night.
In team competition the nature of the judging is such that the later in a rotation a gymnast performs, the higher the scores the judges are likely to give her. Rather than place U.S. stars Moceanu and Miller in the last two spots at every apparatus, guaranteeing them the team's highest marks, the American coaching staff decided to use results from the trials and the nationals, both held in June, to determine its starting order. That meant that Kerri Strug twice anchored a rotation and twice led off. Moceanu found herself fifth, sixth, fourth and second. "It was just good strategy," says Steve Nunno, Miller's coach. "The kids understood it, and everyone scored well as a result. The Romanians were excellent in compulsories, and we beat them."
Dominique Moceanu
of the U.S. held her own.
photograph by
Not that a .531-of-a-point lead is exactly a comfortable margin over the defending world champions; similarly, the .127 of a point by which the U.S. trails Russia is no more than a bobble on the beam in terms of scoring. In Barcelona the U.S. women had a small lead over Romania after the compulsories—with the Unified Team in first—only to be smoked in the optionals by both teams and eventually finish third. And at the 1995 world championships in Sabae, Japan, the U.S., second to the Romanians after the compulsories, was thrashed in the optionals. Says the noncoaching Karolyi, "Optionals is a totally different competition."
The Romanians have an uphill battle because they are shorthanded. At least three gymnasts who would have made the team were left at home suffering from injuries, according to coach Octavian Belu, and one of those who did come to Atlanta, Anamaria Bican, suffered torn knee ligaments while training on the vault and is unable to compete—leaving the Romanians with only six competitors out of the allowable seven.
The U.S., by contrast, will rely on its depth—Miller, Moceanu and Strug are all in the top 10 of the individual all-around competition after yesterday—and the home court advantage. The team is staying in a private home, far removed from the hassles and noise of the Olympic Village, bonding, training and generally focusing on the job at hand. The women exude a quiet confidence in themselves and in each other, a confidence that must stem from the knowledge that, win or lose, they are the best women's gymnastics team America has ever had.
But it may take 24 more mistake-free rotations if they hope to have the gold to help prove it.
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