Miller Hopes Her Petition Has Legs to Stand Up to Karolyi

Let the games begin.

The petitioning games, that is.

Shannon Miller, the most decorated female gymnast in U.S. history, came to the 2000 U.S. Gymnastics Championships Thursday night, stood in front of the balance beam, raised her arms toward the judges and walked away. Same thing when Miller got to the mat before her floor exercise routine and when she approached the vault.

Miller accepted scores of 0.00, then competed on the uneven bars where she scored a 9.650. Her coach, Steve Nunno, raced onto the pad beneath the bars and gave Miller a big, dramatic hug, as if Miller had just won another Olympic medal.

Then Nunno announced that Miller was withdrawing from the all-around finals Saturday night and using an injury petition so that she can compete in the Olympic Trials in Boston Aug. 17-20.

Miller, who has seven medals from two Olympics, has a hairline fracture in her lower right leg. Rather than fully compete in these championships, Miller decided with Nunno that it would be better if she performed on one apparatus, to prove that she would soon be in shape, and then save wear and tear on the injured leg.

And one goal was accomplished. Miller tied with 1996 Olympic teammate Amy Chow and Alyssa Beckerman for a silver medal on the uneven bars. Elise Ray won the gold.

Consider this Miller’s audition for U.S. national team coordinator Bela Karolyi.

Karolyi, who will have final say in the makeup of the team, said before the competition he hoped Miller and the other four gymnasts from the 1996 U.S. gold-medal team who have recently started comebacks understood that it was not just good enough “to march out on the floor and say, ‘Here I am.’ ”

But that is what Miller did Thursday night for three events.

Miller, 23 and married, is trying to recover from the fracture she suffered a month ago. She has been training for only six months after being away from the sport since the 1996 triumph.

The top 12 gymnasts after Saturday’s all-around finals will advance to the Boston trials. But there is a provision for injured athletes to petition into the trials and that is what Miller is going to do.

“It felt weird, just walking out three times, bowing to the judges and walking off,” Miller said. “But I also wanted to get whatever competition I could under my belt. I think it’s a good thing to be out there and show what I could do.”

The overall leader after the first night was 19-year-old Kristen Maloney of Pen Argyl, Pa. Maloney, a two-time national champion, is recovering from shoulder and shin surgery and hasn’t competed since the 1999 World Championships.

In second place was the 18-year-old Ray of Columbia, Md., while Chow, 22, a Stanford junior, was third.

The other 1996 Olympic returnees had a tougher time.

Dominique Moceanu, 18, rolled her ankle on the warmup for her first event, the floor exercise, and is in 10th place. Dominique Dawes, 23, who has performed on Broadway and pursued an acting career post-1996, landed on her behind on her vault and is in 13th. Jaycie Phelps, 20, barely hung on to her uneven bars routine and is in 17th.

Vanessa Atler, the Canyon Country gymnast who moved to Plano, Texas, nine months ago with the hopes that a change in coaches might change her tendency to make major mistakes on the uneven bars, made a major mistake on the uneven bars.

It was Atler’s first event and left her in 21st place. But she recovered well enough to win two medals--taking a silver on the vault, behind Maloney, and a bronze on floor exercise, behind Maloney and Ray--and is in sixth place overall.

“I’m getting used to that on the bars,” Atler said, rolling her eyes. “I’m pretty good at coming from behind now.”