Atlanta 1996 / A weekly update on the Summer Games, at 33 days and counting : Gymnasts Might Go to Atlanta Without Doing Anything

Because of injuries, Shannon Miller and Dominique Moceanu are contemplating bypassing the vault, the uneven bars, the balance beam and the floor exercise at the upcoming U.S. Olympic trials for a new routine--the crapshoot.

Miller, bothered by a persistent sore wrist, and Moceanu, having suffered a stress fracture in her shin at last week’s national championships, are considering withdrawing from the trials and gambling that their national scores will be high enough to earn them Olympic team berths.

“I don’t have any paperwork, but both have notified us about their situations,” said Kathy Kelly, women’s program director for the U.S. Gymnastics Federation. “I’ve been in contact with them daily. They have to make a decision, and it’s going to be a hard one for them. It’s a roll of the dice.”

U.S. Olympic qualifying procedures allow for gymnasts unable to compete because of injury or illness to bypass the trials and try to qualify on the strength of their national championship scores. At last week’s nationals in Knoxville, Tenn., Miller placed first with an overall mark of 78.38, and Moceanu finished third at 78.22. If Miller and Moceanu decided to sit out the trials, June 27-30 in Boston, their scores would have to hold up among the top seven for them to earn a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.

In 1992, Michelle Campi qualified for the U.S. team this way after breaking her elbow the night before the trials. Campi’s national championship score would have placed her among the top seven competitors at the trials, enabling her to make the team.

Miller won the ’96 nationals despite a wrist problem that had prevented her from participating in a full competition for nearly a year. “Anybody who was at the championships could see what kind of pain she was in,” Kelly said. “She’s a tough young lady.”

Heel and shin injuries clearly affected Moceanu’s performance in Knoxville. Moceanu, 1995 U.S. champion, favored her sore heel on landings, costing her points in each exercise.

Kelly said she expected to hear decisions from both gymnasts by the middle of this week.

FACTOID

Among the foreign athletes beginning to arrive at Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport this month are 230 horses for the equestrian competition.

NEWSMAKER

It’s hard to know where to start in summing up swimmer Annette Salmeen’s senior season at UCLA.

A 3.9 grade-point average majoring in chemistry? An Olympic berth in the 200-meter butterfly and the 800 freestyle relay? Or following in a line of talented Bruins by recently being named female athlete of the year at UCLA?

Salmeen, who plans on attending graduate school in biophysical chemistry, acknowledged being surprised by the last two accomplishments.

At the Olympic trials in March, she made the relay team by knocking 2.5 seconds off her previous best time in finishing in 2:01:18 for fourth the 200 freestyle, an event in which she had never reached the finals in a national meet.

“That was probably more of a surprise,” Salmeen, 21, said. “It took about two, three days for that one to sink in. I’ve been changing my stroke a lot in both my freestyle and butterfly. Then I had swum my best times at the Pac-10 championships a couple weeks before [the trials], so I knew it was going good.”

Of the UCLA athletic award, she said, “It definitely was an honor. My freshman year, I never imagined that I would be in the same shoes as the person who won it my freshman year, [softball pitcher] Lisa Fernandez.”

Salmeen is following Fernandez again--this time to the Olympics in Atlanta. “I like what I do--I like school as well as swimming--so it probably wasn’t as difficult as it might have been,” Salmeen said. “But I won’t lie, it was a lot of hard work. I’ve been going from 6 in the morning to 11 at night every single day.”

LAUREL WREATH

Bob Ctvrtlik of Long Beach, captain of the U.S. men’s indoor volleyball team, is asking people to donate 50 cents for each of his spikes during the Olympics--usually between 10 and 20 a game--to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

THORN WREATH

A panel of experts for Inside Sports magazine selected equestrian as one of the five easiest events in the Summer Olympics. Not for the horses. (For the record, the other four were archery, shooting, yachting and track’s 100 meters.)

Olympic Scene Notes

Although organizers in London rescinded Michael Johnson’s invitation to run the 400 meters on July 12 at a Grand Prix meet, he has informed his agent that he has a written contract and will be there on time to run. He planned the race as part of his Olympic training and does not want to alter his schedule at this late date. The organizers said they don’t want Johnson in the race for fear of demoralizing the British competition. . . . Concerned about finances, Athens might give up track and field’s 1997 world championships. Helsinki, the site of the initial worlds in 1983, is the leading replacement candidate.

The U.S. women’s basketball team will set its roster today. The 12th berth is expected to go to 6-foot-4 international veteran Venus Lacy or 6-7 Connecticut senior-to-be Kara Wolters. Before Saturday’s exhibition against Russia, Lacy, 29, appeared to be the front-runner. “Venus is more of an enforcer, more of a big body,” Coach Tara VanDerveer said. “She has tremendous intensity and really, I think, gives our team something special.” . . . Rich Corso, U.S. water polo coach, is finding it difficult to trim two players so that he can announce his 13-man roster to the U.S. Olympic Committee by the Wednesday deadline. He took all 15 to tournaments in Germany and Italy.

Light-heavyweight Antonio Tarver gets most of the publicity, but observers say welterweight Fernando Vargas of Oxnard has been the most impressive fighter in the U.S. boxing training camps. . . . Kim Rhode, 17, of El Monte won a gold medal in the women’s double-trap competition at a World Cup shotgun match in Lonato, Italy. . . . Wei Wang, a U.S. table tennis Olympian from Pasadena, did not travel to Japan for a tournament last week because of tendinitis in her elbow.

U.S. swimmer Jessica Foschi got off the hook for a positive steroid test when she was declared innocent by the American Arbitration Assn., but now the international swim federation will have its say in a hearing Thursday. . . . Looking for a longshot to back in Atlanta? The U.S. men’s field hockey team has never won a match in the Olympics, but it finished first in a recent tournament in Spain with upset victories over Argentina and Spain and a tie with Ireland. . . . Les Gutches, an upset winner at the freestyle wrestling trials at 180.5 pounds, changed his hair color from brown to blond. “I just got done reading Dennis Rodman’s book,” he said. “It seemed like a summer thing to do.”

Times staff writers Lisa Dillman and Randy Harvey contributed to this story.

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This Week

* TODAY: Final day of U.S. equestrian event trials, Groton House, Mass., and U.S. fencing championships, Cincinnati.

* TODAY-MONDAY: U.S. women’s volleyball team continues tournament in Montreux, Switzerland.

* TODAY-SUNDAY: U.S. track and field trials continue, Atlanta.

* MONDAY: U.S. boxing dual meet vs. Russia, Miami.

* MONDAY-TUESDAY: U.S. baseball vs. Australia, San Antonio.

* TUESDAY: U.S. softball team doubleheader vs. all-star teams, Fayetteville, Ga.

* WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY: U.S. diving trials, Indianapolis.

* THURSDAY: U.S. baseball vs. Australia, Baton Rouge, La.

* THURSDAY-SUNDAY: U.S. equestrian dressage trials, Gladstone, N.J.

* FRIDAY-SATURDAY: U.S. baseball vs. Japan, Richmond, Va.

* FRIDAY-SUNDAY: World Beach Invitational volleyball, Hermosa Beach.

* SATURDAY: U.S. men’s soccer team vs. South Africa, Richmond, Va.

* SUNDAY: U.S. baseball vs. Japan, Durham, N.C.; last of five selection trials for equestrian show jumpers, Gladstone, N.J.