THE SEOUL GAMES / DAY 4 : U.S. Women Gymnasts Make Costly Error : Their Medal Chances Diminish After Being Penalized a Half Point

The thing about the East Bloc nations returning to Olympic gymnastics is that their judges have returned, too. And with the heightened level of competition in a true world game comes a similarly intense level of intrigue. The United States loses at this, too.

Their powers of paranoia apparently dulled by the hassle-free 1984 Games, the U.S. women blithely walked from the floor Monday midnight and into a back-room free fall from medal contention before anyone knew what had hit them. That’s called trouble on the dismount.

As far as they knew, they were within .455 of a point of third place East Germany after the actual competition. That was incredible. They were jubilant. With only the optionals to go, they suddenly were in a serious medal chase. Could the U.S. women really make that difference up? Of course.

“These kids are stunters,” Coach Bela Karolyi said.

Said Kelly Garrison-Steves, thinking more of the competition than herself: “That’s just one fall.”

And then the news was delivered afterward that an East German judge, apparently protecting her own--”You may interpret it any way you want,” said a U.S. official, sarcastically--had stuck them with a .50-point rules penalty, dropping them to .955, “two falls,” behind the East Germans. If the United States wasn’t plunged out of medal contention by this, it was at least shown the direction.

Here’s what happened: The Soviet women, as expected, pitched a no-hitter in Monday’s compulsory exercises, leading the defending champion Romanians by nearly a point, going into Wednesday’s optionals and team championships. Their loss in the World Championships will surely be avenged.

The East Germans, in a later session, appeared to have settled into bronze territory, their accustomed place in women’s Olympics. All’s well in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Then, the lightly regarded U.S. women’s team took the floor in the night session and right away scored a 49.075 in floor exercise. Then a 48.600 in vault.

The U.S. women, only 3 of whom were in the World Championships--and none of whom finished higher than 31st--were not embarrassing themselves. In fact, including the 2 teen-agers who were competing in the junior program this time last year, they were surprisingly solid.

The scoreboard then showed the standings to reflect each team’s position after two rotations. That caused a stir. The United States was in third position, ahead of East Germany.

Karolyi looked over to Ellen Berger, the East German woman who happens to be the director of judges. Karolyi was happy to see that “She is frightened, no question about it. There is desperation.”

This is all the validation a coach needs, to see desperation in the enemy’s face.

Karolyi remained smug even after Berger had caused a commotion during the uneven bars competition, immediately after those scores were shown. Berger believed she had seen U.S. alternate Rhonda Faehn remain on the podium during Kelly Garrison-Steve’s routine.

Faehn’s job, besides being a heartbeat away from a beam routine, is to remove the springboard after Garrison-Steve mounts the apparatus. Calling her for remaining on the podium’s edge was technically correct, but something like calling a man safe at first because the fielder’s foot was not actually on top of the bag.

Minutes passed while Berger consulted with the judging panel, which included East German judge Christa Herrmann as well as Jackie Fie of the United States. This was a kind of harassment, but fully acceptable within the world politics of gymnastics.

“Probably the intent was not to rattle us but to hold us back,” Karolyi said. “No question about it. She put pressure on the judges. She is not a newborn.”

But as Karolyi was chuckling over the consternation his team had caused, regaling reporters he met in an outside hallway, he heard news that Berger had conjoined a jury panel of 4 immediately after the meet and pushed forward a .50 deduction for the United States for having too many gymnasts on the podium. He was stricken.

“Oh, my God,” Karolyi said. “That is sick. That’s not normal anymore, I am telling you. Good God! I can understand if somebody push or pull. Oh, this is sick.”

Karolyi was so rattled that he began speaking Romanian. The reporters tilted their heads quizzically. He stopped himself. “That means I’m under tremendous pressure,” he explained, slapping his forehead.

Though there were protests aplenty--USGF executive director Mike Jacki cornered Berger, who looked nervously up and down the hall for a way out, and insisted that every minute be replayed to see that nobody else had made so grievous an error--nothing actually happened in the overnight interim. The deduction stood.

“Yuri Titov (FIG president) said he feels it is a silly rule,” Jacki said Tuesday. “The penalty is way too severe. More appropriate would have been a warning. The real purpose is to prevent coaches from staying on the floor. The bottom line is that if we were in eighth place, it would have been overlooked.”

Jacki’s rhetoric had cooled from the night before when he called it a “Mickey Mouse” call and so had his resolve. “We accept it.”

Meanwhile, Berger was determinedly unabashed. Found near a practice hall in the stadium on Tuesday, she demurred answering any questions, saying she couldn’t speak English. But then, working on her own, she found an interpreter.

Asked if it wasn’t indeed a “Mickey Mouse” call she said: “The rule is for anybody. It’s in the code of points. The coach should not allow it, he has to know.”

She said this wasn’t the first time it happened, either.

“It happened in 1981 in Moscow (World Championships),” she said.

Really?

Yes, she said cheerfully, “Also to an American.”

For now, the United States is resigned to taking a moral victory and no other.

“This happened because we challenged them,” Jacki said.

It’s extremely unlikely that the U.S. women can challenge further and make up a full point in optionals, even though they are grouped in the final session Wednesday with the top 3. They seem satisfied, however, to have alerted the world to their growing power.

The United States, which suffered just 1 fall on beam (Missy Marlowe) and 1 on uneven bars (Chelle Stack), might have been poised to make up some ground Wednesday. Karolyi’s kids have the disadvantage of beginning on floor, the easiest event, and finishing on beam, the toughest. But he declared the U.S. optionals were superior to East Germany’s in at least 2 events.

“They have always been fragile on beam and are surely not great floor performers.”

That little battle may have to wait for another World Championship tournament, when the rest of the world is newly aware of U.S. potential and the United States is again mindful of world politics.

Meanwhile, the Soviet women are so good they require no interference, alleged or otherwise. Their 6 gymnasts all placed in the top 16, and 3 were in the top 5. The 1985 world champion, Elena Shoushounova, scored a 10 in compulsories to keep her within .05 of Romanian leader Daniela Silivas, who scored 2 perfect routines.

The all-around will be the only dogfight in these Olympics. The Romanians appeared thin after that. Reigning world champion Aurelia Dobre was in ninth place.

Highest U.S. contenders were Brandy Johnson, 9th, and Phoebe Mills, 13th. Garrison-Steves was 18th going into the optionals. Any and all could advance to the all-around competition, which selects the top 36 based on combined compulsory and optional scores. But keep an eye on Rhonda Faehn. Ellen Berger will.