THE SEOUL GAMES / DAY 7 : Women’s All-Around Gymnastics : Shoushounova Gets Perfect Vault She Needs to Beat Silivas by .025

It may be that women’s gymnastics failed to provide us with that certain pixie, the next Mary Lou, who herself was successor to Nadia, and Olga before her.

But it nevertheless summoned a fair amount of drama in the individual all-around competition. That is to say Elena Shoushounova, the new gold medalist, may not wind up on a cereal box near you, but the 19-year-old Soviet who recently was dismissed as “used up like an old battery,” still sent quite a charge through the crowd Friday, holding up a decision until the final event of the day, her vault.

Shoushounova, the 1985 all-around world champion, who had been dethroned in 1987 by a 15-year-old Romanian, was this time set upon by Romania’s Daniela Silivas, 18, and last year’s third-place finisher. Shoushounova carried a .05 lead from the combined compulsory and optional exercises into the finals.

You may ask what a .05 lead is. It’s nothing, really, a quiver on the dismount, a flutter on the beam, the sheer force of personality in front of the judges’ panel.

The lead, in fact, had disappeared after the first rotation. By the luck of the draw, the two leaders were not only combined in the same group but paired one-two, Silivas behind Shoushounova. After Shoushounova’s 9.90 on bars, Silivas ate up the difference with a 10, her fifth of the meet.

That there would be a nice little dogfight became evident on the next rotation when Shoushounova scored a 9.925. Silivas, right behind her, three times wavered on the beam but still managed a 9.90. Shoushounova wouldn’t know, of course; her back had been turned the entire time.

Silivas’ lead went to .025. And attention, had it not been there already, riveted on the two as they followed each other around. It became apparent that this would come down to the last event, the vault, and that the difference might simply be a certain amount of ice in someone’s veins.

The duel grew even more intense on floor. Shoushounova, who does double-backs on two of her tumbling runs, another tumbling run that includes handsprings off her knees, and ends with a chest drop to the floor, stuck her last run perfectly. There was no quiver; she looked as if she had been planted there. The judges gave her the obligatory 10.

And then, seconds later, Silivas may have bettered it with her own. But the judges had nowhere to go. A 10 was the best she could do and her lead remained at .025, the strength of a smile perhaps.

It was strange to watch these two teen-agers in the next event, the hurly-burly of the four-ring circus hardly interfering with their own little meet. Silivas led off vault, her best of the two being a 9.950. She returned to waiting area and took a seat next to Shoushounova, looking at her rival quizzically.

Shoushounova, who had been placid to Silivas’ jumpiness, sat back and closed her eyes.

As it was for Retton in the ’84 Games, the only way Shoushounova could win was to get a 10 on the vault.

Silivas eventually left.

And then Shoushounova, reigning world champion in the vault, walked to the end of the runway. She starts farther back than any other gymnast. And, with her short brown hair jumping up and down with every stride, she rushed the horse and, doing the same vault Silivas had, stuck a perfect dismount--farther and higher than those before her.

Before the judges could flash a 10, which would be her sixth of the entire competition, she anticipated her gold medal. She turned to the crowd and, for the first time, smiled.

Her score of 79.662 was .025 better than Silivas’ 79.637. You may ask what difference is .025.

As Shoushounova accepted the hugs of teammates and suffered a crush of photographers, who moved up and down the runway with her like a human, clicking clot, Silivas put her head down on the podium, from where she had watched the vault. She looked up, finally, and then covered her face with a towel. That’s the difference.

It was a two-woman race, although 34 others were entered. Among the U.S. gymnasts, Phoebe Mills suffered an uncharacteristic fall on beam and plunged from 6th to 15th place with a score of 78.037. Kelly Garrison-Steves was right behind at 77.937. Surprise of the meet may have been 15-year-old Brandy Johnson, who maintained her 10th position with 78.525.

“Now, the world knows them, the judges know them,” said one of the U.S. coaches, Bela Karolyi. “They have the visibility.”

He said from now on a U.S. gymnast may get the judges’ benefit of the doubt, as when Silivas managed her 9.9 on beam despite mistakes.

As for the principal story, Karolyi amended his cruel assessment of Shoushounova, the drained battery.

“That was a nice fight from Shoushounova,” he agreed. “Shoushounova was tougher. Silivas had major mistakes on beam--.3 in front of the whole world and still gets a 9.90, a dirty shame--but Shoushounova is clearly the winner.”