Perils Half a World Away Stalk Gymnast

Perched on the high bar before an audience at Arizona State this weekend, leg muscles taut and biceps holding steady, gymnast Amir Kadury had to muster all his powers of concentration to keep from worrying about the Iraqis attacking his homeland.

Kadury, a top gymnast and scholar at Cal State Fullerton, is an Israeli student from the suburbs of Tel Aviv. And events of the past few days, half a world away, have made it difficult for him to focus on the rigorous art of gymnastics. One false move, and he could injure himself on the horse exercises or fail to make a graceful drop at the end of a 1 3/4 somersault.

Last Thursday, as team members were driving to the meet at Arizona State University, they heard over the radio about the first missile attacks on Tel Aviv. Kadury had to work hard, with help from Coach Dick Wolfe and the team’s “mental trainer,” to keep the news from affecting his performance.

“I thought exactly about what Coach Wolfe told me, that my family in Israel . . . has enough worries without having to think of me failing my school or my gymnastics, and so I tried to be strong for them,” Kadury said.

And indeed, he was strong enough to score a solid 9.3 on the high bars--not the top score, but an accomplishment for a student whose hometown was being bombarded by Scud missiles launched by the Iraqis.

At practice Wednesday, Kadury--a muscular 24-year-old with an angular face and a crew cut--joked with his teammates and easily performed handstands and backward flips on the blue-carpeted floor of the Fullerton gymnastics room. But he said that his thoughts are not far from Israel.

“In Israel, because it is so small and the family institution is so strong, you just feel like it is happening to you even though you are not there.”

His parents are semi-retired, his brother runs a music school and his sister manages the family telecommunications business. While no family members have been injured in the missile attacks, Kadury said, some Scuds have fallen close enough to their home that “they heard a pretty good boom.”

After four years on the Fullerton campus, the university community has become a second home to Kadury. He has applied for duel citizenship, plans to attend graduate school and may eventually settle here, he said. But Israel remains in his thoughts.

“I left all my family and all my childhood friends--I basically left everything there.”

Since the war started last week, Kadury has carried a Sony Walkman, even in a speech class, listening for the latest developments in the fighting.

One night last week, he didn’t sleep at all because he was glued to his television set.

In between his 3 1/2 hours of gymnastics practice every day, other classes and his after-school job, he has been on the telephone, trying to get news of his family back home.

“It’s really upset him a lot,” Wolfe said. “We’ve really talked about it a lot, about what’s going on over there and whether he should go back--all the way to him having a difficult time focusing and concentrating on his gymnastics.

“There are a lot of different voices coming into his brain right now.”

Kadury is a senior and a computer-science major with a 3.6 grade-point average. Four years ago, he came to California, speaking very little English and looking for a gymnastics scholarship after having served a mandatory three years in the Israeli army.

Accompanied by a coach and an interpreter, he went from one college to another--trying out for different gymnastics coaches.

“As soon as I stepped onto this campus, it felt like home,” Kadury said. “And when I met Coach Wolfe, the chemistry was really good.”

Kadury made the 1987 Israeli Olympic team, but that year Israel decided not to send a team to the Seoul games. He is now working toward making the team in 1992.

But for a gymnast, stress can be a big enemy.

When Tel Aviv was first attacked, Kadury’s mother, two sisters, a brother, and their spouses and children were there. His father was in Los Angeles. Hearing the sketchy early reports on the radio of the team’s van, Kadury was frustrated that he was not back home to help his family.

“It’s just really a heavy feeling in the middle of your chest,” he said. “It’s a really heavy, sad feeling, very hard to explain. I was really scared. The first thing I want to do is call and go home and make sure everything is OK.”

But he couldn’t, and his coach spent hours talking it over with him.

“I told him, ‘If there’s something you can do, I’m sure you’ll be man enough to do it,’ ” Wolfe said. “If they need you over there--which they have already told him they do not--you will know whether you have to go.”

Over the last few days, Kadury has been doing exercises suggested by the team’s mental trainer.

One particular night, when the television images of Israeli wounded haunted him and kept him from sleeping, he lay on the floor on his back, staring at a point on the ceiling, focusing all his thoughts and energies on it. While doing that, he took measured, even breaths, and contracted his muscles for a few seconds and then relaxed them.

“You cannot think of the past or the future. You have to be right here, right now,” he said. “This is something that’s very important in gymnastics, as well as in other things in life.”

His mother and a sister flew to Los Angeles Tuesday, partially to get away from the danger. But on Wednesday, his sister returned to help out the rest of the family because his brother-in-law may be recruited for the military.

Calls to his parents help him to keep in touch and to worry less about the situation, he said. Also, his teammates and his fiancee have given him a lot of support.

During practice on Wednesday, Kadury showed what concentration can do. Dressed in blue sweats and a white, sleeveless top, he executed a near-perfect “Arabian” 1 3/4 somersault, landing gracefully on his feet.

His teammates applauded.

“Good, Amir,” Wolfe said. “Make it happen here!”