GYMNASTICS / MARYANN HUDSON : Trials, Tribulation for U.S. Women

The customary confusion in women’s gymnastics has arrived, raising the possibility that the U.S. Gymnastics Federation routinely schedules chaos as part of its Olympic year.

The controversy is basically about the same things as in 1988: Who will coach the team? Who will be on the team? How will the team be chosen?

Just the basics.

The current craziness began before the Olympic trials started last week in Baltimore, when one of the coaches, Bela Karolyi, exploded at a news conference when he was asked for a medical update of Betty Okino, one of his Houston gymnasts.

Karolyi launched into a 10-minute diatribe that seemed to have little to do with Okino, focusing instead on the havoc that lay ahead in the Olympic team selection process.

“I don’t want to be part of that nightmare,” he said.

However, as it turned out, Karolyi was talking about Okino, who has not competed in any of the qualifying Olympic competitions because of a broken vertebra. Still, as the fourth-ranked female gymnast in the world, she qualifies for the Olympic training camp in Tampa, Fla., July 8-10, where the women’s team will be picked. There, she will compete against the seven top finishers from the Olympic trials.

At Tampa, seven coaches and two USGF officials will observe the gymnasts in practice and pick the six-member team and an alternate on July 10, the day the team leaves for another training camp in France.

Each coach, with one exception, gets as many votes as he has athletes at the camp. Karolyi will have three gymnasts in camp, Kim Zmeskal, Kerri Strug and Okino, but he will not get a vote for Okino.

The night the trials ended, Mike Jacki, executive director of the USGF, met with Karolyi and the other coaches. In that three-hour meeting, Jacki told Karolyi that he and the other coaches wanted Karolyi to be U.S. coach.

Jacki said the other day: “At the meeting, Bela said he was not interested. But before he left, he said that of course he was interested but wanted to get some things straight beforehand.

“I think Bela wants to know what authority he will have as the coach, and what is expected of him. Also, I think he wants the issue of Okino decided apart from him accepting the coaching position. With her vying for the team, he doesn’t want the final process to be clouded by his being coach.”

Another gymnast heading for the camp, Michelle Campi, is also recovering from an injury. Campi qualified because her score at the U.S. Championships, qualifying meet for the trials, would have put her in the top five at the trials.

Jacki said that by July 7, Karolyi and Rick Newman, who coaches Campi, need to tell the USGF that their athletes are injury-free and prepared for camp. If one or both are not, the USGF will replace either or both.

“We need to be sure we have seven athletes that are injury-free in camp,” Jacki said.

Okino update: Karolyi said he was surprised upon returning to Houston after the trials to learn how much Okino had improved.

“Before I left (for Baltimore), Betty was doing only isolated movements and connections, but when I got back she was pulling full routines on the bars,” Karolyi said.

Add team selection: The method for picking the women’s team has been criticized by some who say it puts undue pressure on the women, who have to be camera-ready at all times.

Others wonder why the USGF holds women’s trials if they are not used to select the team.

The men’s team was picked at the trials, the top six finishers making the team and the seventh becoming the alternate.

“The best policy is one that says, ‘These are the athletes and we are putting these guys on the floor,’ ” said Francis Allen, coach of the men’s team. “Decide. The longer you put if off, the more animosity you create.”

Jacki, though, says that the women’s selection process is the best method.

“Historically, when the team is picked at the trials a month ahead of the Olympics, the athletes have not been in as good of shape as they were at the trials,” Jacki said. “If you look at the results of the men’s and women’s team, it appears that the women have been more effective doing it this way. It may change for the men in the future.”

Team selection was the underlying controversy at the trials, but the surface chaos was about whether Shannon Miller of Edmond, Okla., really beat world champion Zmeskal. Steve Nunno, Miller’s coach, was annoyed that Karolyi would not accept Miller’s victory. Nunno said throughout the competition that Miller and Zmeskal are neck-to-neck in ability.

But Karolyi contended that Miller won because she did not compete at the U.S. Championships, a qualifying meet.

Zmeskal actually out-pointed Miller at the trials but when Zmeskal’s scores were figured in from the U.S. Championships, it dropped her final score below Miller’s.

Jacki, trying to explain the scoring, took the score sheet to Zmeskal after the final press conference. Zmeskal listened to his explanation and said, “I guess I should have skipped the U.S. Championships.” Zmeskal paused before adding, “Just kidding.”

Lost amid the bickering is that the United States, for the first time, has two superstar women to send to the Olympics.

She’s there: For the last two years, those who follow gymnastics have been watching Dominique Dawes, an up-and-comer who has finally arrived. As the hometown favorite at the trials in Baltimore--she lives in Silver Spring, Md.--Dawes delighted the crowds with difficult routines and finished a strong fourth.

Dawes, 15, competed with intense pain from a sore right ankle and didn’t hold back. Her beam routine was seemingly better than the score, a 9.862. The crowd thought so and booed the judges. Even Karolyi thought so, encouraging Dawes’ coach, Kelli Hill of Hill’s Angels in Gaithersburg, Md., to protest, but to no avail.

Dawes’ final event was the floor exercise, and it earned her a score of 9.837 and a standing ovation. When she finished, she ran to the arms of Hill and cried.

“I was crying because I was happy all this pain was worth it,” Dawes said.

If Dawes makes the team and competes in Barcelona, she will be the first black American female gymnast at the Olympics.

“I kind of understand what that means,” Dawes said. “One of my team coaches, Steve Bedford, talked to me about it. He said that I might change things for other little kids. Kids who were watching the TV could believe that they could do anything.”

The coaching award at the trials goes to Kevin and Rita Brown of Brown’s Gymnastics in Orlando, Fla. They settled down Wendy Bruce after she fell off the balance beam.

Bruce, 19, the oldest competitor at the trials, underwent arthroscopic knee surgery last year and has fought back through a couple of other injuries to stay competitive.

Before the optional competition, Bruce was in seventh place and maintained that until she fell off the beam and scored a 9.262. Visibly shaken, she finished her routine and started to cry.

“I thought I was out of it,” she said.

But the Browns pulled Bruce to the side, calmed her and sent her on to the last event, the floor exercise, where she performed a solid routine and scored 9.825.

She finished seventh and will go to Tampa.