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Kristie Phillips, Champion Gymnast
September 1, 1986
Posted: Tuesday November 17, 1998 10:24 AM
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Joe McNally |
Officially,
it was a reverse planche. To Kristie Phillips, however, her
pose for SI's cover was simply "the butt-on-the-head
move." The 14-year-old, 78-pound gymnast told SI she
couldn't remember a time when she wasn't able to bend all
the way over backward. Now
Phillips, 26, says she can't get her head anywhere near her
derriere. "It hurts to look at it," she says of that
cover. "My back just doesn't bend the same way
anymore."
In the fall of 1986 Phillips was poised to become the next
superstar of U.S. gymnastics. That year she won all-around
titles at the American Cup, the junior nationals and the
U.S. Olympic Festival. She had the coach, Bela Karolyi, the
natural
showmanship and the irrepressible,
Wheaties-box smile of her idol, 1984 Olympic heroine
Mary Lou Retton. Two years later, however,
instead of doing handsprings
down Madison Avenue
with Olympic gold around
her neck, she was out of
competitive
gymnastics.
Phillips won the U.S. all-around title in June
1987 but finished 45th at the worlds that fall. As she grew
she lost some of her
flexibility and began to
struggle with her weight and conditioning.
She finished eighth at the '88 Olympic trials
and as the second alternate on the U.S. team
didn't compete in Seoul. After the Games she hung up her
bar grips for good
and returned to her family in Baton
Rouge.
Heinz Kluetmeier | |
After spending three years at LSU on a cheerleading
scholarship, Phillips moved to New York City to take up
acting. She quickly landed a Delta Airlines commercial,
then in 1994 won the lead in the action-adventure
Spitfire, playing a martial arts
expert. She works as a stunt double, most recently in last
summer's comedy
Mafia!, and has appeared on the
Late Show with David
Letterman as a pair of dancing pants. "I'm not shy about being
in front of the camera," she says. "I find I can
do things I
didn't think I
could."
When not working in films, Phillips choreographs routines
for gymnasts near her home in Asbury Park, N.J., where she
lives with her husband, singer-songwriter Horatio Thomas.
Though she is removed from gymnastics, the reverse planche
is still known on
the circuit as the Phillips. "I always wondered, What if
I had gotten everything?" she says of winning Olympic
gold and reaping its rewards. "I wouldn't know what it
takes to make it in the world. I love my life. I wouldn't
have had it any other
way."
—Mark
Beech
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