|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |
Inside Olympic Sports
Posted: Tuesday October 19, 1999 03:54 PM Spotlight: Stephen Neal At the worlds, U.S. gymnasts came up short By E.M. Swift
It was a long, lame week for U.S. gymnasts at the world
championships in Tianjin, China, a meet that cast an ominous
shadow over U.S. prospects for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. The
Americans did not take home a single medal from among the 42
awarded, as the traditionally weak men's team and the usually
powerful women's team were overmatched, with each finishing
sixth in the competition that ended last Saturday. "We're all
really inexperienced," said 17-year-old Vanessa Atler from
Canyon Country, Calif., who came to her first worlds hoping for
an all-around medal but injured her ankle in the floor exercise
and placed 31st out of 36 competitors. "We were all really
nervous. It's fine when a crowd's shouting, 'USA!' It pumps you
up. But here it's, 'China! China!'"
The rowdy atmosphere inside Tianjin Gymnasium clearly rattled the U.S. women, an untested group that has no holdovers from the 1996 Olympic gold-medal-winning team. As fans romped noisily around the arena, waved flags and chanted, "Fall off, fall off!" in Chinese whenever a U.S. woman wobbled on the beam, the Americans committed so many errors that they nearly missed qualifying for the championship round of six. The uneven bars were particularly troublesome, with reigning U.S. women's champion Kristen Maloney of Pen Argyl, Pa., falling the wrong way on a handstand, and Jamie Dantzscher of Palmdale, Calif., losing her grip and dropping to the mat. Atler, who admitted she was scared by the pressure and the din, twice tumbled off the balance beam, scoring a dismal 8.025. "We should have done a better job, but there's no way we were the sixth team," said women's coach Kelli Hill, who blamed the judging for some of the low marks. "A lot of our performances were not rewarded." None of the American performances were in the class of those of 17-year-old Maria Olaru, the women's all-around champion, who led the Romanian women to the team gold. They edged the Russians 153.527 to 153.209, winning their fourth straight world title. The next three places were taken by China, Ukraine and Australia, all of whom finished ahead of a U.S. team that has been unable to fill the leadership void left by the retirement of Atlanta Games stars Shannon Miller, Dominique Dawes and Kerri Strug. With the Olympics less than a year away, the prospects for the U.S. women in Sydney appear grim. Among the men, host China again was much the strongest team, winning the gold for the fourth straight year. The Chinese finished well ahead of runner-up Russia, with Belarus, Japan, Korea and the U.S. rounding out the top six. No American man so much as qualified for an apparatus final. The lone bright spot for USA Gymnastics was provided by Blaine Wilson of Columbus, Ohio, who came within .001, the smallest possible margin, of a bronze in the all-around. Wilson's fourth-place finish was the best at a world championships by an American male since Kurt Thomas won silver in the all-around in 1979. The top three places were taken by Russia's Nikolay Krukov, Japan's Naoya Tsukahara and Bulgaria's Jordan Jovtchev, but the 25-year-old Wilson, who's a four-time U.S. champion, proved to the judges and himself that he is capable of competing with the elite. "The judges call them as they see them," said Wilson. "These are stepping stones for Sydney." Stepping stones for Wilson, but stumbling blocks for the rest of the Americans.
Figure Skater's Fall: The Olympic dreams of pairs skaters Paul Binnebose and Laura Handy, who finished third in the U.S. Championships last February, suffered a severe setback on Sept. 29 after a horrifying fall during a routine training session left Binnebose in a Delaware hospital with a fractured skull. The accident occurred as Binnebose and Handy, who train at the University of Delaware, were running through their technical program in preparation for October's Skate America in Colorado Springs. The 21-year-old Binnebose had been having back spasms for several weeks. When he lifted the 103-pound Handy, 19, overhead, his back went into spasm again. "He lost his balance and hit his head on the ice," says the pair's coach, Ron Ludington. "You could hear it all over the rink." Binnebose went into convulsions. "I knew right away it was a bad accident," says Paul's mother, Judy, who was watching the workout. Medics rushed Binnebose, who never lost consciousness, to Christiana Hospital, where a CAT scan revealed that his skull had fractured from its base to the top of his forehead. Binnebose underwent surgery to relieve pressure on his brain, and then doctors induced a coma to keep brain activity to a minimum. He remained in the coma until Oct. 9. Doctors have kept Binnebose on a ventilator and under heavy sedation while battling complications brought on by pneumonia. As of Sunday it wasn't known how long he would remain in intensive care. "Emotionally, we've all had a hard time," says Judy. "Laura spends a lot of time at the hospital with us. It's a real waiting game now. It takes six to eight weeks for the skull to heal, and we don't know if there will be any neurological damage. But the doctors are hopeful of a full recovery." No one is making any predictions about when Binnebose and Handy, who are in just their third year together as partners, will be able to resume training. "Their chances of making the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake were excellent," says Ludington. "This is a setback, but the main goal is to get Paul back and healthy. Then we'll take things from there."
Issue date: October 25, 1999
| |||||||||||||||||||||
