Gatson Injured; Wilson Doesn’t Miss a Thing for Fourth Title

Jason Gatson’s future buckled along with his knee Friday, and Blaine Wilson stepped past him into history.

Wilson, a surgery-scarred veteran at 25, became the first man to win four consecutive U.S. gymnastics all-around titles, taking the championship with a commanding performance Friday at Arco Arena.

But the U.S. men’s prospects for the 2000 Olympics were dealt a sharp blow by the serious injury to Gatson, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee as he landed his dismount from the high bar in his first event Friday night.

Gatson--at 19 the young hope of U.S. men’s gymnasts--was leading, ahead of Wilson by 0.10 of a point after the first day of competition.

The horizontal bar was Gatson’s first event of the second day, and it proved to be his last, throwing his prospects for Sydney into doubt.

“As soon as I landed, something popped and I just fell to the ground, it hurt so bad,” said Gatson, who finished second to Wilson last year. “I knew something happened because it was a loud pop. My knee just went out on me.”

The implications were clear to others, who expect recovery from a torn ACL to be a yearlong ordeal, but Gatson and his teammates insisted he will be in Australia. “This is going to make me stronger,” Gatson said. “I am going to get it fixed and I am going to come back and be on the Olympic team in Sydney, and we’re going to bring back a medal to the United States.”

Wilson, competing here after undergoing rotator cuff surgery following last year’s all-around title, didn’t let the lack of competition diminish his performance, hitting six of six routines. He started with a 9.75 on floor, and followed with a 9.6 on the pommel horse, 9.6 on rings, 9.7 on vault, 9.7 on parallel bars and finished with a 9.725 on the high bar.

It had been more than 20 years since anyone even won three all-around titles in a row, and only two other men ever had: Kurt Thomas (1976-78) and Rusty Mitchell (1964-66), but Wilson called it a hollow victory.

“Yeah, basically I hadn’t even started the meet and to watch one of your teammates go down, it was just like watching John [Roethlisberger] go down last year,” he said.

Roethlisberger finished second to Wilson Friday--although it was by a wide gulf of 3 1/2 points behind Wilson’s winning score of 115.300.

But that he accomplished it a year after tearing an ACL in the same meet was greeted as promising by some, especially since Gatson will have 13 months instead of 12.

“Are you kidding me? No problem,” Roethlisberger said. “It’s going to be a tough year. He’s not going to enjoy it. But I guarantee he’ll be back and you’ll be asking him next year how he did it, how he got back from tearing his ACL.”

Roethlisberger excelled on pommel horse, rings, parallel bars and high bars to finish second in the U.S. Gymnastics Championships.

One complication is that two of the most knee-pounding events, the floor and the vault, are Gatson’s strongest.

“I thought a lot about what my role would be these four years after ‘96,” Roethlisberger said. “Now I know the one thing I need to do is help Jason and give him insight and motivate him.

“The fact of the matter is he’s coming back. I’m making a guarantee. I’m putting it on my shoulders.”