For Scherbo, there is nothing that steels him for competition like the memories evoked by the forbidding streets of his birthplace. With only a bronze in the all-around, it's time for Scherbo to get back on his horse. On Gerasimenko Prospect, where Vitaly lived in a small apartment with his new wife, Irina, in 1992, a trusted friend stole his post-Olympic earnings. On Storojevskaya Prospect, along the Svislach River, where Irina walked their daughter, Kristina, in a stroller, passersby wondered aloud what price the baby's new clothes would fetch if they swiped them. Petrol is gone.
Heat is off.
Everywhere happens crime. And the food so scarce. Nevertheless, Scherbo returned to that place to prepare himself for the Atlanta Games. And after the near tragedy that struck his family in State College last winter, leaving him in emotional tatters, he was counting more than ever on the grim reminders in Minsk to stoke his competitive fires. She recalls nothing of the moment when her BMW sedan slid sideways into a telephone pole.