U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL LOS ANGELES 1991 : Bouncing Back : Gymnast Chelle Stack, 17, Quit the Sport, but Now Eyes Another Olympics

Once the hips appear, life can get a little complicated for the elite female gymnast, who, lore dictates, performs better the smaller and lighter she is. Therefore, the younger the better.

It’s a maddening theory to the nearly ancient Chelle Stack, who, approaching 18, is a couple of years older than the majority of her successful colleagues.

“I don’t think it’s a matter of me keeping up with the younger gymnasts, but (of) a coach being able to keep up with me and pull the ability out of me,” Stack said while at UCLA, where she is competing in the Olympic Festival.

“I’m more mature now. And I need a more mature way of working out.”

Stack thought that her maturity wasn’t working out well under Houston Coach Bela Karolyi, who is a consistent producer of Olympic-level gymnasts. So for the second time in nine years, and for the same underlying reason, she quit Karolyi’s gym.

The two haven’t talked since.

“Bela and I are too much alike and we were constantly knocking heads,” said Stack, who left Karolyi in April. “We are both headstrong, we both want our way, and it was hard for us to work together.

“At the beginning of this year, I got mononucleosis and was out for about three weeks, so I wanted to return slowly to training. But Bela wanted me to return full on and go right back to it. I couldn’t do it.”

So in April, Stack not only quit Karolyi but the sport as well. After five years on the national team, she decided to pack it in. Everyone else had already done so. Stack was the only member of the 1988 U.S. Olympic team who was still competing. She had been a gymnast for 13 years.

Then Stack got a call from Debbie Kaitschuck, who coaches gymnastics at Cypress Academy in Houston. Kaitschuck urged Stack not to quit and offered to help. She told Stack that she had unlimited potential and a skill level she hadn’t begun to tap.

“The thought of being a two-time Olympian is pretty motivating,” Stack said. “Just thinking about that made me want to keep going, so I started training with Debbie.”

When Stack was 14, she was considered to be another Karolyi star. She finished fourth in the all-around competition at the 1988 Olympic trials, held a month after her 15th birthday, and became the youngest member of the U.S. team.

At Seoul, only the top three finishers on each team competed in the all-around competition. Stack fell off the parallel bars during her routine and finished fourth, failing to qualify for the all-around. But her performance in team competition was solid enough to help her team nearly win the bronze medal. The United States was edged by East Germany.

Since then, Stack has been consistently one of the best gymnasts in the country, but never the best. In the National Championships last month, she was 12th, which qualified her to compete in the Pan American Games at Havana next month and to try out for a spot on the team for the 1991 World Championships team--and then for the 1992 Olympic team.

Her new coach has raised her hopes. “Debbie doesn’t think I have ever reached my peak,” Stack said. “She thinks that is still ahead of me.”

Karolyi, who operates a virtual Olympic factory at his gym in Houston, also has another practice facility on his ranch in Texas. That is where he was this week, sequestered at the more private facility training his top gymnasts, including Betty Okino and Kim Zmeskal, the top two in the country.

Karolyi, who did not return calls regarding Chelle, has five gymnasts on the 20-member national team. And while Stack said the keen competition in training can help a gymnast to improve, she said it can also be detrimental.

“It’s like a little war there. Whoever is doing the best gets the attention, and you work hard for that attention,” she said. “The girls are friends and all, we get along and do things together, but the competition is fierce.”

Stack’s unhappiness at Karolyi’s gym began long before she quit in April. Returning from Seoul, Stack had been looking forward to a two-week vacation that Karolyi had scheduled for her. But an important exhibition meet caused the vacation to be canceled. It was not rescheduled.

Stack said she was upset and burned out from the intense training before the Olympics. After six years with Karolyi, she thought she needed a break. “You don’t take breaks at Karolyi’s--it’s not acceptable,” Stack said.

She wanted to quit Karolyi and gymnastics, but her parents intervened. They did not allow her to leave the sport, but after lengthy talks, they allowed her to leave Karolyi.

“I went on a vacation to Pennsylvania, stayed with some friends and had fun,” Stack said.

Feeling refreshed, she moved to Huntington Beach and began training with Don Peters. But more problems ensued. It was the first time that she had lived away from her family, and it was difficult for her. Stack’s mother moved West, but the living arrangement began to wear thin on Stack’s family, who were not used to being split up.

After one year, despite her happiness with Peters as a coach, Stack returned to Houston and resumed training with Karolyi.

Originally from Birmingham, Ala., Stack moved to Houston when her father transferred there with IBM, a choice made so that Stack could train with Karolyi. She said that was just the beginning of countless sacrifices her parents have made on her behalf throughout the years.

Stack will repeat as a senior this fall at Westfield High in Houston. Because of her absences while training, she didn’t earn enough credits to graduate. After the 1992 Games, she wants to compete on the intercollegiate level.

Stack would like to combine the expert instruction she has already received from Peters and Karolyi with the type of coaching she believes she now needs. Already, Stack is sounding more adult.

“I need to be able to take responsibility for my training, to take care of myself,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons for my moving on.

“I left Bela on bad terms, but I guess that’s just part of the ways of life. To get ahead, these kinds of things will happen sometimes.”