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Picks of the litter Olympic squad looks just like Karolyi wanted it
BOSTON (AP) -- As usual, Bela Karolyi got what he wanted. He has the blend of young and old he was looking for when the Magnificent Seven came out of retirement one by one. He has the calm leadership of experience and the eagerness of youth. Most of all, he has a team he thinks can put the United States back on the medals podium. "I believe now we are medal contenders," Karolyi said Sunday night after the Olympic team was selected. "We have a proud, strong, very athletic team that can perform up to those standards. If they perform to their potential, they can win a medal." Lured out of retirement last November to revive a faltering program, Karolyi caused a firestorm of controversy with new selection procedures that essentially allowed him to handpick the team. Weighted scores from trials (60 percent) and last month's U.S. Gymnastics Championships (40 percent) were combined, but Karolyi and his selection committee weren't bound by then. They could pick whoever they wanted, regardless of where the gymnast finished. But when the dust cleared at the end, no one in the arena could disagree with the choices. Elise Ray, Amy Chow, Kristen Maloney, Morgan White and Jamie Dantzscher -- the first five finishers -- were all on the team. Dominique Dawes finished seventh behind Vanessa Atler, but her selection was a no-brainer. Though the 23-year-old only began seriously training on May 1, she made the most progress of anyone during the trials process. Twelfth after the first night at nationals, she climbed all the way to fifth in Sunday night's competition with a series of crisp, clean, elegant routines. Atler, on the other hand, wilted under the pressure. She botched every one of her routines Sunday night, looking up at the roof at one point as if to say, "What is going on here?" Though Karolyi made no secret that Atler was his favorite -- her bubbly personality reminds him of Mary Lou Retton -- he knew she didn't belong on the team. "She has a unique talent, but talent alone is not enough," he said. "And when you weighed the sturdiness she should have versus the athletic performance she gave, it wasn't convincing." Even Atler agreed. "I almost had a sense of relief because deep down I knew I shouldn't be going. I knew I wasn't ready," she said. "It's just not my day. Not my time." The other glaring omission was Shannon Miller, who withdrew after jamming her knees on her opening vault Sunday night. America's most decorated gymnast held out hope Karolyi would leave a spot for her, but she'd given him no reason to do so. Still limited by a hairline crack in her right leg, she competed in only one event at nationals before withdrawing. She competed in all four events Friday night, but aside from a 9.712 on uneven bars, her performance wasn't spectacular. "Considering her physical status, it's hard to consider her ready for the full speed and full pressure of the Olympics," Karolyi said. Besides, he already has two holdovers from 1996 in Chow and Dawes. With the steely nerves and focus that come only from experience, the two can be the calming force when the young ones' butterflies start flying. And like Ray and Maloney, Chow performs some of the toughest skills around. Only she does them so effortlessly she makes them look like something out of ninth-grade gym class. Dawes gives the United States some badly needed star power. She's America's first three-time Olympian in women's gymnastics since Muriel Davis, and she's got seven medals from the Olympics and the world championships. When she steps on the floor, judges take notice. "A lot of people thought it would be Shannon because of her saying she deserved to be on the team," Dawes said. "I didn't think I deserved to be on the team until I earned it, and that's why I never said it. Being on the 1992 and '96 teams doesn't give me the right to step onto the 2000 team. That is how I felt. "But I did think that if I went out and hit my sets, they would know that I could help the country out." She was right. So, apparently, was Karolyi. "No discussion and no doubt," he said. "The athletes played out their positions."
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