Dantzscher’s Growth Spurt Could Send Her to Olympics

As soon as Jamie Dantzscher did her twisting dismount off the balance beam Saturday, landing solidly on her feet, she leaped into the arms of her coaches, Steve Rybacki and Beth Kline-Rybacki.

Dantzscher, an 18-year-old from San Dimas, knew what she had done. She had just won the bronze medal for all-around performance at the 2000 U.S. Gymnastics Championships and stamped herself as a strong contender for the Olympic team. And most of all, according to her coaches, Dantzscher has proven herself grown up.

“Jamie’s always had the talent,” Steve Rybacki said, “but she’s had a hard time in the past with letting it go. I think what you saw this weekend was a gymnast who has finally matured.”

Elise Ray won her first U.S. all-around title. The 18-year-old from Columbia, Md., was the final competitor of the night and clinched the title on her weakest event, the vault.

On Thursday night, Ray scored a 9.037 on the vault. She needed at least a 9.150 to tie 1999 champion Kristen Maloney. Ray did better than that. She scored 9.425 and did it by throwing in a vault she hadn’t warmed up for, a vault with a tougher start value, a vault where she could score higher or fail bigger.

“It was a chance,” Ray said, “and I’m proud I went for it.”

Maloney, a 19-year-old from Pen Argyl, Pa., who has missed 15 weeks this year after shoulder and shin surgery, was pleased with her silver medal.

But no one was as pleased as Dantzscher and her coaches. A year ago Dantzscher trained with Canyon Country’s Vanessa Atler at the Rybackis’ West Covina gym.

Atler struggled with her uneven bars routine and split with the Rybackis to move to World Olympic Gymnastics Academy in Plano, Texas, last November. The Rybackis were disappointed, having trained Atler from the beginner ranks.

And it was Atler who finished behind Dantzscher Saturday, in fourth place and off the medal podium for the first time in her senior career.

“I don’t know if it’s redemption,” Steve Rybacki said, “but this is very satisfying as far as Jamie is concerned.”

Much of the talk before these championships had been about the return to competition of four members of the 1996 Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. team.

After the 1999 U.S. squad finished sixth at the World Championships, Shannon Miller, Dominique Dawes, Dominique Moceanu and Jaycie Phelps came back to training. Another 1996 Olympian, Amy Chow, had continued her competitive career as well.

But none of the “Magnificent Seven,” as the gold medalists were called four years ago, made it into the top five this weekend. Miller and Phelps withdrew with injuries. Chow was sixth, Moceanu eighth and Dawes ninth.

The top 12 finishers qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials Aug. 17-20 in Boston.

Miller, Phelps, Huntington Beach’s Jeanette Antolin and Amanda Stroud have submitted injury petitions to be included at the trials. The four will have to perform their routines at U.S. team coordinator Bela Karolyi’s Houston-area ranch three days before the trials in order to prove their readiness.

Maloney was defiantly proud of the performance of the rookie Olympic hopefuls.

“Most of the attention went to the old guys,” she said. “But I think me and Elise and Jamie and Vanessa and everyone else just went out and showed them that we’re here and we’re still doing gymnastics.”

Scores will be combined from these national championships and the trials. According to the selection process, the top three finishers will receive “strong consideration” for the Olympic team. Then Karolyi and a committee of three other former gymnasts and coaches have the freedom to choose the rest of the team.