ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 23, 1996 TAG: 9607230080
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: Associated Press
As the final scores flashed, U.S. gymnast John Macready buried his head in his hands and cried while teammate Blaine Wilson tried to comfort him.
No matter how you look at it, much improved still doesn't beat winning a medal.
``We didn't come home with a medal, but we gave our heart and souls; we fought for it,'' Chainey Umphrey said after the Americans finished fifth in team competition Monday.
As expected, Russia won the men's team gold medal Monday with a score of 576.778. China won the silver with 575.539. The bronze went to Ukraine with 571.541.
The men are, indeed, getting closer. Their score of 570.618 points was just 6.525 points out of third place.
And Russia's winning score of 576.776 put the Americans closer to the gold than they were to the bronze in Barcelona.
``It's the most improved team in the world,'' U.S. coach Peter Kormann said. ``We were in the hunt for a medal today. One year ago, no one would have thought we would have been in the hunt for a medal.''
The Americans' timing simply was off.
After more than a decade of poor performances and no recognition, the U.S. team turned in its best showing since the 1984 team won Olympic gold. But thanks to the republics of the former Soviet Union, the Americans fell short of a medal.
Russia continued where the Soviets left off in the sport. Fourth, after China and Ukraine, came Belarus, another former Soviet republic. The Soviet Union and its successors have won five team gold medals since 1952.
``You can step back and look at it a lot of different ways,'' said Jair Lynch, one of three 1992 veterans on the U.S. squad. ``If the Soviet Union didn't break up, we'd have a medal.''
Led by Alexei Nemov, the Russians put together a string of difficult routines that drew ``oohs'' and ``ahhs'' from the crowd.
Nemov finished first in the individual standings with 116.361 points, 1.151 points ahead of Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus, who won the all-around and five other gold medals in Barcelona.
Reigning world champion Li Xiaoshuang made small errors on almost every routine, taking hops on his landings and looking shaky. That cost him, and he finished behind American John Roethlisberger in the individual standings.
Roethlisberger finished fifth, Wilson was 12th and Macready 33rd. All three will advance to Wednesday's all-around finals.
The crowd of 30,788 at the Georgia Dome did its best to give them a boost, giving a standing ovation as the team entered.
Their support never wavered, even when the team faltered. When Macready, the first U.S. gymnast to compete, bobbled his uneven bars routine, the fans began chanting ``U-S-A'' to inspire the rest of the squad.
``We were champions out there today. We stayed in control, we fought for every 10th,'' Kip Simons said. ``We had some mistakes, it's hard to go through an entire event with no mistakes.''
But all the cheers weren't enough; the team made too many mistakes.
Roethlisberger, the team leader who's normally as steady as they come, said it all when he fell off the pommel horse, looked at his hands and muttered, ``I can't believe it.''
Jair Lynch turned in a near-perfect parallel bars routine after watching his teammates struggle. He ran down off the podium yelling, ``That's right, that's right.'' His two-day total of 19.375 was third-best, sending him to the event finals for the second time.
Wilson was the only other American to advance to the individual event finals, finishing fifth in the still rings.
Still, Monday's finish was proof Kormann's plan to restore the team to glory was at least on the right track.
He put ``Operation Flip-Flop'' into practice last year, tinkering with routines and increasing their difficulty to put the men on par with the former Soviet powerhouses. The first test came at last year's world championships in Sabae, Japan, when the squad finished third after compulsories.
``I think we've made significant progress,'' Wilson said. ``We've moved up four places from ninth. We can make another jump from there. Why can't we go from fifth to first in 2000?''
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Russia's Alexei Nemov takes off in the vault Mondayby CNBnight at the men's gymnastics team competition. Nemov helped lead
Russia to the gold medal. color