USA gymnastics team gets fast start in race to 2004
By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
The USA's two-night sweep of China and Romania over the weekend was just the first lap in a race that won't truly hit its stride for another two years, according to USA Gymnastics officials.
The USA men took first place on Friday's opening night of the Pontiac American Team Cup, beating China by 5.675 points. On Saturday, the women's team scored 144.975 cumulative points to edge Romania (143.450).
The first international gymnastics competition since the Summer Olympics, the American Team Cup was treated by the competing nations as an opportunity to give 2004 Olympic prospects an early dose of international competition and to acquaint the athletes with the sport's new code of points.
Following what was considered by some to be a disappointing showing at the Sydney Olympics, the USA Gymnastics program has entered a new four-year cycle, with the 2003 World Championships in Indianapolis, an Olympic qualifying event, as the focal point.
"I thought we did very well in Sydney," said Bob Colarossi, president of USA Gymnastics. "You can't compare Olympics to Olympics; you have to compare what kids do in each four-year period, which is why this competition is so important because it gets us started on that next journey."
The men's team featured three Olympians — Sean Townsend and twins Paul and Morgan Hamm — as well as three other seasoned gymnasts in Mike Dutka, Brett McClure and Guard Young. The Hamm brothers, 18, were the youngest team members.
The women's team was decidedly less experienced with Ashley Kelly (17), Ashley Miles (16), Terin Humphrey (14), Carly Peterson (13) and Hollie Vise (13). Kristal Uzelac, 14, was injured in practice and did not participate.
Humphrey, Peterson, Vise and Uzelac won't be eligible for the next major event — October's World Championships in Ghent, Belgium — because of the event's 16-year age requirement, but all are expected to be strong candidates for the 2003 Worlds and the 2004 Olympics.
"Because of the age rule, we try to get our kids out as early as we can to really get them seasoned," Colarossi said.
The American Team Cup was the first competition to use the newly revised code of points used to grade performances.
"The code follows the direction of the athletes," Colarossi said. "As the sport progresses, the code keeps up."
Both USA men's coach Kevin Mazeika and women's coach Marta Karolyi said they were pleased with their athletes' adjustment to the new code.
"Our results here show that we're a little ahead of everybody, but the challenge is to stay ahead," Mazeika said. "This code favors the very acrobatic and athletic and that fits the shorter, stronger gymnasts. It's a very difficult code of points and we're going to have to work hard on our physical conditioning."
Said Karolyi: "This was a very important competition because the level of difficulty is much higher. We made mistakes, but now we can go home and work hard on those things."
