From: rachele@nysa.cs.rice.edu (Rachele Harless)
Subject: Re: Women's Olympic Gymnastics
Keywords: gymnastics
Organization: Rice University, Houston
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 20:28:21 GMT

Kim Kelly is a fantastic gymnast.  I feel very badly that she did not
make the team... however, I also feel very badly for Hilary Grivich,
who did not make the team, and is perhaps one of the best "team
players" in the US.  If any of the girls currently on the team had not
made it, I would feel badly for them too.  The point is that the USA
is fortunate to have an abundance of outstanding gymnasts, all of whom
deserve to compete in the Olympics, but only six per country may
compete.

The fact is, however, the team must be cut to six gymnasts and one
alternate.  This is a difficult task, unenviable in my eyes because of
the inevitable controversy that will follow.  The US has found, in the
past, that selecting gymnasts solely based on their ranking after
Trials has given poor results.  In 1988, the US Champion Dan Hayden
did not even make the team because he missed a release on high bar...
maybe we could have done better than 11th with the National Champion
on the Olympic team -- go figure.  In 1991, 1990 (and in 1992 also)
Nat'l Champ John Roethlisberger had an uncharacteristically poor
competition and so had to sit out Worlds.  It was not that his
performance had definitely deteriorated, as earlier that year he had
claimed the NCAA Championships, arguably as equally prestigious as
that of National Champion.

In 1991, the US changed the rules for the women, with the last
qualification phase being the "subjective" assessment of the national
coaches.  This resulted in a 2nd place finish, a best-ever for the US
women in a World Championships.  Again, the USGF has employed a
subjective last phase, and the US women are currently in second place.
While this is largely due to an improvement in the women overall as
opposed to the selection procedure, the current process certainly
hasn't hurt.

The current process is no-doubt-about-it very debatable.  I met many
many people at the Trials in Baltimore who had a strong distaste for
it.  But I think that this is due largely to the fact that it is
different from before, and so hasn't been accepted yet.  New-life
finals, with no scores carrying over, was thought of negatively in
1989, but now very few even question it.

Basically, Dominique Dawes, Shannon Miller, Kerri Strug, and Kim
Zmeskal were all assured of spots on the team.  Of the remaining four,
Betty Okino has won two individual medals for the US in a world
championships, only to be outdone by Zmeskal (four).  Michelle Campi
competed beautifully for the US at the 1991 Worlds finishing
preliminaries in 17th place, and finished 3rd at this year's US
Championships.  Wendy Bruce did not compete much in 1991 (injuries,
financial problems, temporary retirement), but at the 1989 Worlds she
finished 3rd among Americans and in 11th place overall, and she won
this year's US Classics (Kim Kelly was 7th, I believe).  Kim Kelly
also did not compete for the US in 1991 at the Worlds (she didn't make
the team), and the 1989 Worlds she fell off the beam (ironically at
the same part of the routine that Zmeskal fell off on yesterday) and
finished last of the US competitors.  The problem comes in when you
see that Kim Kelly did better than Wendy Bruce in both Nationals and
Trials.  Bruce is weak on the beam and thus her shaky showing, but in
many cases a gymnast who is very strong in three events is better than
one who is good on all four during a team competition.

Please don't misunderstand... I think Kim Kelly is a very good
gymnast, who has an *outstanding* mount on bars and a powerful vault.
I am writing this purely from a fan's perspective, so I could easily
be ignorant in some aspects.  I have never competed in gymnastics, or
any other sport for that matter.  But to cry foul on the US selection
process, claiming that it is "subjective", does not make sense to me
when one considers that gymnastics is, inherently and undeniably, a
subjective sport.

Rachele Harless
In no way representing the USGF or anyone else on the US Olympic Team,
or even Rice University for that matter!  =)


Newsgroups: rec.sport.olympics