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Tuesday, September 19
U.S. rebounds to finish fourth
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- The Americans were definitely the most
spirited and rowdiest bunch on the floor. But this is the Olympic
gymnastics competition, not the world cheerleading championships.
|  | | Coach Octavian Bellu hoisted Andreea Raducan after the Romanians won their second-ever Olympic gold. |
Finally showing the fire Bela Karolyi wanted so badly, the
United States just didn't have the tricks it needed to get on the
medals podium Tuesday night. Four years after winning the gold
medal in Atlanta, the Americans finished fourth in the women's team
final competition.
World champion Romania won its second gold medal, clinching it
easily with 154.608 points. Russia won the silver and China took
the bronze.
Still, for a U.S. team that finished a humiliating sixth at last
fall's world championships and then showed all the emotion and
skill of a YMCA tumbling class in Sunday's preliminaries, this was
progress.
"I believe they started catching up," said Karolyi, who again
watched the competition from the press seats. "They started
building the confidence that's so much needed in the competition.
They started getting united as a team, looking like a team and
working like a team.
"That's very, very important. And that's probably the biggest
success of the night."
But Karolyi can't take all the credit for this one. With his
bear hugs and unique way with words, the coach who led Nadia
Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton to gold has often been criticized for
being manipulative and hogging the spotlight.
It was no different Tuesday night.
"He takes the credit when we do good, and blames everyone else
when we do bad," said Jamie Dantzscher, who was ripped by Karolyi
after the preliminaries. "It's so not fair."
While Karolyi tried to coach through osmosis or ESP or something
from the stands, fidgeting and muttering through the competition,
he wasn't the difference, said Elise Ray, the national champion.
"It's a two-way street," she said. "He had a huge part to do
with it. Coming out of retirement, that was important to us. But it
wouldn't have happened without our desire to succeed."
The Romanians had an even bigger desire to succeed. They'd never
beaten the Russians in an Olympic competition, finishing second to
them so many times they were staring to get an inferiority complex.
Their only gold medal came in 1984, when most of the Eastern bloc
boycotted the games.
"It's very nice to win," said Maria Bitang, the assistant
Romanian coach. "The Russians had a lot of pressure, and they made
many mistakes."
The Romanians, on the other hand, were nearly perfect Tuesday.
The team is so deep -- from 1996 Olympian Simona Amanar to world
champion Maria Olaru to tiny Andreea Raducan, the newest Romanian
darling -- and they don't make mistakes. Or at least not many.
They built a solid lead and then had to wait out the last two
rotations until the Chinese and Russians finished. It was probably
the most enjoyable wait they've ever had.
With the pressure on, the Russians and Chinese stumbled.
Svetlana Khorkina, the defending world and Olympic champ on bars,
fell off, a slip so ghastly it drew a gasp from the crowd.
And how's this for bad karma? The Russians finished up on the
floor, the same spot they occupied when they lost the gold to the
Americans in 1996. Back then, janitors could have used a squeegee
to sop up Khorkina, who dissolved in tears as she watched Kerri
Strug do her famous vault.
Khorkina had the waterworks going again Tuesday night as she
watched teammate Anna Tchepeleva step out of bounds for a
less-than-rousing start.
By the time Khorkina took the floor, she needed a 9.992 for the
Russians to win. She didn't get it, earning a 9.787, sending the
Romanians into a frenzy of cheers and hugs.
The U.S. women, meanwhile, politely clapped and filed out of the
arena.
"We did so good today," Dantzscher said. "We did our best and
that's all we can ask for."
This is the first time since 1988 that the American women have
failed to medal in the team competition. But after being left for
dead last fall -- their second last-place finish in the medals round
at worlds -- they're not complaining.
"The girls did what they could," coach Kelli Hill said. "We
had nowhere to go but up. So we decided to have some fun."
So lifeless during the preliminaries Sunday, the Americans
looked like they got personality transplants in the last few days.
Either that or a good tongue-lashing from Karolyi.
"Don't ask me," Karolyi said. "You won't write it down."
Whatever it was, it worked. They huddled after each event,
breaking with a chant of "U-S-A!" They screamed and cheered each
other on.
National champ Elise Ray was the head cheerleader, waving a tiny
American flag at the fans as the team went to the floor exercise,
its last rotation.
She was a bundle of energy the rest of the night, too. Gripping
the Cookie Monster good-luck charm she shares with Dominique Dawes
so hard its little eyes bugged out even farther, Ray paced like
Karolyi does when he's on the floor.
When Dantzscher finished her elegant, high-flying bars routine,
sticking her landing so hard it sent her ponytail bobbing up and
down, Ray greeted her with "Whoa, baby!" as she came off the
podium.
The Americans' spirit on the floor was as impressive as their
exuberance off of it. During the preliminaries, they had looked
wooden on the floor exercise, showing no expression whatsoever.
On Tuesday night, they pranced. They played. They even flirted.
Midway through her routine, Dantzscher raised her eyebrows at the
judges and gave a look that bordered on sexy. When she finished,
she pointed her finger at the panel playfully.
The new, improved Americans were a big hit with the judges.
Dantzscher scored a 9.712. Strutting through a jazzy version of
"Putting on the Ritz," Kristen Maloney earned a 9.737.
"Attitude. It was attitude," Karolyi said. "There was no
technical difference between the first and second night. There were
some better preformances, obviously, but attitude was the
difference."
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ALSO SEE
Women's gymnastics results
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