Monday, August 18, 1997
Errors in estimation  falling  cost UCLA gymnasts a
place on the American world championship team By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Contributor
A fall … Not only is falling down in front of thousands of
spectators embarrassing, it’s also very costly in gymnastics
competitions. And falling is not hard to do when one is twisting
and flipping all over the place.
A week ago, four UCLA gymnasts  Chainey Umphrey, Steve
McCain, Jim Foody and Spencer Slaton  trained and prepared
for months for their trip to Denver  hoped to qualify for the
world championships by placing in the top six in the 1997 John
Hancock U.S. Gymnastics National Championships that took place this
past weekend. After all the grueling training sessions; after all
the expectations and pressures; after all was said and done, they
were left without a place in the American world championships
team.
Blaine Wilson, John Roethlisberger, Jason Gatson, John Macready,
Michael Dutka and Jay Thornton have respectively placed in the top
six places in the U.S. Nationals, which makes them the world team
members. They will train at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado
Springs for a week and then fly to Lausanne, Switzerland, for the
’97 World Gymnastics Championships which starts Aug. 31 and ends
Sept. 7.
Though none of the UCLA gymnasts are going to compete at the
world championships this year, they are still some of the country’s
best. By placing in the top 14 in the nation, three of them Â
Umphrey, McCain and Foody  get the distinguished title of
U.S. National Team members. As veterans of the sport, Umphrey and
McCain have consistently made the U.S. National Team. Slaton placed
48th.
Of the UCLA delegates, the least experienced competitor, Jim
Foody, surprised many by placing seventh in the all-around finals
with a total score of 103.700. In the preliminary all-arounds on
Aug. 13, Foody was in serious contention for the world team as he
ended the day in fourth place. But by the third rotation of the
all-around finals two days later, he slipped to eighth place. He
was able to climb to seventh place after finishing his last two
rotations in his favorite events  the parallel bars and the
horizontal bar.
Foody was one step away from sixth place, which would have made
him a part of the world championships team as an alternate. But
unless one of the top five team members gets injured, the alternate
would be unable to compete anyway. Until last year, there were six
competitors in a world gymnastics competition. After every
Olympics, though, the rules along with point system changed.
Besides the elimination of the repetitive and boring compulsory
phases from competitions, a new rule was issued stating that only
five people compete, while only four of the scores from each
apparatus actually count.
Umphrey was in a situation similar to Foody’s five years ago in
the ’92 Barcelona Olympic Trials. By placing at the trials as an
alternate, he wasn’t able to compete. But four years later, Umphrey
came back strong with persistence and determination to finally make
the Olympic team in ’96.
Though Umphrey was more prepared and improved this year, this
was just not his meet. After placing ninth in the preliminaries,
his scores, along with the rest, carried over for the all-around
finals. He started strong on the finals with an impressive double
layout on the floor exercises but lost momentum after falling off
the pommel horse. Umphrey finished ninth with 102.799. After so
many years of making the world championships team, this meet failed
to meet Umphrey’s expectations.
Falls are also what hurt McCain in his quest for a berth to the
world championships team. As the ’97 Winter Cup champion, he
outscored all of the current world team members with the exception
of Wilson, who didn’t compete. McCain was one of the favorites to
win the nationals, let alone make the world team. But a shaky start
on the preliminaries, with a fall on the parallel bars dismount,
left him in 12th place.
During the finals, McCain rallied for a top six spot with his
impressive skills, such as a double-twisting double back flip on
the floor exercise and a solid pommel horse routine. After the
second rotation of the all-around finals, he was able to leap to
eighth place. However, McCain sat down on his rings routine on the
third rotation and ultimately ended the meet with a 12th place
finish, with a total score of 102.149.
American Champion Wilson, who has won the last two NCAA
all-around titles for Ohio State, led the field with a solid total
score of 110.050. The next highest score by two-time Olympian John
Roethlisberger was 106.850. Roethlisberger also suffered falls in
the preliminaries  three falls in one floor exercise
routine.
Falls are hard to avoid in the sport of gymnastics. On a good
day, a gymnast hits his routines solidly. On a bad day, when a
gymnast just doesn’t feel "on," he can make mistakes in one routine
after another. A mistake in the beginning of a meet can play games
with a competitor’s mind for the rest of the meet, causing him to
lose focus and second-guess himself.
Going into the U.S. Nationals, the UCLA gymnasts approached the
meet with various expectations. For Foody, it was, "to go to the
U.S. Nationals and just have a good meet." He said, "I just want to
do as well as I can and hopefully make the national team … "
Mission accomplished for Foody.
For veterans Umphrey and McCain, their expectations were
greater. They had both expected to make the world championships
team and are intensely focused about gymnastics. McCain said, "As a
gymnast, you are your worst critic." McCain and others may be very
critical of themselves right now, but with their competitive drive
and determination they’ll soon be back in the gym training and
refining their skills over and over … and over again.
PATRICK LAM/Daily Bruin
Chainey Umphrey placed ninth at the John Hancock U.S. National
Championships in Denver, Colo., failing to make the world team.
Umphrey ended up finishing ninth with a score of 102.799 in the
all-around competition but failed to make it on the worlds’
team.