White Slowly Building Olympic Resume

Her coaches call her The Creeper, because Morgan White has been making small strides, never giant leaps, in her gymnastics routines for years.

Many others call her The Future, because White could be the key to any comeback the United States’ gymnastics program hopes to make in time for the Sydney Olympics.

It may seem like an unfair burden for the 16-year-old, a relative unknown who is slowly building a resume that seems destined to include a spot on this year’s U.S. team.

But as White’s coach, Mary Lee Tracy, tells it, the 1999 Pan American champion will be ready. She has been building up to this point for a long time.

“She came here as a 65-pound rug rat,” says Tracy, head of the prestigious Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy. “She wasn’t very strong. She wasn’t real confident in herself. She started slowly getting better. That’s when we started calling her ‘The Creeper.’ Because Morgan never does anything in large doses.”

Instead of 65 pounds, she weighs about 85 now. She stands 4-foot-10 and has a bright, infectious smile and a down-to-earth personality.

But this is no superstar--at least not yet. In true form, almost every success she has enjoyed over the last two years has come as a surprise to one person or another.

Her championship in July at the Pan American Games came only after she had made the U.S. team as an alternate, taking the place of the injured Vanessa Atler.

Two weeks ago at the American Cup, considered a key tune-up for the Olympics, White sat in sixth place out of seven athletes after the first rotation, the vault. But she kept hitting solid routines and, without much fanfare, climbed all the way to second place by the end.

“I get into these meets and I think I just take small steps,” White says. “I don’t think I do anything that just knocks your socks off, but I get there.”

At this stage in the development of the U.S. program, just getting there is something to celebrate.

The U.S. women finished in last place in October in the World Championships in China--another event to which White qualified as an alternate--hitting the low point of a decline from the heights of the gold-medal stand at the Atlanta Olympics.

Back into the fold came Bela Karolyi, who will hold the third of his monthly pre-Olympic training camps for American gymnasts next weekend at his ranch near Houston.

The goal of the camps is to improve the fitness and overall athleticism of the gymnasts. White is among those who doesn’t seem to have as far to go to meet Karolyi’s tough standards.

“She’s younger than most of the girls and she’s got a much smaller body to carry around,” says Kim Zmeskal, the 1992 Olympian who works out and teaches at Tracy’s gym in Cincinnati. “She carries herself very well. She is not one of the ones having a problem.”

That has likely put White in the good graces of Karolyi, who at this point still shies from publicly singling out gymnasts, for good or bad.

Despite White’s early success, it seems odd that a no-name has a chance to emerge as the top name with only six months remaining until the Olympics.

This is the team that has produced some of the biggest names in Olympic history--Mary Lou Retton and Kerri Strug come to mind, as do Dominique Moceanu and Shannon Miller, who are both attempting comebacks for the games.

Unlike many trying out for the team this year, White has no huge endorsement contracts, no lingering issues with which to cope after the success of the 1996 Olympics. In fact, she has made it a point to practice near her home in Fairfield, Ohio. She wants to be close to her family, which includes 20-year-old brother Dustin, who has Down syndrome.