Karolyi Applies Communist Selection Procedure in U.S. Gymnastics "Trials"
August 21, 2000
U.S. Women's Gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi defected from then-communist Romania over 20 years ago, but he still acts like he's working in a state-controlled gymnastics organization. This time, he persuaded the U.S. Gymnastics federation to go along with him in essentially nullifying the competitive selection process for the U.S. Olympic team.
Karolyi caused a firestorm of controversy with new selection procedures that essentially allowed him to handpick the team. Weighted scores from trials (60 percent) and last month's U.S. Gymnastics Championships (40 percent) were combined, but Karolyi insisted that he and his selection committee would not be bound by them. They could pick whoever they wanted, regardless of where the gymnast finished.
In the Women's gymnastics trials held in Boston on August 18-20. Elise Ray, Amy Chow, Kristen Maloney, Morgan White, and Jamie Dantzscher -- the first five finishers -- all made the team. However, Karolyi eliminated sixth place finisher Vanessa Atler from the team, selecting instead Olympic veteran Dominique Dawes who finished seventh behind Atler. Adding insult to injury, Karolyi did not even select Atler as an alternate, choosing instead Alyssa Beckerman.
Atler, 18, won the U.S. National Championship in 1997 and finished second in 1998 and 1999. In the 2000 Nationals, she fell to fourth place. However, this, combined with her sixth place finish at the trials, should have guaranteed her selection for the Olympic team. In eliminating Atler, Karolyi said, "She has a unique talent, but talent alone is not enough. And when you weighed the sturdiness she should have versus the athletic performance she gave, it wasn't convincing." Karolyi did not explain why he considered Dawes more "sturdy" than Atler, even while finishing behind her in the trials.
The other glaring omission was Shannon Miller, who was forced to withdraw after injuring her knee on her opening vault Sunday night. Still limited by a hairline crack in her right leg, she competed in only one event at nationals before withdrawing. She competed in all four events Friday night, scoring a spectacular 9.712 on uneven bars. However, Karolyi said he did not include Miller on the team because of doubts regarding injury. "Considering her physical status, it's hard to consider her ready for the full speed and full pressure of the Olympics," Karolyi claimed.
Another star eliminated due to injuries was Dominique Moceanu, who had to withdraw with knee problems before the trials began.
Karolyi ended up retaining two members of the 1996 team that won the gold medal in Atlanta, Amy Chow and Dominique Dawes. With the nerves and focus that come only from experience, the two can be the calming force when the young ones' butterflies start flying. Like Ray and Maloney, Chow performs some of the toughest skills around. Only she does them so effortlessly she makes them look like something out of ninth-grade gym class. Dawes becomes America's first three-time Olympian in women's gymnastics since Muriel Davis. She's already won seven medals from the Olympics and the world championships.
The women's gymnastics team finished sixth in last year's world championships. If Karolyi can succeed in bringing home the gold medal in the 2000 Olympics, his tyrannical rule over this year's selection process may be repeated in 2004. If not, we will hopefully have seen the last of Karolyi, and the Gymnastics Federation will reinstate the democratic American process in which the top finishers in the trials go to the Olympics. Then Karolyi can go back to Romania or find another communist country that is willing to put up with his prima donna demands. If he didn't want democracy and selection based on merit, he shouldn't have come to America. |