Male Gymnasts Obsess Over Compulsories

The judges call them compulsories, the gymnasts call them a royal pain in the apparatus, but for the 14 young men aspiring to make this year’s U.S. Olympic team, they are finally done--and, better yet, about to shoved under the mat for good.

“These were the last compulsories we’ll ever have in this country in a domestic competition,” U.S. men’s gymnastics coach Peter Kormann grandly announced at the Olympic trials Thursday night at the FleetCenter. “We will have them once more at the Olympics and then, that’s it.

“Good riddance. I’m tired of this. It’s time to move on, move into the next century.”

This Olympic year marks the end of compulsory competition in both men’s and women’s gymnastics. Future major meets will be all-optional competitions, giving the people more of what they want to see--”the more exciting stuff,” as Kormann puts it, “just like it is in ice skating.”

Optionals allow the gymnast to improvise, charm the crowd, work the room, get the face-on-the-cereal-box deal. Compulsories are the grunt work, the grind. They must be done, and they must be done just so, or the numbers on the electronic board will stop you almost before you’ve had the time to start.

So, most gymnasts approach them with trepidation--and the occasional shaky hand. Thursday night was no different, with sweaty palms breaking out all over the FleetCenter floor.

John Roethlisberger, the four-time national champion, coped better than most, finishing the evening with an all-around compulsory score of 57.486. Adding in his score from the national championships, which counts 40% to a gymnast’s final qualification score, Roethlisberger leads the field with an overall point total of 160.683. Blaine Wilson, the reigning national and NCAA champion from Ohio State, is second at 159.46.

Sixth-place Chainey Umphrey (155.544) leads the four-man contingent from UCLA, followed by ninth-place Stephen McCain (154.76), 10th-place Scott Keswick (154.54) and 12th-place Chris Waller (153.54). The top seven gymnasts at the trials will make the U.S. Olympic team.

Keswick, who resumed competition this month after being sidelined a year and a half because of a serious back injury, had five scores of 9.2 or better, but a nervous encounter on the pommel horse consigned him to the bottom half of the field. Keswick paused during the middle of his pommel horse routine and bobbled the dismount, dragging his score for the event down to 8.15.

“I fought like hell and it wasn’t enough,” Keswick said. “I was struggling and struggling and it was just better than me. Just a rough event.”

Keswick was not alone. Eight of 14 gymnasts scored lower than 9.0 on the pommel horse, including Wilson, whose score of 8.625 was his only mark below 9.35.

“The pommel is always the toughest event at an Olympic trials,” Kormann said, “because everyone’s under a lot of stress. You can make a little mistake on the high bars and no one in the crowd notices. But the pommel is all balance. If you’re off even just a little, your entire routine stops.”

The high bar produced the night’s highest scores, led by Roethlisberger’s 9.787. Wilson managed a 9.65 on the high bars following a dismount that left him clutching his back and wincing.

“I just tweaked my back a little bit,” Wilson said. “I usually don’t land the high bars on my heels. It’s nothing big.”

The trials continue with women’s compulsory competition tonight. The men’s optional event will be held Saturday, followed by the women’s optionals Sunday.