U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials : Daggett Comeback Takes Off on Day Lakes Takes Lead

It was the most eagerly awaited launch this side of NASA. Tim Daggett, whose last competitive vault ended with a splintered left leg, roared down the runway and sailed over the horse and onto the mats.

The Salt Palace, host of a number of simultaneous events during Wednesday’s compulsory exercises gave this particular one its undivided attention and erupted in applause at his uneventful landing. Somewhere in the background, a fellow gymnast shouted the audience’s unspoken cheer: “He made it!”

It was the first time he had performed a vault in front of a crowd since the World Championships last October, when the bone of his left leg collapsed onto itself in an otherwise normal landing. He has lived with, in addition to pain and a limp, a peculiar anxiety ever since he decided to continue competing in world-class gymnastics: What would happen when he landed on that rebuilt left leg?

A member of the 1984 gold-medal-winning Olympic team, Daggett must now move on from making that vault to making the 1988 team. It is every bit as chancy. After the compulsory exercises, and factoring in the national championships, which are 40% of the qualifying, Daggett ranks eighth. He has to make up two places in Friday night’s optional exercises to return to the Olympics. It doesn’t look good, but you’d have lost a lot of money betting against him so far.

Daggett wasn’t the only comebacking relic from that 1984 team. Scott Johnson, who broke his hand and underwent surgery two months ago, had what he called his best compulsory meet ever. Like Daggett, he petitioned to bypass the nationals and put all his eggs in the trials’ basket. His chances of making the team are certainly better. After his 58.00 score, he ranks (unofficially) second.

Except for these returning heroes, Charles Lakes might have gotten more attention. The gymnast who has been criticized for his one-hour workouts--”That bothers a lot of people,” he said--went ahead of Dan Hayden in the scoring with 58.10 Wednesday night. Hayden, who was leading after the nationals, failed a strength move on floor exercises, got a 9.00, and dropped back to second.

Lakes, of Newhall, scored 9.80s on high bar and vault and 9.70 on floor. Evidently that one-hour workout is quality time.

Someone pointed out that for the moment, anyway, Lakes was first. “Surprising,” he said. “I look at these guys and I always figure last place. I’m always surprised.”

So far, Lakes hasn’t had to suffer anything more than a mild self-doubt.

For Daggett, these past months have been physically and mentally painful. But perhaps all his anxiety was released when he bobbled on, of all things, the pommel horse. “That’s my best event,” he said. “But there was so much anxiety, so much fear involved, it got to me.” Two events later, he scored a fine 9.45 on the dreaded vault. A lot of what he had gone through was now over.

“Last night was scary,” he said, almost surprised at the observation. “It was my last night on the comeback. Now, reality.”

Interfering with Daggett’s chances of a storybook comeback is the new guard. A high school graduate named Lance Ringnald--he’s headed for Nebraska if not Seoul this fall--is loitering in seventh place in the total scoring. And Dennis Hayden, the overlooked twin in the Hayden family, scored a 9.90 on parallel bars to sneak into sixth place.

Tonight, the women gymnasts enter the trials, doing their compulsory exercises. The Olympic teams will finally be chosen Friday for the men, Saturday for the women.