Seoul ’88 / Randy Harvey : Gymnastic Star Search Has Yet to Discover Another Retton

Mary Lou Retton was one in a million, the first U.S. female gymnast to win an Olympic gold medal, any medal for that matter, when she finished first in the all-around competition in 1984.

Even then, her victory came against a field diminished by the boycott. Except for Romania, the traditional powers in women’s gymnastics were absent. Retton might still have won, but we will never know.

Yet, as soon as the 1984 Summer Olympics ended, the search began for another Mary Lou.

Considering the way the Soviet and Romanian women have dominated the sport, this endeavor could last until some time in the 21st Century. It may take that long for the United States to discover another Retton, someone who can compete with the Eastern Bloc gymnasts.

But some of this nation’s brightest gymnastics minds declared the search completed two years after the L.A. Games.

With their input, Sports Illustrated, on its Sept. 1, 1986 cover, heralded “The New Mary Lou.”

Underneath that headline was a picture of Kristie Phillips.

Never mind that she was 14.

Never mind that she had not beaten the world’s best gymnasts in a competition that really counts.

Never mind that there were two years remaining before the 1988 Summer Olympics.

The expectations were too high, the burden too great.

After last month’s McDonald’s U.S. Championships, in which the results counted 40% toward determining the U.S. Olympic team, Phillips was in ninth place.

Only the first six will go to Seoul. To be among them, Phillips must have the scores to pass three of the women ahead of her at the Olympic trials, which begin Thursday at Salt Lake City.

“I guess I got a little big-headed,” she said recently of her decline, which became evident with her disappointing performances last year in the Pan American Games and the World Championships. “I was up there, and everyone thought I was the best. I slacked off and didn’t work as hard.”

But it appears as if her problems were as much physical as mental. As she grew up, she also began to fill out. That happens to teen-agers. As a result, she bears little resemblance today to the pixie that showed so much promise in 1986.

Frustrated, she left Bela Karolyi, Retton’s former coach, in January to train with Don Peters, the Olympic women’s coach, in Huntington Beach, and then returned four months later to Karolyi in Houston.

Weighing in at 93 pounds for the U.S. Championships in Houston, she said that she has been on a diet of tuna fish, boiled eggs and water.

“I decided after dedicating 12 years of my life to gymnastics, I wasn’t going to let it be wasted,” she said. “I’m not thinking about boys, movies or dates. The only thing on my mind is doing my best.”

Even if she makes the team, her experience should serve as a lesson for the U.S. gymnastics community. Mary Lou Rettons have to be developed, not created.

Kim Jae Sun, South Korea’s National Assembly speaker, is expected to send a letter today to North Korean government officials, inviting them to Panmunjom, a village near the demilitarized zone, to discuss North Korea’s participation in the Olympics.

He reportedly will suggest that the meeting take place during the second week of August, about one month before the Sept. 17 Opening Ceremony at Seoul.

With speculation that Cuba and Ethopia, two of the five countries supporting North Korea’s demand to play a co-host’s role in the Games, are reconsidering their decision to boycott, North Korea has indicated a desire to reopen discussions about its participation.

Though it probably is too late for North Korea to stage all five events that it was initially offered, International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch said last week that the individual sports included in earlier negotiations--archery and table tennis--might still be held there.

Park Seh Jik, president of the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee, said North Korean athletes will be welcome in Seoul.

“We have athletes’ quarters reserved for North Korea, and full considerations are being made for its delegation for all occasions, including the Opening and Closing Ceremonies,” he said.

Heavyweight weightlifter Jeff Michels gained notoriety after testing positive for a banned substance, testosterone, during the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela.

He took his case to court, winning a decision that enabled him to compete in the 1984 Olympic trials, in which he earned a place on the U.S. team as an alternate. But the IOC would not allow him to participate in the Games.

In 1986, he suffered a stress fracture in his back and was told by doctors that he might never be a world-class lifter again.

But, two weeks ago at the Olympic trials in Boca Raton, Fla., he earned the right to represent the United States as a heavyweight at Seoul.

“Two years ago, I never would have believed that I could make it to Seoul,” he told The Chicago Tribune. “I’ve worked 10 long years to get to go to the Olympics.”

Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who ran 9.83 to break the world record in the 100 meters at the World Championships last summer in Rome, has not accomplished much since because of injuries.

He pulled a hamstring during an indoor race last February in West Germany, then suffered a tendon injury during his first outdoor appearance two months ago at Tokyo.

His comeback is scheduled to begin Friday at Ottawa at the Canadian Olympic trials.

If he runs like he talked at a press conference last week in Toronto, officials are advised to look for the motor.

On a possible meeting in the 100 with Carl Lewis Aug. 17 in Zurich: “Just watch. We will see when the time comes. I don’t think about losing.”

On Lewis’ time at the U.S. Olympic trials of 9.78, not allowable for record consideration because it was aided by a strong prevailing wind: “His first 40 meters were bad, like always. In legal conditions, that would have been, maybe, a 10.05. If I was there, I would have run a 9.4.”

On Florence Griffith-Joyner’s world record time in the 100 of 10.49 at the U.S. trials: “There’s no way Florence ran a 10.49. I just don’t believe it. A 10.71, I would believe. That would have beat me 10 years ago.”

Olympic Notes

Athletes to watch at the gymnastics trials, scheduled for Thursday through Sunday at Salt Lake City, include Scott Johnson and Sabrina Mar. Favored to make the Olympic team, they couldn’t compete last month at the U.S. Championships in Houston because of injuries. The results in that competition counted 40% toward determining the team. They petitioned into the trials, in which their results will count 100% toward their final scores instead of 60% as for the other gymnasts. In the same position is 1984 Olympian Tim Daggett, who competed in some disciplines at the championships. But, because he is still trying to regain his form after suffering a broken leg at the 1987 World Championships, he asked that his performance at the trials determine whether he makes the team. . . . Second in the all-around competition at the U.S. championships, Kelly Garrison-Steves, 21, is the elder statesperson of women’s gymnastics. The champion, Phoebe Mills, is 15. A senior at the University of Oklahoma, Garrison-Steves works out with the Sooners’ football strength coach and is the only woman allowed into the weight room.

Greco-Roman wrestler Jeff Stuebing of San Luis Obispo was one of 10 athletes given permission last week by the International Olympic Committee to compete for his adopted country in Seoul. Stuebing wrestled for Canada at the 1984 Summer Olympics before becoming a U.S. citizen. But Stuebing will not be going to Seoul. In the 180 1/2-pound division, he beat John Morgan of Minneapolis, 6-0, in the first fall of a best-of-three match at the trials in June in Pensacola, Fla. But the match was stopped because of a neck injury to Morgan and not resumed until Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Morgan won twice by 1-0 scores. . . . The U.S. water polo team begins play today in an eight-nation tournament in Duisburg, West Germany. The team travels to Becej, Yugoslavia, the next week for another eight-nation tournament. The United States, ranked fourth in the world, will meet world champion Yugoslavia in both tournaments. “More than anything, we have to prove to the referees that we are legitimate gold-medal contenders,” team captain Terry Schroeder said. Coach Bill Barnett said the team probably will be cut from 15 players to 13, the maximum for Seoul, after the second tournament.

A U.S. Navy group, including the 45,000-ton battleship New Jersey, arrived at the harbor in Pusan, South Korea, last week and will take part in military operations during the Olympics. That is part of Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci’s pledge to provide security for the Games against a North Korean military attack. . . . Of the 10 weightlifters selected to represent the United States at Seoul, Coach Jim Schmitz said Mario Martinez of San Francisco in the super heavyweight class “has a very good shot at a bronze medal.” Middleweight weightlifter Karl-Heinz Radschinsky, who won the gold medal in the Los Angeles in 1984, has been dropped from the West German Olympic team because of his conviction for dealing anabolic steroids. He was fined $19,000 and handed a two-year suspended prison sentence.

Unconfirmed reports from the Soviet Union say that men’s basketball Coach Alexander Gomelsky has been told that he will be fired unless his team wins an Olympic medal and that he already has agreed to coach in Tenerife, Spain, next season. . . . After winning the 800 at a Mobil Grand Prix meet last week in Verona, Italy, Morocco’s Said Aouita confirmed that he will run the 1,500, and maybe the 800, at Seoul. He was the 5,000-meter gold medalist in Los Angeles.