Shaking Up the Routine

Once she decided to return to elite gymnastics and found coaches who didn’t mind that she couldn’t afford to pay them, Mohini Bhardwaj instinctively looked at a calendar to plan her training.

“It was a year to the day to the opening ceremony,” she said of the Athens Olympics. “Amazing. A lot of stuff has taken place since then.”

In those 12 months, the former UCLA standout emerged from gymnastics oblivion to win a spot on the U.S. women’s team at the Summer Games. At 25, an age when most gymnasts are coaching or reminiscing about their exploits, Bhardwaj accomplished the impossible in a sport that feasts on giggly teenagers with supple spines and pliant natures.

This onetime rebel, who lived by herself in Houston to train while in high school and nearly lost her college scholarship when she put socializing before studying, has beaten the system.

“During my elite career I didn’t have much fun,” she said. “I felt like I was doing it for other people. I discovered a team atmosphere and bonding in college, which was nice because I was kind of on my own before that.

“When I was younger, I didn’t like to spend time in the gym practicing. It wasn’t fun. I liked competitions. Having retired for a year and not doing it, going to the gym and playing around and getting my skills back, I realized I’m fortunate to have healed my body and still be able to do these skills.”

She’s performing for herself, her ardor apparent in every swing on the uneven bars and every twist of her tricky vaults.

“Mentally, that’s what’s strong about her. She told me, ‘I’ll work harder than ever before and do more routines,’ ” said Galina Marinova, a two-time Bulgarian Olympian who coaches Bhardwaj at All Olympians Gym in Los Angeles and funded her trips to national team training camps.

“She wanted to be in some international meets to try some stuff, but she wasn’t on the national team and got no support and no chance to go. But she stayed positive the whole time.”

Bhardwaj needed that optimism while Marinova and UCLA assistant coach Chris Waller guided her up the ladder of qualifying meets and back onto the Olympic track. “I hadn’t done that since I was 12,” she said of the qualifiers. “That was the very beginning point of my journey.”

That trip has been eased by the support of Valorie Kondos Field, her UCLA coach.

“I was a little apprehensive, not really knowing what it would take for Mohini to compete like she used to compete in college,” said Kondos Field, who encouraged Bhardwaj to work out at the Bruins’ gym.

“I knew if she could regain that old enthusiasm she could do it. I don’t think age comes into play with Mo. She’s so incredibly talented and she’s in the best shape of her life.”

Born in Cincinnati to an Indian father and Russian mother -- her given name means “illusion” in Hindi -- Bhardwaj was a rising star until her 10th-place finish at the 1996 trials kept her off the Atlanta team. She finished third at the 1997 U.S. championships and went to the world championships, where she placed fifth in the vault. But she gave up the anxiety of elite competition to enroll at UCLA, where she was an 11-time All-American and member of two NCAA championship teams.

Comfortable in school, where the NCAA limits practice time to about half what most elite gymnasts do -- and skill levels are lower -- she skipped the 2000 Olympic trials. “I was too busy with college and it was too hard to go from the collegiate season to elite and then the college preseason,” she said.

She petitioned into the 2001 U.S. championships, where she finished third in the all-around and won a team bronze medal at the world championships. An elbow injury at the 2002 U.S. meet seemed to end her career and led her to support herself as a waitress until she realized she’d regret it if she skipped these Games too.

“I didn’t expect 100% she would make the Olympic team but I wanted to give her the chance to try,” Marinova said. “She has all the elements. She’s very powerful and does a couple of elements different than other gymnasts.”

Training full-time, which precluded working, she finished 12th at this year’s U.S. championships and snared the last berth at the Olympic trials in Anaheim. To be invited to the July selection run by national team coordinator Martha Karolyi she had to finish in the top two or perform well enough to earn an invitation. A solid sixth got her summoned to the camp. “After the trials she came over to thank me and Chris,” Marinova said, “and I told her, ‘Every minute I spent was worth it.’ ”

Although she said she knew where she stood because of her frank, open relationship with Karolyi, Bhardwaj cried tears of relief when she was named to the team with 26-year-old Annia Hatch and teenagers Courtney Kupets, Courtney McCool, Carly Patterson and Terin Humphrey. At that moment she became a celebrity, in no small part because of her connection to actress Pamela Anderson.

After learning through a friend that All Olympians was holding a raffle to fund Bhardwaj’s training, Anderson gave her $20,000 and cheered her through the trials. Bombarded with questions about Anderson, whose generosity she praises, and unaccustomed to the whirlwind, Bhardwaj retreated. “I needed some time to rest and get my energy back from all the stress and drama of the past couple of months,” she said. “I’m back to normal now.”

She’s still not sure which events she’ll compete in at the Games. Vault is certain because she has start values of 9.8 and 9.7 and could make the event finals if she hits. She anticipates competing on bars and maybe balance beam in the team preliminaries, in which each team sends out five gymnasts on each apparatus. She also hopes to perform on floor exercise but wouldn’t begrudge Hatch that spot.

“It would be great for her,” Bhardwaj said. “To come together as a team we need to push each other. We need to put the best people out there.”

Somewhere along the way she became a patron saint for gymnasts who thought they’d have to hang up their leotards if they weren’t Olympians by 18. Kondos Field invokes her name while recruiting. Messages praising her perseverance pile up at All Olympians and on its website.

For Bhardwaj, it’s an unexpected but cherished reward. “It’s really exciting seeing stuff like that,” said Bhardwaj, whose boyfriend, law student Stephan Ralescu, will accompany her to Athens. “It feels great to have an impact on other people’s lives.”

And to know she has lived hers to the fullest.