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Wednesday, September 27
China wins gold; U.S. finishes fifth
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- Let the party begin: The Chinese
finally have the medal they've always longed for. The Americans,
meanwhile, are going home empty-handed.
Again.
|  | | Zheng Lihui's strong performance on the horizontal bar helped China clinch the gold medal. |
China, the underachieving silver medalist in the last two
Olympics, easily won the men's team gold medal Monday night. The
squad with so many good gymnasts it could afford to leave some home
scored 231.919 points, setting off the all-night victory party
that's been in the works since the team arrived.
"Getting a gold in this event is just a dream for us," said
Huang Yubin, the Chinese coach. "We've fought for this for 40
years. We hoped we could take this aspiration into the new
millennium. All drinks taste of champagne."
Ukraine won the silver medal, but it wasn't even close to
catching the Chinese as they finished a whopping 1.613 points
behind. Russia, the defending gold medalists, took the bronze.
There will be no parties in the United States -- unless pity
parties count. Looking for their first team medal since 1984 -- and
their first in a non-boycotted Olympics since 1932 -- the Americans
blew it, finishing fifth.
The Americans still have chances at individual medals. Three of
them advanced earlier to Wednesday's all-around finals, while one
advanced to the vault final and one to the floor exercise final.
They were 1.036 points away from a bronze medal, farther back
than they were when they finished fifth in Atlanta.
"It takes a long time to earn respect. It's a lot more
difficult to earn that than an Olympic medal," said John
Roethlisberger, who will end his long, stellar career without any
Olympic hardware. "We have tremendous respect from the world, and
that's good enough for me."
After the finals, U.S. coach Peter Kormann said he he will
retire when his contract runs out next month.
"I've been doing this for 25 years," he said. "I'm a little
burned out."
The night was a bitter disappointment, especially since they
finished fourth in the preliminaries. Despite a subpar night from
five-time national champion Blaine Wilson, the Americans were only
0.448 points out of third.
But the scores from prelims were tossed out for Monday's finals,
and the Americans' momentum went right along with them.
"I thought we could have won a medal, for sure. We could have
tonight, easily," U.S. coach Peter Kormann said. "We got a bad
break on vault at a bad time, then we got bad break or two on high
bar. Take those away, and we're right in there."
There aren't any do-overs in this competition, though. The
Americans got off to a bad start on their first rotation, the floor
exercise, and put themselves in such a deep hole they could never
recover.
Wilson and Sean Townsend each stepped out of bounds, and Stephen
McCain did it twice. Morgan Hamm slipped, almost landing on his
backside. Not huge mistakes, but in a sport where medals are won
and lost by tenths of a point, there isn't any room to give.
Roethlisberger, the emotional center of the team, couldn't even
bear to watch his bumbling teammates, burying his face in his hands
on the sidelines.
"We had some mistakes on most events," Kormann said. "In a
meet like this, you just can't have that."
And things didn't get much better. On the still rings, Wilson's
strongest event, he took a hop back on his landing. Grimacing in
disgust as he saluted the judges, he took a slap at the support
wires as he left the podium.
On the vault, Townsend hit the horse hard and flew through the
air, somersaulting twice as he soared. And then he landed -- flat on
his backside.
By the time the fourth rotation was over, the Americans were
almost 1{ points out of the medals and more than a point out of
fifth place.
"It's disappointing, but we went out there and fought hard,"
Paul Hamm said. "We did everything we could. When you do the best
you can and end up fifth, that's the way it is."
The Americans finally got some life in the parallel bars,
gliding between the apparatus with such ease they looked as if they
were playing on the jungle gym back home.
They had four scores of 9.7 or better, and Wilson gave a sigh of
relief after finishing his routine, which earned him a 9.777, his
highest score of the night.
But the respite was brief. Going first on the high bar, Paul
Hamm fell twice. Then Wilson fell off, and all that was left was to
put on the warmups, watch the final routine of Roethlisberger's
career and trudge home.
"I'm not going to judge this team's success by anybody else's
standards," said Roethlisberger, who blew a kiss to the crowd and
turned to look at the arena before he walked off the podium one
last time. "They're A-1 in my book."
In everyone else's book, that honor belongs to the Chinese.
They've wanted Olympic gold to go with their five world titles
for so long now. They came to the Olympics as the favorite in 1992
and 1996, only to fold under the pressure and finish second to the
Russians.
This time would be different, they vowed. Though they finished
second to the Russians in the preliminaries, they came out Monday
night like they owned the place. They took a lead after the first
rotation and never looked back.
They were slapping high-fives all night, pumping their fists
like they were cocky Americans. By the time the fourth rotation was
over, they led by more than a point and the rout was on.
They were so far ahead that they let their final gymnast simply
drop off the still rings instead of doing a dismount.
Egged on by enthusiastic fans who yelled "Go for it, China!"
over and over, things got so rowdy the Chinese were actually
huddling together for group hugs. This from a people who come from
a country where kissing in public is just now being accepted.
As the last rotation was winding down, the Chinese broke out in
big smiles, congratulating each other and turning to salute their
cheering fans. They walked out of the arena some waving their fists
in the air, others flashing No. 1.
Let the party begin; the gold is theirs.
"This gold is for all of the people in China," said Zheng
Lihui, the second-highest scorer on his team.
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ALSO SEE
Men's gymnastics results
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