UCLA Gives U.S. Gymnastics Team a 1-2 Punch

UCLA’s Chris Waller and Yefim Furman believe that the Goodwill Games beginning Friday will help revive American men’s gymnastics, which has been in the doldrums since the United States won a gold medal at the 1984 Olympic Games.

Waller, the NCAA high bar champion, is a member of the four-man U.S. team that will compete at Seattle. Furman, an assistant to UCLA Coach Art Shurlock, will be an assistant for the U.S. team.

Waller and Furman believe that the Soviet Union, the dominant gymnastics team of the 1980s, will be difficult, if not impossible to beat. Both said the United States has a good chance of finishing among the top three teams.

Waller, who qualified for the Goodwill team by finishing second in the all-around at the U.S. Gymnastics Federation championships in Denver, said that the U.S. victory in 1984 was not tarnished because the Soviets did not compete.

The U.S. team was led by Bart Conner, who finished first in the parallel bars, and by former UCLA gymnasts Peter Vidmar, Tim Daggett and Mitch Gaylord. Vidmar tied China’s Li Ning for first on the pommel horse.

The 1984 U.S. team “was as good, if not better, than anyone around and U.S. gymnastics was right in there with the rest of the world,” Waller said.

Furman, who competed for the Soviet Union in the 1972 Olympics and coached in his homeland, later immigrated to the United States. He said that the lag resulted in an 11th-place finish for the United States in the 1988 Olympics and seventh- and eighth-place finishes in the 1988 and 1989 world championships.

U.S. men gymnasts peaked in 1984, but members of the Olympic-championship team gave up competition to capitalize on their success and there “was no continuation,” Furman said.

Waller said that U.S. gymnasts have worked hard since 1984, but he believes that “grass-root programs for training athletes in that period of time” became antiquated, but have since improved.

In Waller’s opinion, there is nothing old-fashioned about the U.S. Goodwill team. “We have a great team, we should be in the top three,” he said.

Other team members are John Roethlisberger of the University of Minnesota, Trent Dimas of the University of Nebraska and Lance Ringnald, a member of the 1988 Olympic team.

Roethlisberger, whose father, Fred, is the head coach at Minnesota, led the Golden Gophers to the NCAA championship this year and finished first in the all-around at the USGF championships. Waller said that he admires John Roethlisberger because “his strength is consistency” and that Dimas and Ringnald are also excellent performers.

Waller said that he, Dimas and Ringnald should make the United States “very strong in the high bar.” Waller, a native of Mount Prospect, Ill., won the 1990 NCAA high bar title, and Dimas was the runner-up. At the USGF meet, Dimas and Ringnald tied for first in the high bar and Waller was third after his hand grip (similar to a baseball batting glove) came loose midway through his routine, forcing him to start over.

He said that the team’s “routines are more difficult and our techniques are better than U.S. gymnasts of the past. I’m encouraged. We have a good team, the meet is in the United States, and I think we’ll do great and win some medals.”

As for his own prospects, Waller said that he feels confident going into the games. “If you’re not confident, you won’t compete well. You’ll be looking over your shoulder, and you’ll fall. I feel like I’m in great shape. I’m just a bit fatigued from the long college season.”

Furman said that the U.S. team should be “much better” than the one that failed to win a medal in the 1986 Goodwill Games. He thinks that Waller, who has completed his eligibility at UCLA, is capable of winning medals in the high bar and on the pommel horse. Waller won an NCAA title on the pommel horse in 1989.

Furman said the Soviet Union has so much depth that it could “put two or three teams on the floor, and all of them would be good.”

Waller and Furman feel that the United States will benefit because the games are in Seattle instead of Europe or Asia.

“The judging (at international meets) is very political, but a lot of Americans will be judges (at Seattle),” Waller said. “So that is going to help our gymnastics a lot.”

Furman said that competing in Seattle “will be our plus. It’s like having the home-court advantage in a college basketball game.”

Waller, 21, underwent heart surgery six years ago to repair a constricted aorta, a condition that gave him high blood pressure and made his legs weak. Surgeons opened up an artery and later closed it with a patch, he said.

His legs became much stronger after the operation. “Four months after surgery, my vertical leap was four inches higher than before,” he said. A year after the operation, he became the youngest gymnast (at 16) to compete in the USGF championships.

After the Goodwill Games, Waller and UCLA teammates Scott Keswick and Chainey Umphrey will compete for the United States against the Soviets in a meet Aug. 3-5 in San Jose. Waller said he hopes to continue to compete with the national team for two more years and in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

Waller said he is grateful that he was able to compete in college gymnastics because it “helped me tremendously. I got a lot stronger, physically and mentally.

“But I finished (college competition) at a perfect time. I can focus on the big (international) meets and be concerned more with doing the more difficult routines. When you have a meet every weekend in college, you can’t develop new tricks.”