It's not often a world gymnastics all-around champ attempts to win the U.S. national championship, too. Kim Zmeskal, now retired, did it, and now Shannon Miller, the 1993 world titlist, only the second American to ever win the world, is in Salt Lake City looking to follow her 1993 world, Hilton Challenge and Olympic Festival titles with a win in the 1993 National Championships at the Delta Center.
The four-day meet begins Wednesday. Some 130 athletes, the nation's best men and women in junior and senior divisions, will compete for national championships in all-around and individual events and for places on the national team for the next year.The top 20 women and 12 men make the senior national team, from which representatives are chosen for the most important national and international meets for the next year. Another four men make the senior development squad. Twelve women and seven men make the junior national team.
Woods Cross's Casey Bryan, 18, of USA Gymnastics World will be one of eight men seeking the junior title and team berth. He's been on national teams for eight years. Officials decided Tuesday morning to have the juniors compete at the same time as the seniors.
For Miller, 16, of Edmond, Okla., this is the fourth time in the last 10 months that she has visited Salt Lake City. She came with the 1992 Tour of World and Olympic Champions exhibition in October, was here for the American Classic as an exhibition performer in late March, then came again as a youth-group speaker a few months ago.
"It's nice to go someplace that has a lot of things you can do," Miller said, but there will be no sight-seeing. This is serious business. Miller, you see, has won the world title and finished second by .0012 in the Barcelona Olympics and is doubtless America's top current name in gymnastics, but she has never won the national championship. She was hurt last year, a dislocated elbow that required surgery. It got better just in time for '92's Olympic Trials.
Miller has serious competition for that national title.
Kerri Strug, 15, her teammate at Steve Nunno's Dynamo club in Oklahoma, won the American Classic all-around, was fifth all-around at the world championships and runner-up to Miller at the 1993 Olympic Festival in San Antonio three weeks ago. Nunno calls them the "one-two punch of American women's gymnastics."
Dominique Dawes, 16, of Hill's Angels (Maryland) was fourth all-around at the world championships but took silver medals on bars and beam and was second at the American Classic; she could make it one-two-three punch, in any order.
Marianna Webster, another from Dynamo, surprised Nunno taking third in the recent Olympic Festival.
Strug is one of this country's most-experienced international performers. She's from Tucson and trained with Bela Karolyi until he retired following the '92 Olympics. She then moved to Oklahoma City. She's been in 13 international meets and won seven gold medals but was behind Zmeskal at Karolyi's and is second to Miller now at Dynamo. The 4.0 student is daughter of a heart surgeon and hopes to become a pediatrician.
The senior men's competition seems wide open, with defending champion John Roethlisberger of Minnesota, Scott Keswick and Chris Waller of UCLA and Lance Ringnald and Chainey Umphrey of Albuquerque the best-known names. Nebraska's Dennis Harrison and Stanford's Jair Lynch, a '92 Olympian, both 21, are younger challengers.
Ringnald, 23, who made a name for himself at the 1988 Olympic Trials in the Salt Palace at age 18, is the most-experienced of the men but has struggled to return to form ever since a shoulder injury during a still-ring routine at the 1991 World Championships.
Roethlisberger, 23, the 1993 NCAA all-around champion and member of the 1992 Olympic team (34th all-around; team was sixth), makes a habit of winning domestic meets. He has three straight NCAA all-around championships and two national-championships all-around titles. He is son of University of Minnesota coach Fred Roethlisberger, a 1968 Olympian, and brother of 1984 Olympian Marie Roethlisberger.
Keswick, 23, a Las Vegas resident, is a '92 Olympian and a member of the '91 and '93 world championship teams. He set an NCAA record winning three straight national rings championships and was the '92 Nissen - - Award winner as the country's top male collegiate gymnast.
Umphrey, 23, won the '93 World University Games Trials all-around and was a member of the '91 and '89 world championships American teams. He's from Albuquerque but competes for UCLA. Brother Greg Umphrey is also in the field this week.
Waller, 24, is a '92 Olympian who was sixth on pommel horse at the '93 world championships. He was '91 national champ and world-championship team member. He lives in Los Angeles.
Richard Grace of Nebraska comes to this meet after winning the Olympic Festval all-around The 1993 Coca-Cola National Championships, sanctioned by USA Gymnastics, a.k.a. U.S. Gymnastics Federation, is sponsored by the Salt Lake City Olympic bid Committee for the 2002 Winter Games. Tickets are available at the Delta Center and Smith's Tix, and KUTV-Ch. 2 will televise taped meet highlights Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 6 p.m.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
National Championships
At Delta Center
Scheduled events:
Wednesday: 2:30-5 p.m. - Junior and Senior men's compulsories. 7:30-10 p.m. - Senior women's compulsories.
Thursday: 2-4:30 p.m. - Junior women's compulsories. 7-9:30 p.m. - Junior and Senior men's optionals.
Friday: 7:30-10 p.m. - Senior women's optionals.
Saturday: 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. - Junior women's optionals. 4-6 p.m. - Men's individual-event finals. 7-9 p.m. - Women's individual-event finals.