New Selection Procedure Turns Trials Into Pointless Exercise

It used to be something of a standing joke with Bela Karolyi, resurrected every time the Summer Olympics drew near and the best female gymnasts in the country prepared to risk reputation and limb at the traditional U.S. Olympic trials meet.

“I prefer the way we did it in Romania,” Karolyi would say as he began poking his forefinger in the air.

“ ‘You, you, you, you, you and you.’ ”

Funny, but that old punch line somehow has been twisted into reality, only not as many people are laughing anymore.

Earlier this week, USA Gymnastics President Bob Colarrosi announced a new Olympic selection procedure for American female gymnasts this year, turning the whole thing over to a vote by Karolyi, who is the national women’s team coordinator, and a federation selection committee.

The vote will be held immediately upon conclusion of the U.S. trials in Boston in August--trials that, in effect, have been rendered virtually meaningless.

Under the old format, a couple of dozen gymnasts were to convene in Boston for five days to compete for six Olympic berths, with automatic invitations granted to the top three finishers and the balance of the squad filled out by vote of the selection committee.

This time, it is possible--though “highly, highly, highly unlikely,” Karolyi professes--for a gymnast to place in the top three, even win the trials, and not get anywhere close to Sydney.

Almost 20 years since he defected from Romania, Karolyi has succeeded in bringing one little piece of the Old World to the new.

Once again, it is down to: You, you, you, you, you and you.

Karolyi, speaking at Saturday’s U.S. Olympic Committee Media Summit, grabbed a microphone and worked the room, trying to sell his audience on the theme that changes in the Olympic gymnastic format forced USA Gymnastics to adopt the not-so-new program.

“The sport has changed in many, many different ways,” Karolyi said. “The competing format has been, for many, many years, six people competing and five scores count. Today is different. Today, five people are competing and four scores are counting.

“In the past, you wanted to have six all-arounders on the floor. Now, you have to think strategically and introduce a couple other people into the team--two good, powerful specialists who can score higher in their events than you could with two all-arounders.”

In other words, a higher value now is placed on gymnasts who may excel in only one or two events rather than a more versatile all-around athlete who is merely solid in all four events. So, rather than go with the top all-around finishers at trials, Karolyi argues that it is more important to mix in a few specialists.

Which explains why Shannon Miller’s comeback, at the supposedly over-the-hill age of 23, figures as more than a vanity ploy. A 1996 gold medalist on the balance beam, Miller stands a decent chance of being selected to the 2000 squad because of what she offers as a one-event “pinch-hitter.”

The rules have changed, Karolyi contends, so USA Gymnastics had to change.

Or, to put it in Bela speak:

“[Suppose] you go and buy an airline ticket a year ago which was a first-class ticket at the time, but at the ticket counter, the agent says, ‘Guys, no, that’s an expired ticket. It doesn’t work anymore.’ He looks at you and says, ‘If I let you stay, well, not on the first level, but back in the back row next to the toilet door.’

“That’s exactly how [the scoring change] works. We could accept it, but, let me tell you, I hate to stay next to the toilet door.”

TRIALS: OUT OF STYLE?

And what do the U.S. gymnasts think of the new selection procedure?

Speaking within earshot of Karolyi, Alyssa Beckerman said, diplomatically, “Basically, we can only control how we perform, and what they decide, they decide. We can only control what we do up there. I think they have USA’s best interests at heart, and that’s what we want too.”

However, at a later interview session, U.S. men’s gymnast Blaine Wilson ridiculed the concept.

Asked what he would think if the U.S. men adopted the same selection format, Wilson grimaced and said, “It wouldn’t make sense to have the trials. If you’re going to pick the team, you should just send them to a training camp, all 19 or 20 of them, and pick the team from there. Why would you even have the USA trials?”

The men’s gymnastics team will consist of the top four finishers at the trials, plus two choices from the selection committee.

Wilson believes that is the best way--a less subjective system and the kind of intense competition that better steels a gymnast for the pressure awaiting at the Summer Games.

“If you’re going to have all these young girls going to Sydney and saying, ‘Oh, my God, I’ve never been through this before,’ how’s that going to help them?” Wilson said. “The trials is the most nerve-racking meet I’ve ever been to in my life. If you make the Olympic team from there, the Olympics are breeze.”

AND N IS FOR NEPOTISM

They Just Don’t Get It, Chapter 287:

International Olympic Committee vice president Kevan Gosper of Australia has been skewered by the media back home for his decision last week to let his 11-year-daughter, Sophie, run as the first Australian in the Greece-to-Sydney Olympic torch run.

Despite not meeting the 12-year-old age requirement to carry the torch, Sophie Gosper was slotted in the relay order ahead of 15-year-old Yianna Souleles, who had been selected as the first Australian to carry the torch from Greece because she symbolized the links between the countries.

“Gosper torched over Sophie’s choice,” read a front-page headline in the national newspaper The Australian.

The Sydney Morning Herald wrote off the incident as just the latest example of the “IOC club looking after itself.”

The Daily Telegraph went a few steps further, spelling out Gosper’s name in headline type in derisive fashion: “Greedy, Obstinate, Selfish, Pompous, Egotistic Reptile.”

Gosper claimed he could not comprehend the outrage.

“They never even talked about the enemy during the war like that,” he said.

In an interview with Australian television, Gosper said he was “shocked, appalled and saddened. I don’t know what crime I’ve committed on behalf of my daughter, whose rights I’ve protected as a father. I am totally shocked. I’ve never been so upset, ever.”

Souleles, who ran a later leg during the first day of the relay, dealt sportingly with the controversy.

“It is still an amazing thing we are here, and they are letting us do this,” she said.

Gosper, already under investigation by the IOC’s ethics panels for allegedly accepting a free ski trip from the Salt Lake City bid committee, admitted that this latest incident could damage his chances of succeeding Juan Antonio Samaranch after the IOC president retires in 2001.

“If the worst thing I ever do is protect my child’s rights, I can live with that,” Gosper said. “I’ve lived with controversy before. I’ll find my way through it.”