Super times for Dominique

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Posted: Tuesday July 21, 1998 06:15 PM

Amanda Borden was a member of the gold-medal winning women's gymnastics team at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta Doug Pensinger/Allsport

Amanda Borden, a member of the gold-medal winning women's gymnastics team at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, is a commentator for TBS at the Goodwill Games.

By Amanda Borden

NEW YORK (CNN/SI) -- Dominique Moceanu's win in the all-around here was super impressive, but more than that, it was super important.

Her performance is something that can help boost American gymnastics for years to come.

Dominique is a friend and a teammate, so I know some of the hard times she's been through, trying to find a new coach, trying to find the desire she had in '96. It's great to see her come back.

She's doing things she has never done before. Of course, she's a whole new gymnast. She's grown five inches since Atlanta. She's much more mature. To me, this is a whole different personality for her. She's not the cute, little Dominique any more.

Dominique may represent America's best hope for a gymnastics gold in the Sydney Olympics in 2000 -- if she decides to go. Gymnastics is such a strange sport. Two years is a long time. Anything can happen.

She accomplished great things in Atlanta, and she got the gold here, beating out world champion Svetlana Khorkina of Russia. It may be time for her just to enjoy herself.

Still, I think she should go for Sydney. If she does, it will be the last stop for her in a wonderful gymnastics career. And when you're older, the experiences you have are somehow more valuable.

It's also good to see Dominique Dawes competing here. Coming to the Goodwill Games was a career goal for her. So she stuck it out, two years after her second Olympics. When most people are thinking "What is there to do after two Olympics?" Dominique knew exactly what she wanted.

It's great for the young Americans -- girls like Sierra Sapunar -- to have athletes like Moceanu and Dawes to look up to. When I was coming up, I looked up to Shannon Miller and Dawes and Kerri Strug.

The men's team has a hero of sorts, too, in Blaine Wilson. Obviously, he was a little disappointed in his bronze medal in the all-around -- he'd hoped to do better -- but, at the same time, it gives hope to the men's program. Finishing third with a couple of mistakes is great.

I was very impressed with the difficult of young Sean Townsend's program. He needs to continue to work on his confidence and just the knowledge that, yes, he does deserve to be out there with the rest of the guys.

If the Goodwill Games have shown anything, so far, it's that both of the programs are pointed in the right direction to be successful in 2000.

Related information
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Ivankov wins Goodwill all-around gold Moceanu claims first major all-around victory
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Men's Individual All-Around Results Women's Individual All-Around Results
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