By Thomas Stinson, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Houston -- Dominique Moceanu has been armed with a passport since the
advanced age of three months, having already traveled to Brazil and Belgium,
along with pilgrimages to visit relatives in Romania. Those were for
practice. The big trip is now.
The one to the future.
It is the nature of women's gymnastics that its heroes are re-invented every
four years, owing to the Olympic schedule as much as estrogen. This cycle's
ballot has just one new name, a 4-foot-5, 70-pound Texan by way of
Hollywood, Tampa and, a generation removed, the Carpathians. She turns 14
Saturday, the day before the opening ceremonies of the World Gymnastics
Championships in Sabae, Japan. And to listen closely is to hear a young
woman eager to take on the world.
"I have all these feelings inside," she said. "I'm excited more than
anything because this is a big meet and I want to see what's out there, to
see other competitors. This is one of the biggest events of my life."
The youngest U.S. national champion in history, by beating out doyennes
Shannon Miller and Dominique Dawes in the process last month, Moceanu may
well be the focus of the U.S. team by the time the Atlanta Olympics arrive.
She has been paired the past four years with Bela Karolyi --was
instrumental, actually, in luring the legendary coach back from retirement
and into the world arena --and already has displayed a guile uncommon in
American gymnasts.
A veteran of all of three senior competitions, she received standing
ovations at the U.S. team trials three weeks ago, when she pulled her first
perfect 10.0 from one judge in the vault. No U.S. gymnast has ever made such
progress so fast.
"She's got the fabric, the material to do it," said Nadia Comeneci, the
Romanian acrobat, Karolyi graduate and three-time gold medalist at the '76
Montreal Games, who has watched Moceanu's career with fascination. "She's
got the personality. She definitely has the talent. She's special. She's not
only a gymnast. She's a special kid."
"There's something in her personality," said Karolyi, who has given up early
attempts to shield his protege from public expectation. "She is saying, 'I'm
going to make it. I'm Dominique.' "
There is a genetic advantage. Both parents, Dumitru and Camelia, were
Romanian gymnasts. Following their moving to the U.S. in 1980, they waited
until their Hollywood-born daughter was 3 before calling Karolyi. His
advice: Enroll her in local classes and wait, which they willfully followed
until 1991. Dominique was 9 as she watched Kim Zmeskal, a Karolyi student,
perform on television from the World Championships in Indianapolis.
"I knew my dad had a connection with Bela, but I didn't know what," Moceanu
said. "And I just told him, 'I really want to be there someday. I want be
like Kim and Nadia. I want to be like all them.' And he said, 'Okay, we'll
go.' And I'm like, did I hear that right?"
The family moved, piecemeal, to Houston. By year's end, the pixie was
working next to Zmeskal and eventual Olympian Betty Akino as they prepared
for Barcelona. When the 1992 Games so soured Karolyi that he vowed never to
return to the international scene, Moceanu stayed on. A year ago, she was
the youngest girl to win the junior national championship, a feat she
duplicated in her first attempt at the seniors last month. Now comes her
first crack at the world in Japan, the latest stamp on her dog-eared
passport.
"All different emotions, all different thoughts," he said. "I'm excited. I'm
ready to go."
Moceanu, 13, Claims U.S. Gymnastics Title
Saturday, Aug. 19, 1995
NEW ORLEANS - Dominique Moceanu had the crowd - and the senior women's
all-around title - in her pocket by the time she finished her floor exercise
Friday night at the National Gymnastics Championships.
Moceanu, at 13 the youngest female ever to win the title, was appearing in
her first seniors event. She scored 78.450 points.
"I wasn't nervous," Moceanu said. "I was ready for this and it was fun."
Moceanu's championship was all but assured when Shannon Miller, the leader
after the compulsories, fell from the balance beam during the first rotation
of the optionals. Miller finished at 78.250; Jaycie Phelps was third at
77.730.
Dominique Dawes, last year's champion who was in sixth place after the
compulsories, finished fourth at 77.520.
"I wasn't peaking at this competition," said Miller, who finished with a
9.850 on the uneven bars. "I've put a lot of new stuff in my routines that I
wanted to work on and then I had trouble on the beam. I hope I can peak at
the Worlds."
The top 16 finishers will travel to the World Team Trials Sept. 8-9 in
Austin, Texas.
Salvaging the Bronze
Young U.S. team places 3rd
By Andrew Pollack , The New York Times
SABAE, Japan -- The U.S. women's gymnastics team overcame inexperience and
an injury to Shannon Miller and managed to squeak to a team bronze medal in
the world championships.
Romania won the team gold, and China, making its strongest showing in years,
took the silver medal in the tournament, which is considered a major preview
of the Summer Olympics in Atlanta next year. The top 12 teams here earned
the right to take part in the Atlanta Games.
The United States, which had been in second place after the compulsory
exercises, lost ground during the optional exercises Saturday evening
because of some sloppy performances. It held on to third place against a
surging Russia in a battle that was decided on the last vault by 14-year-old
Dominique Moceanu, the national champion. After landing poorly on her first
attempt, Moceanu scored a 9.612 on the second, barely enough to allow the
United States to finish ahead of Russia by 0.016 points.
Dominique Dawes and Amanda Borden did not compete here because of injuries,
and the United States fielded a team with some relative newcomers like
Theresa Kulikowski and Mary Beth Arnold.
Then on Friday, the 18-year-old Miller, who has won more Olympic and world
championship medals than any other American gymnast, landed short on a
dismount from the balance beam in practice and hurt her right ankle.
She and her coaches thought about having her sit out the floor exercise and
vault. But partly because the team was short one competitor for the floor
exercise, she decided to compete and scored a 9.725, despite removing some
of the more difficult tumbling from her routine.
Over all, Miller turned in the sixth-best individual score, well below her
norm, and Moceanu, who made some nervous errors in her first international
tournament, had the eighth-best score. But individual scores in the team
event only determine the qualifiers for the all-around individual
championship. That will be held today, with the participants starting with
clean slates.
Bela Karolyi, the U.S. coach, spoke of the bright side of finishing third in
spite of the injuries.
"It's very encouraging," he said. "In this situation we managed to do this.
I'm sure Atlanta is looking very promising for us."
This year's world championships are the first to be held in Asia, and
perhaps it was fitting that China in many ways stole the show. After the
compulsory round earlier this week, China was in fourth place, behind
Romania, the United States and Russia. But it won the optional exercises,
paced by the stunning performance by 16-year-old Mo Huilan, who turned in
the best overall individual scores. Mo scored a 9.937 on the vault and a
9.900 on the balance beam.
Romania was strong as expected, led by Lavinia Milosovici, the gold-medal
winner in the floor exercise and the vault at the 1992 Olympics in
Barcelona, Spain. She was followed by her teammate Gina Gogean, who led the
compulsory round but lost her balance on the beam Saturday night. Russia was
led by Dina Kochetkova, who finished third over all. Lilia Podkopayeva of
Ukraine was the second highest individual scorer.
TUMBLING'S NEW TITANS
Tuning up for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the American pixies of '92 display
maturity, experience and a bit more poundage
BY JILL SMOLOWE/NEW ORLEANS
One could breathe easier this time, without the uncomfortable sense that if
a gymnast fell, she might shatter physically or crumble emotionally. Most of
the top competitors at last week's National Gymnastics Championships in New
Orleans' Superdome were sturdy, poised high-school graduates. Three were
veterans of Olympic competition, Shannon Miller, 18, who placed second in
the all-around competition; Dominique Dawes, 18, who came in fourth; and
Kerri Strug, 17, who finished fifth. The intervening years have added height
and weight to their frames and a maturity to their faces that lent new
elegance and expressiveness to their performances. The only Lilliputian in
the 38-woman field was 4 ft.-5 in., 70-lb. Dominique Moceanu, who finished
first by .200 of a point. And even she, at 13, was something of a '92
veteran, having been a standout back then in the junior pack. All this bodes
well for Atlanta. "We'll have a more mature Olympic team than ever before,"
says Jackie Fie, international technical director for USA Gymnastics. "We
want to show we have healthy, well-adjusted young women who have a life."
Which, perhaps, is a polite way of saying USA Gymnastics wants to avoid a
repetition of the '92 Games, when spectators, sports columnists and even
some coaches were appalled by the joyless intensity that pervaded the
competition. It is also an indirect response to a book by San Francisco
journalist Joan Ryan, Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, that dwells on the least
savory aspects of elite gymnastics. Ryan decries the sport's preference in
recent years forprepubescent bodies and the subsequent eating disorders
among many world-class gymnasts. She describes ruthless coaches who
virtually starve their charges, athletes who are forced to compete with
injuries, and dangerous tricks that have caused fatalities.
This year, in a departure from past practice, the competitors' height and
weight are not listed in press releases, and several coaches took pains to
note to reporters that they have no scales in their gyms. "We didn't like
the stigma that we were driving people out of the sport," admits Kathy
Kelly, women's program director for USA Gymnastics. "We're making an effort
to respect the athletes." That put out of bounds questions about the effects
of widening hips and budding breasts, though the more womanly shapes were
evident in the scanty leotards worn by the competitors, who in '92 averaged
just 4 ft. 9 in. and 83 lbs. This year Miller, at 5 ft. and 94 lbs., hardly
stood out in the beefier pack. The question now is whether Olympic
judges--and other teams--will make the same adjustment, favoring artistry
over perkiness. The teams from Romania and the former Soviet republics,
which have posed America's stiffest challenges, are also expected to field
older competitors in '96. Come 1997, they will have little choice: in that
year international rules will raise the minimum age of competitors from 15
to 16, a direct result of the '92 spectacle.
Meanwhile, the New Orleans competition still offered the sort of carping and
subjective judging that break gymnasts' spirits and infuriate fans. After
eighth-finishing Amy Chow, 17, received a modest 9.425 out of a possible 10
for a lukewarm compulsory floor exercise, Moceanu earned a 9.8 for a routine
that ignited the crowd. Sniffed one judge: "If Chow got a 9.425, Moceanu
deserved an 11." But in the interest of creating a cohesive U.S. team, even
flamboyant rival coaches Steve Nunno and Bela Karolyi kept their egos
somewhat in check. Nunno, who in '92 boasted, "Bela is an '80s coach; I'm a
'90s coach," last week publicly welcomed Karolyi back to the sport after a
two-year retirement with the words "Bela will always be the leader."
U.S. coaches and athletes alike say the prospect of competing in '96 as the
home team has been a huge incentive to stay in the sport. The old-timers,
says Peggy Liddick, one of Miller's Oklahoma City coaches, "have a special
bond. They're like sisters. They were very young in '92. They really do
appreciate each other." Given the coach hopping that is endemic in
gymnastics, many of these young women have trained together, and all, of
course, have competed countless times against one another. "I think it's
great we've all stayed in this long," says Miller, who three years after
delivering monotone interviews with eyes cast down at the floor, now looks
reporters in the eye and even ventures an occasional smile. Says Liddick:
"Our motto for '96 is 'There's no me in team.'" And if the coaches and
athletes can live by it,that too will mark a new level of maturity for the
sport.
Copyright 1995 Time Inc. All rights reserved.
Moceanu maintains top qualifying spot at World Team Trials
U.S. gymnastics champion
Dominique Moceanu held the top spot in qualifying for the World
Championships with strong performances Friday night in the compulsory
portion of the World Team Trials.
Shannon Miller was second and Dominique Dawes third with Saturday's
optionals remaining in qualifying for the World Championships, while John
Roethlisberger remained the leader in the men's competition.
The top seven men and women in the competition, which includes scores from
the national championships in August, qualify for the World Championships in
Sabae, Japan, on Oct. 1-10. The team trials count for 70 percent of the
women's totals and 60 percent of the the men's scores.
Monceau had the top performances in the vault (9.9 of 10) and the balance
beam (9.9), and among the best in the floor exercise (9.862) and uneven bars
(9.687). Miller led the floor exercise (9.9) and uneven bars (9.9) and also
did well in the vault (9.825) and balance beam (9.775).
Theresa Kulikowski made the biggest move, climbing from 14th in the
nationals to eighth after the compulsories, paced by the third-best
performance on the balance beam (9.662). Amy Chow moved from eighth to fifth
after the second-best performance on the uneven bars (9.712).
Roethlisberger began the meet almost three points ahead of Mihai Bagiu, but
Bagiu closed the gap to 85.534-84.562 with strong performances in the pommel
horse (9.250), horizontal bar (9.650) and vault (9.6).
Moceanu Tops Miller in Qualifying for World Championships
(c) 1995 Copyright The News and Observer Publishing Co.
(c) 1995 Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas (Sep 10, 1995 - 05:45 EDT)
In a battle between past and
present national gymnastics champions, Dominique Moceanu edged Shannon
Miller on Saturday night for the top qualifying spot in the World Team
Trials.
Moceanu, the current champion, and 1993 winner Miller will be joined by 1994
champion Dominique Dawes, Jaycie Phelps, Kerri Strug, Amy Chow and Doni
Thompson on the U.S. team for the World Championships in Japan on Oct. 1-10.
U.S. champion John Roethlisberger led the men's competition and will be
joined by Blaine Wilson, Mihai Bagiu, Kip Simons, Jair Lynch and Josh Stein.
John Macready and Brian Yee will compete for the final spot and the
alternate position.
Roethlisberger, who won the national meet in New Orleans, led the horizontal
bar competition in Saturday's optionals with a 9.8 and was among the best in
the pommel horse (9.5) and still rings (9.5).
Wilson, the second-highest qualifier, had the top score on the rings (9.6)
and a strong performance on the horizontal bar (9.7) to move past Bagiu.
The scores from the meet counted for 60 percent of the qualifying total,
with the other 40 percent determined in the national meet. For the women,
the meet counted 70 percent and the nationals 30 percent.
Moceanu had the highest score in any event with a 9.962 on the vault. She
had a 9.95 in the floor exercise moments after Miller scored a 9.9. Miller
had the top score in the balance beam (9.912) and shared the best score on
the uneven bars (9.837).
Vaulting Towards Olympic Gold...
The U.S. Women's Gymnastics Team is looking stronger than ever for the '96
Summer Olympics in Atlanta. In addition to boasting a few returning veterans
from the '92 Barcelona Games such as Shannon Miller and Dominique Dawes, the
team will also include several rising stars who have come to prominence with
eye-opening performances this year. One of these rising stars is gymnast
Dominique Moceanu (moe Che an oo), a talented young standout trained by Bela
Karolyi, the legendary gymnastics coach who helped mold Nadia Comaneci, Mary
Lou Retton and Kim Zmeskal into champions.
Dominique's parents, Camelia and Dimitry Moceanu, were both Romanian
gymnasts who moved to the United States. Dreaming that their daughter would
one day become a champion gymnast, they approached Karolyi to train
Dominique when she was only three and a half years old. Karolyi told them to
talk to him again when she was a bit older. At age 9, Dominique and her
parents moved to Houston, Texas to be near Karolyi's gymnastics camp, at
which time he took over as her coach.
Not long after the move, their dreams of seeing their daughter compete and
win at the international level began to come true. At age 10, Dominique
became the youngest gymnast ever to make the Junior National team. Later,
she became the youngest U.S. Senior National Champion.
This extremely talented 14 year-old won the all-around title at the 1995
United States Gymnastics Championships. Many people in and around gymnastics
have already begun to compare her to the legendary Nadia Comaneci. The two
share many similarities: the Romanian lineage, the beautiful face
highlighted by brown eyes, the rock-solid confidence, and most importantly-
the talent.
After meeting at an exhibition in 1993, she became close friends with Nadia
who served as Dominique's mentor and "big sister." Dominique's outgoing
personality is one characteristic that distinguishes her from Nadia. The
younger gymnast likes to revel in the spotlight. After winning the U.S.
Gymnastics Championships in 1995, she loved the attention she received in
front of the TV cameras. It was in 1993 after a gymnastics exhibition that
her confidence began to shine through. Dominique had yet to win a major
competition, yet she signed autographs with Nadia Comaneci. One autograph
read "Dominique Moceanu 1996 Olympic Champion, for sure." Although extremely
confident, Dominique said " I like the attention, but I'm not going to get a
big head or anything." She lets her fluid gymnastic performances do the
talking for her. In 1995, she placed 1st in the All Around competition at
the Visa Challenge as well as 1st in the All Around at the Coca Cola
National Championships.
Coach Bela Karolyi hopes he can shield Dominique from the pressures that
customarily descend upon an athlete who is expected to be the U.S. favorite
to win Olympic gold. Some say that Kim Zmeskal's disappointing performance
at the 1992 Barcelona Games can be attributed to the expectations the media
placed upon her. But Karolyi and a waiting nation are hopeful that, twelve
years after Mary Lou Retton won gold in the All Around competition at the
Los Angeles Games, Moceanu can put America back atop the medal podium when
the Olympics return to the United States next summer.
Andree Pickens from Houston, Texas, training at Cypress Academy, has been
added to the McDonald's American Cup lineup. She was the alternate to the
1995 World Championships Team.
She's coached by Deana Parish and Debbie
Kaitschuck.
Theresa Kulilowski from Colorado Springs, Colo., has also been added to the
McDonald's American Cup lineup. In 1995, at her first internatio
