Born Too Late : Canyon Country Gymnast 14, Missed Her Chance to Go for the Gold by Seven Weeks

Even though she’s entering her athletic prime at the tender age of 14, gymnast Vanessa Atler feels like the world is passing her by.

The 4-foot-7, 80-pound junior national champion from Canyon Country is enjoying a breakthrough season. In an Olympic year, that’s normally good timing. But time is not on her side.

Because international rules mandate that female gymnasts must be at least 15 during the calendar year of the Olympics, Atler will be watching the Summer Games on television instead of competing in Atlanta. This victim of reverse ageism, who won’t turn 15 until Feb. 17, missed the cut by seven weeks.

Before winning her first junior national championship, claiming the all-around title last month in Knoxville, Tenn., Atler celebrated her birthday in February by winning the all-around event in the American Classics competition in Tulsa, Okla.

Even though she competed against juniors only, Atler’s scores in the optional portion of the meet would have qualified her for the six-member world team and given her the chance to compete at the Olympic trials.

Atler began this year’s competition well aware of the age limit, so her Olympic sights were set on 2000. Still, the victory at the American Classics suddenly made acceptance of that rule difficult.

“I was kind of surprised that I won at the Classics, so then when I realized I could have made the world team I got mad at the people who made this rule,” Atler said on a recent day off from training.

She grew even more angry when she learned that next year the international age limit will be raised to 16, making her ineligible for the 1997 world championships--again by a mere seven weeks.

*

Although she and her coaches understand the reason for the rule--to safeguard gymnasts from overzealous coaches who train and push young girls too hard--they believe it is ineffective and unfair.

“They say young people can’t handle the pressure but I proved I can handle it,” Atler said. “The rule is kind of stupid.”

There’s more at work than wrongheadedness, according to Steve Rybacki and Beth Kline-Rybacki, Atler’s husband-and-wife coaching team at Charter Oak Gymnastics in Covina.

Kline-Rybacki knows about disappointment. As a 14-year-old in 1980, she qualified for the U.S. Olympic team--there was no age limit then--but didn’t compete in Moscow because of the U.S. boycott.

The Rybackis call the age limit an overreaction, fueled by what they term the overwhelmingly alarmist media reports on women’s gymnastics.

The media onslaught hit hardest after the publication last year of “Little Girls in Pretty Boxes,” a book they say paints an unfair portrait of a sport run amok with sadistic coaches turning gymnastic hopefuls into anorexic neurotics.

“I was 14 when I made the Olympic team and if you’re good enough to play in the ballgame with the major leaguers you should be able to perform,” Beth said. “It’s about being talented, not about age.”

Pointing out that age is a nonissue in men’s gymnastics, Steve argues that the rule reflects a double standard toward women’s sports in this country.

He wonders why there is no national outcry about high school wrestling, in which boys put enormous stress on their bodies by following extreme diets to qualify in weight divisions.

“The media bashing goes on because we’re dealing with females,” he said. “I understand why the rule was made. We know they are trying to protect young gymnasts and get coaches not to push them too hard or too quickly.

“Thinking long term about young gymnasts is good. But this rule won’t stop abusive coaches.”

International rules also have trapped gymnasts in a double bind by emphasizing degree of difficulty in scoring guidelines, Steve said.

Unlike most sports, increased height, weight and age can actually work against female gymnasts, who often peak as undersized teenagers.

“At the world class level where the skills are so difficult and everyone is pushing the envelope, an extra five pounds and a few more inches make some skills more difficult,” Steve said.

“The more death-defying skills are exciting to watch but there’s too much emphasis on that. The scoring should emphasize artistic over athletic skills.”

While arguing for those changes, Steve also plans to lobby for a petition system that would allow Atler a shot at next year’s world championships.

If anyone wants to ensure that Atler is not an abused athlete, he said, Charter Oak’s doors are always open.

“We train fewer hours than international gymnasts and we teach Vanessa to be healthy and how to eat,” he said.

“We don’t weigh them in. Eating disorders will not improve their gymnastics. We’re not beating her up and not abusing her.”

*

Seated on the patio of her Canyon Country home thumbing through a youth magazine trumpeting her as a role model, Atler looks like anything but an abuse victim.

She is a bright, straight-A student, an appealing blend of worldly maturity and bubbly enthusiasm. Her coaches proudly offer her as a poster girl for everything right with gymnastics.

“I haven’t been abused and I’ve never been injured or pulled any muscles,” she said about her career that started innocently enough when she joined a tumbling class as a 5-year-old because she wanted to be a cheerleader.

“My coaches are very careful. I think I’m more healthy than any girl my age. I wish they’d stop attacking gymnasts.

“Gymnastics has given me so much and taught me so much about myself. I know a lot more than girls my age. They might know more about boys, but that’s about it.”

Atler admits she has missed out on parties, is shy around boys and has trouble relating to girls her age outside of gymnastics.

When the girl across the street has been no farther from home than the mall and you’ve had roommates from Russia while competing in Japan, Italy and France, it might be hard to bridge the gap.

Atler’s parents pulled Vanessa from elementary school two years ago and have enrolled her in an independent study program. She’s on the academic fast track and could complete her high school credits by her sophomore year, her mother Nanette said.

But concerns about her social life prompted the Atlers to enroll her in a few classes at Canyon High for September so she can get involved in campus social life if she chooses.

But don’t get the wrong idea, Vanessa Atler said. She’s not lonely.

“I have great friends in gymnastics, probably the best friends I’ll ever have,” she said.

And don’t get the wrong idea about the Olympics and the age limit. She’s not bitter. She intends to watch and enjoy the Olympics along with everyone else.

“Sometimes I feel like the world is against me but if I had to end gymnastics now, I’d be happy with my accomplishments,” she said. “I’m disappointed about the age rule, but I’m really having a lot of fun.”

*

Atler also has the 2000 Olympics out there on the horizon. In a sport that features retirement about the same time others graduate from college, the Sydney Games in 2000 might be her last hurrah.

Asked about life after competition, she said she’d like to remain in the sport but not as a coach.

A thought then hits and with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, she says, “Maybe I’ll be one of those people who make the age-limit decision. And this time I’ll get it right.”