To Karolyi, Only Opinion That Counts Is His Own

Whatever Bela wants, Bela gets. That pretty much had been the unwavering plot line during Bela Karolyi’s first seven months as national team coordinator/one-man cavalry charge for the U.S. women’s gymnastics program.

And Bela likes it that way.

Bela wanted to conduct monthly training camps, where he could play headmaster to the best gymnasts in the country, assigning them letter grades--” ’A’ team here, ‘B’ team to the back of the gym”--without having to step a foot from his Houston ranch and residence. Bela got it.

Bela wanted to select the eventual six-woman U.S. Olympic team himself, rather than leave it to the hard results of the U.S. trials, which are a long-standing American tradition but far too unpredictable and unmanageable for Karolyi’s tastes. In an extraordinary move, Bela got that too.

Last week, however, the sometimes benevolent dictator got some news that had him grumbling and grousing to reporters on a conference call: Karolyi would be joined on a four-person Olympic team selection committee by longtime American judge Marilyn Cross, 1984 Olympian Tracee Talavera and either gymnast Chari Knight or 1994 national team member Larissa Fontaine.

The concept of a selection committee was nothing new to Karolyi. He signed off on the idea more than a month ago. But he was hoping to pad out the committee with card-carrying members of Team Karolyi--or at least coaches and officials who had joined him at his camps, which began in January. That way they would be on the same page--the one bearing the heading, “Barring A Bad Fall Off The Balance Beam At The Trials, This Is The Team We’re Going To Select, OK?”

But Cross and Talavera haven’t been to any of the camps, because they were only recently named to the selection committee.

Not a big deal, from the perspective of USA Gymnastics, which would prefer the trials not be rendered altogether meaningless. All that needed to be done, the federation figured, was to have the panel in place before the trials, scheduled for Aug. 17-20 in Boston. Once they convene in Boston, they can watch the competition, get a handle on the best talent there and then vote on which six should go to Sydney.

Which sounds reasonable enough . . . unless you’re Karolyi and one of your favorites since January has a bad weekend in August and she’s voted off the team, 3-1.

“The selection situation, it’s still messy,” Karolyi said.

Karolyi criticized the addition of Talavera and Cross, who were chosen by coaches of potential Olympic gymnasts.

“Tracee, I highly respect her, but I haven’t seen her in the last nine to 10 years,” he said. “Marilyn, I highly respect her too. But I haven’t seen her. She hasn’t been at the camps. She hasn’t been around.”

President Bob Colarossi of USA Gymnastics has from now until August to convince Karolyi this format is for the best.

“These are tremendous, competent people with a strong breadth of experience,” Colarossi said. “There’s a mutual level of respect between a group of qualified individuals. I think it will be all right.”

Karolyi has his doubts. He can envision being outvoted on a gymnast he had penciled onto his Sydney roster in January if she is outperformed on the FleetCenter floor in August.

“If there is a difference of opinion, the loser will be the one I appreciate the most,” Karolyi said. “I just hope everyone realizes what the best interest of the team is, and what the strengths and weaknesses of the athletes are.”

THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR BALKING

Nigerian soccer star Nwankwo Kanu is donating the boots he wore in the 1996 Olympic semifinal against Brazil--Kanu scored two goals, leading Nigeria to an upset 4-3 victory--for a fund-raising charity auction.

He might as well, since he won’t be needing them this September in Sydney.

Kanu, the African player of the year, and 1996 Olympic teammate Jay Jay Okocha have turned down invitations from the Nigerian soccer federation to defend their championship at the Summer Games.

“The players have said they don’t want to play at the Olympics again because they have won it before,” said a dismayed Jo Bonfere, coach of Nigeria’s Olympic team.

“They cannot say they don’t want to play again because they have won it before. If you win the World Cup, would you say you won’t want to play at the next World Cup?

“I’ve tried to make them change their minds. I’ve even given them examples from Brazil and Italy and other countries that will take their best players to the Olympics.

“Roberto Baggio and Christian Vieri both say they want to play for Italy. The same is happening in Brazil where Roberto Carlos and Rivaldo are keen to play for the country in Australia. If these players want to play, why not their Nigerian counterparts?”

Rosters for the men’s Olympic soccer tournament are limited to players 23 and under--plus three overage exemptions. Most teams in the tournament are using the exemptions to add top players from their national teams, as they did in 1996.

But in 1996, the Olympics were held in late July and early August, before the start of the European professional soccer season. This year’s Olympic tournament begins in mid-September, which conflicts with the European leagues and has given many Olympic-eligible players a difficult choice: Stay with one’s club or play for one’s country?

Kanu plays for the one of the top clubs in England, Arsenal.

Still, Bonfere said he is planning to forge ahead with his recruitment campaign.

“I’ve told them it is still an honor to play for your country,” he said.

100-METER UPDATE

Maurice Greene had a good-news, bad-news stopover in Europe last week.

The bad: A sluggish 10.16-second performance Wednesday in Athens, where he set the world record a year ago, this time finishing fourth behind fellow Americans Greg Saddler and Tim Montgomery and club training partner Ato Boldon.

The good: A more-like-it 9.97 race Friday in Rome en route to the Golden Gala double. Greene also won the 200 in 20.02 seconds.

Afterward, Greene was so encouraged that he talked of sweeping the same events in Sydney.

Worth noting, however: Michael Johnson, 200-meter world-record holder, did not compete in Rome, pulling out of the race because of a contract dispute with meet promoters.

In the 100 final in Sydney, Greene could be racing an old rival, once presumed to be injured, out of sorts and past his prime. Donovan Bailey, the 1996 Olympic champion and holder of the world record broken by Greene in 1999, ran a surprising 9.98 seconds Tuesday in Lucerne, Switzerland--the year’s second-fastest time, behind only Greene’s 9.91.

Bailey had struggled for two years to recover from an Achilles’ tendon injury and began 2000 as a longshot to qualify for Sydney. In Lucerne, he said it was his goal to defend his 100-meter title and that he still has room for improvement.

“I could have run 9.80 if I had fought harder,” Bailey said.

WHO’S SPONSORING THIS ANYWAY?

When is the UPS International Cup not the UPS International Cup?

When NBC decides to film a match from the water polo tournament, being held this past week in Los Alamitos, and makes tournament officials remove a poolside UPS logo before the cameras will roll.

Reason: NBC, in training for its all-tape-delayed Summer Olympics, was filming Wednesday’s U.S.-Croatia match--to be aired, of course, on Aug. 12, when it will be billed as “an Olympic exhibition.” And because UPS is not an official Olympic sponsor this year, NBC determined that the logo had to go--at least for one match.

NBC’s presence also caused the match to be interrupted 46 seconds into the third period because of technical difficulties. Somebody forgot to plug in a new videotape at halftime.