American Cup Gymnastics Meet : Strazheva and Gogoladze Keeping Soviets on Top

Soviet gymnastics does not lend itself to any sleeping bear imagery. The Soviet gymnasts are the best in the world, almost always have been and probably always will be. But since they were missing from the 1984 Olympics, it has been possible to, well, overlook them.

That lapse could be corrected this afternoon at George Mason University’s Patriot Center when the McDonald’s American Cup is concluded. Although their leading scores from Saturday’s qualifying competition do not carry over, Soviets Olga Strazheva and Vladimir Gogoladze are certainly the athletes to beat.

On Saturday, they diverted some of the attention that normally is reserved for whichever prodigy Bela Karolyi has discovered, in this case, defending champion Kristie Phillips. Phillips, who surprised a lot of people when she won this meet last year at the age of 13, thereby inspiring all kinds of comparisons with three-time champion Mary Lou Retton, may be hard pressed to duplicate the achievement. Saturday, she was four-tenths off Strazheva’s pace.

Strazheva, 14, unveiled some crisp routines, including a startling beam exercise that earned her a 9.90 score. Her vault, preceded by a handstand mount, was as close to perfect as possible; she was scored 9.975, high mark of the day. Except for tumbling off the mat on her floor exercise, she might have led by more.

Karolyi, whose one-two punch of Phillips and Phoebe Mills was expected to dominate, was reluctant to concede the meet to Strazheva. “She’s a solid gymnast,” was all he allowed.

The one-time coach of Nadia Comaneci and Retton further allowed that his two gymnasts, who had double the pressure because they had to compete with two other U.S. gymnasts to make the top eight (only two from a country are permitted to qualify), were merely “all right.”

Mills, who still managed to place fourth, behind Romania’s Augustina Badea but ahead of country-mates Jennifer Sey (a non-qualifying fifth) and Hope Spivey (a non-qualifying seventh), broke form on uneven bars, for a 9.275. Phillips was shaky on the beam, her specialty.

Still, the two seemed to galvanize the crowd, most of whom believe the American Cup is called that for a reason.

The men’s competition followed the same general scenario, except that Gogoladze has quite a bit more international experience than Strazheva and was thus less of a surprise. Gogoladze, who had finished second in last year’s Spartakiade, finished with a two-tenths lead over Olympic veteran Scott Johnson. Johnson, who sells shoes and luggage for J.C. Penney in Lincoln, Neb., when he’s not working out, had an excellent day, getting the high score on rings. U.S. teammate Brian Ginsberg placed a distance third, his day flawed only by a small break on the horizontal bar.

The third American, Dominic Minicucci, placed 20th and so will not be among today’s eight male competitors. But the junior gymnast had been a last-minuted replacement and all the USGF wanted for him was the experience.

Should the two leaders from Saturday prevail today, it would mark only the second time in the event’s eight years that an American did not win it. It wasn’t much of a sleep.