THE 1987 PAN AMERICAN GAMES : Gymnastics : Daggett Gets Off the Mat

Tim Daggett did it again Sunday. He swung in reverse on the horizontal bar, let go, did a back flip-half twist, safely regrasped the bar and continued with his routine.

It’s called a Gienger, named after Eberherd Gienger, the West German who perfected it 10 years ago. It nearly helped Daggett win his fourth Pan American Games medal. Once, it almost ended his gymnastics career.

“If I couldn’t get up there and do it,” Daggett said, “I might as well just get out of the sport.”

That is almost what Daggett was forced to do when he fell attempting the move in a practice at UCLA Feb. 17. He completed his back flip-half twist, stretched for the bar, but it wasn’t there. He landed on the top of his head, rupturing a disc in his neck.

“Every doctor except one recommended surgery,” said Daggett, a member of the 1984 gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic team. “They said you’ve had a great career; you’ve done a lot; maybe it’s time to end it.”

But Daggett couldn’t let go just yet. He consulted Dr. Burt Mandelbaum of the UCLA Medical Center. Mandelbaum recommended an extensive rehabilitation process, starting with 10 days in traction.

All Daggett could do was stare at the ceiling in his hospital room. The special angled glasses he was given to watch television only made him dizzy.

“I was flat on back; I couldn’t move,” Daggett said. “It was like being a prisoner for 10 days. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.

“It gave me a lot of time to think. It was then that I made the decision that I was going to get going.”

That comeback passed another barrier Sunday at the Hoosier Dome when Daggett won the gold medal in the pommel horse and just missed a bronze medal in the horizontal bar in the men’s individual competition.

Daggett easily won the gold in the horse, earning a combined score of 19.50 to beat Scott Johnson of Lincoln, Neb., by three-tenths of a point. He also had the best score entering the final of the horizontal bar (9.875) but he scored only a 9.650 for a combined 19.525 to drop to fourth. Felix Aguilera of Cuba had the best mark of the day (9.90) to take with gold with a combined 19.725. Earlier in the competition, Daggett won a gold medal in the team and a bronze in the all-around.

“I love this sport too much to quit,” said Daggett, 25. “I remember when I was just a kid walking into a gym and seeing this guy on the high bar swing over and over and over, and then fly off and land on his feet. I said, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ ”

Daggett began his career at age 9. It has taken him to UCLA, to the Olympic Games and around the world. He always understood the dangers of the event, but never did understand the fear until that day in February.

Normally, a gymnast flying out of control on a Gienger can spread out and fall on his stomach or tuck and roll on his back, but not Daggett.

“The Gienger is a difficult move and Tim does a wild one,” said Bart Connor, his former Olympic teammate turned television commentator. “He really flies out there.”

The impact compressed Daggett’s neck, leaving him almost motionless on the mat. “I knew right away how serious it was,” he said. No one had to remind Daggett what a severe neck injury could mean to gymnast.

“Tim realizes that with an injury like that, if he lands on his neck again he could be paralyzed,” Connor said. “He knows he’s taking a risk.”

But when asked about the risks, Daggett shrugged off the question. The dangers of competition were not part of his answer.

“You take risks all the time,” Daggett said. “You cross the street, you’re taking a risk. I realize I only have so long to do gymnastics. I’m nearing the end of my career, and I still have some things I want to accomplish.”

Those start with the World Championships in October in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and continue through to the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. Those goals kept Daggett working through the most agonizing recovery of his career. He has had surgery on his left wrist and twice on both of his ankles, but none of that prepared him for the past six months.

He spent three months in rehabilitation before he even tried to get out on the floor or an apparatus. It was almost like starting over. His left side was weak. Nerve damage prevents his body from always responding to his mental commands.

“There’s so much strength involved in gymnastics, and you lose that very quickly,” Daggett said. “It only takes about two weeks. I was out for months. It was all baby steps.

“This week has been tough. I feel tired. The most difficult thing was just going out there the first time, not so much physically but mentally. I had to prove to myself I was ready.

“I’m still weak. I still have to remember to push harder on my left side on every move.”

Yet as incomplete as Daggett’s recovery remains, his Pan Am performance has given a boast to the U.S. chances in the World Championships. The United States must finish in the top six to earn a chance to defend its Olympic gold medal in Seoul.

Daggett and Johnson are the only members of that 1984 team still competing. Johnson won the Pan Am overall title Saturday, and added gold medals in the still rings and parallel bars, and silver medals in the floor exercise, pommel horse, vault and horizontal bar Sunday.

“This gives me great confidence going into the worlds,” Johnson said. “I’ve done a lot of things in my gymnastics career, but I’ve never won an individual medal in the worlds. I’d like to do that this year.”

For Daggett, the rewards might be less valuable, but none the less important. He realizes that every time he jumps up and mounts the high bar.

Never was that clearer than that day several months ago when he tried a Gienger again.

“It was scary that first time,” he said. “But I just had to jump up there and do it. There was no other way. When I did it and got it over with I knew I was fine. I’d been through the worst.”

Sunday he went out and did it again.