Atler’s Career is at Crossroads

Seventeen is awfully young to be faced with a bar exam.

But in Vanessa Atler’s chosen field of gymnastics, the window of opportunity opens early and closes quickly. It’s now or never.

Atler, 17, is on the verge of Olympic stardom. She is a gym dandy with the power, skills and flair to win a medal next summer at Sydney, Australia. USA Today positioned her as “the next Mary Lou 1/8Retton 3/8.”

Her start value on vault is the highest in the world. Her floor exercise sparkles. Her work on the balance beam is usually excellent.

Only the uneven bars cause her overall scores to fall.

Because, all too often, she falls from the bars.

The problem cost Atler, who lives in Canyon Country, the national championship the last two years after winning in 1997.

She fell off the beam at the World Championships in October in China, where the U.S. finished a disappointing sixth.

Part of the problem was an injured left ankle that eventually required two surgeries to remove bone fragments.

Part of the problem is in her head.

“It’s definitely mental,” Atler said after the nationals. “A couple of times I’ve conquered it, and thought it went away. I’ve talked to psychologists, but it’s mostly myself.”

Popularity is never a problem with Atler. Her heavily visited Web site contains a frank diary and photos of everything from her competing to an X-ray of her ankle.

Atler’s latest diary entry chronicles her surgery and battles with the bars, revealing a persistently optimistic outlook.

She wrote that, for the first time in many years, she doesn’t feel pressure in the gym because she believes many people have given up on her. She wrote about trying to live up to the unrealistic expectations of others. Now that those expectations have diminished, she is free to pursue goals set only by her.

And her new coach.

Atler left her longtime coaches, Steve Rybacki and Beth Kline-Rybacki, after the national championships last summer and linked up with former Olympic champion Valery Liukin in Plano, Texas.

However, much of their work lies ahead because Atler is recuperating from the Dec. 2 surgery to remove bone spurs that caused her pain throughout 1999.

Her goal is to be in top form for the national championships in July in St. Louis and the Olympic team trials in Boston in August. The Sydney Olympics begin Sept. 15.

The training regimen will be demanding. Bela Karolyi was brought out of retirement in November to coach the U.S. women’s team. He will oversee a series of mini-camps and a pre-Olympic camp.

Bob Colarossi, president of USA Gymnastics, sought out the volatile Karolyi because of worries that the team will underachieve.

“The easy thing to do would be to sit back and hope for better results,” Colarossi said. “We’re trying to step in and make a change for a different result in Sydney.”

Atler welcomes the challenge. Conquer the bars and she can conquer the world.