| | Associated Press
BOSTON -- Amid the shrieks of glee and the tears of joy, Amy
Chow and Dominique Dawes searched the room until they finally
locked eyes. They didn't need to say anything. The teammates knew
exactly what the other was thinking.
The first and last members of the Magnificent Seven to come back
are going to the Olympics again, and doing it together makes it
that much sweeter.
|  | | Amy Chow took a year off from Stanford to train for the Olympics, and she was rewarded with a trip to Sydney. |
"I didn't need to have a conversation with her because we know
what the Olympics are about," Dawes said. "Sometimes it's just an
eye glance, because we know that we've been there before."
Dawes was named to her third Olympic team Sunday night at
Olympic trials, Chow her second. But fellow Mag Seven member
Shannon Miller will have to be content with her memories of Atlanta
after jamming her knee and withdrawing after her first event.
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Hill will coach U.S. gymnasts |
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BOSTON -- Officials at USA Gymnastics surprised some experts
by choosing outspoken Kelli Hill as head coach of the U.S. Olympic
team Sunday.
Hill, the personal coach of Olympians Dominique Dawes and Elise
Ray, was as shocked as anyone after being chosen over favorite Mary
Lee Tracy, who coaches Olympian Morgan White and alternate Alyssa
Beckerman.
Hill has been an outspoken opponent of the Olympic selection
procedure, a stance she was sure doomed her chances to be head
coach.
"I didn't expect this at all, to be honest," she said. "It's
because of my outspokenness on all kinds of issues, and how I felt
about the procedure. I thought I gave this dream up when I spoke
out. It's definitely a shock."
Tracy will serve as assistant coach, the same position she held
in 1996. She handled the decision with class and said she was happy
to serve.
Bela Karolyi is the national team coordinator and will be at the
Olympics, but he's not the coach. One of the biggest questions
surrounding the U.S. team is how much contact he will have with the
gymnasts during competition in Sydney.
--Associated Press
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Joining Dawes and Chow on the Olympic team are: national
champion Elise Ray (first), Kristen Maloney (third), Morgan White
(fourth) and Jamie Dantzscher (fifth).
Alyssa Beckerman, who finished eighth, is the alternate.
Kelli Hill, coach of Ray and Dawes, was named head coach of the
team. Mary Lee Tracy, White and Beckerman's coach and the assistant
coach in 1996, was named the assistant.
"I always imagined being on the team, but your imagination can
only go so far," Ray said. "Standing up on that floor with
everyone is amazing. Being a part of it is 2,000 times better than
imagining it."
Left out was Vanessa Atler, who, as the junior champion in 1996,
was expected to be the next American darling. But she came into the
trials in fourth place and moved steadily downward.
She botched every one of her events, looking up at the sky after
she stepped forward on her dismount as if to say, "What is going
on?" Atler finished sixth, but her inconsistencies made her too
big of a chance for Sydney.
"It (stinks), it really does," she said. "But I think deep
down in my heart I knew I wasn't as prepared as everybody else.
When my name wasn't called, I almost had a sense of relief because
deep down I knew I shouldn't be going because I knew I wasn't
ready.
"It's just not my day, not my time."
Once again, it's the perfect time for Chow and Dawes.
The weighted scores from trials (60 percent) and last month's
U.S. Gymnastics Championships (40 percent) were combined to rank
the women.
A selection committee headed by Bela Karolyi then picked the
six-woman team, but it wasn't bound by the scores. That meant
someone with a lower score could be selected over someone who
finished higher.
That's exactly what happened as Dawes, who finished seventh, was
chosen over Atler. But no one who watched the meet could disagree
with the committee's choices.
"Unfortunately, in two back-to-back competitions, Vanessa
couldn't prove capable of representing the country with the
expectations we needed," Karolyi said.
Dawes has only been training seriously since May 1, and her
return has been nothing short of spectacular. She got better with
every meet, moving from 12th after the first round of nationals to
fifth in Sunday night's competition.
She has almost all of the hard tricks that everybody else has,
and what she lacks in difficulty, she makes up for in presentation.
She brought down the house on her final event, the balance beam.
Though the two competitors before her had faltered on the beam,
Dawes did back flips and tumbled with ease. The fans were on their
feet as she landed perfectly, and even though she waved to them
when she finished, they stayed standing until she came back up for
a curtain call, this time blowing kisses to them.
The routine even brought Karolyi to his feet. He left his seat
for one of the first times of the night, rushing across the floor
to hug Dawes and Hill. On his way, he looked into the crowd and
pumped his fist at the fans.
"I came back because one, I love the sport and two, I knew I
could help the country out," Dawes said. "I knew if I gave it my
best shot I could be happy with myself and if I didn't make it, it
would be a great way to end my career."
Anything less than a spot on another Olympic team would have
been a disappointment for Chow, who took a year off from Stanford
to train. She needn't have worried.
She has the tough tricks that can put the United States back on
the medals podium, but she does them so effortlessly it makes
people in the audience think, "Hey, I could do that."
Think again. On her first vault, her opening event, Chow nailed
a Yurchenko double twist. In plain English, that means she did a
roundoff onto the springboard, hurtling through the air, twisting
twice before landing flat on her feet.
She finished with 76.205 points, just 0.534 points behind Ray.
"I'm pretty psyched about this," Chow said. "My second
Olympics, it's pretty cool."
Miller's comeback didn't end nearly so well. A hairline crack in
her right leg allowed her to do only one event at nationals before
withdrawing, and she got hurt on her very first event Sunday night.
She left the floor crying when she withdrew, but hoped to make
the team through the petition process. That wasn't even an option,
Karolyi said.
"I wish she had decided to start back earlier and pick up more
physical fitness," Karolyi said. "But considering her physical
status, it's hard to consider her ready for the full speed and full
pressure of the Olympics."
With Miller out and Atler struggling, that opened the door for
White and Dantzscher.
White, who had troubles at nationals, showed the consistency
during trials that Karolyi loves so much. She revved the crowd up
with her final routine, tumbling and twirling across the floor to
lively salsa music. She had a huge grin on her face as she
finished, and she exchanged a triumphant high-five with Beckerman,
her training partner.
Though Dantzscher was in fourth place coming into the finals,
she was probably the most vulnerable. She faltered badly on the
balance beam, falling twice, but the grit she showed in her first
three routines probably saved her.
When Dantzscher heard she was going to Sydney, she began
sobbing, burying her face in her coach's shoulder.
"I was just so happy," Dantzscher said, tears welling in her
eyes. "The feeling inside is just huge. You can't even describe
it."
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ALSO SEE
U.S. Gymnastics roster
Injured Miller fails to make third Olympic team
Vanessa Atler is not America's darling this time
Women's gymnastics results
Five-time champ Wilson leads U.S. gymnasts to Sydney
Roethlisberger can't contain emotions over third Olympic team
Men's gymnastics results
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