Gymnastics always good for drama

HBO sent me a preview copy of the July 22 edition (10 p.m. EST/PST) of "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel," which will have a segment that focuses on how difficult it is to become an elite-level gymnast.

Dominique Moceanu, a member of the 1996 gold medal-winning team dubbed "The Magnificent Seven," is 26 now and the mother of a seven-month old daughter.

Moceanu told HBO that her sacrifices of living a spartan life, always watching her diet, and enduring several injuries (including a stress fracture during the Olympic year) are not something she'd do again.

She said her coaches, who included Bela and Martha Karolyi, showed "very little compassion." And she told a story of having an aunt help her to smuggle Twizzlers, Mentos and gum into the practice gym by hiding them inside a teddy bear.

Moceanu didn't talk about how she tried to qualify for the 2000 Athens Olympics and the 2006 national team , after the Karolyis invited her to the monthly gymnastics training camps at their ranch.

HBO also interviewed Jennifer Sey, a former gymnast who trained in Allentown, Pa., at the Parkettes camp. Sey recently published a book, "Chalked Up," about her unhappy experiences. She did an extensive interview on Salon.com about why she wrote the book.

Chellsie Memmel, who was named to the U.S. Olympic team last Saturday, told HBO about her efforts to overcome injuries (shoulder and ankle surgery) and living with a diet that includes fruit for breakfast, chicken for lunch and more fruit for dinner. Things that Memmel describes as a normal part of discipline that most elite athletes come to accept.

Women's gymnastics and figure skating are tough sports. Most elite athletes are no older than 20 and have trained for at least a decade during a time in life when their bones are still growing. The daily pounding often results in stress injuries, small fractures and hip injuries.

There seems an element of sexism, though, when every four years, the Olympics come around -- and women's gymnastics and figure skating invariably are singled out as being particularly cruel sports.

Nose around youth baseball and check out the surgical scars on pitchers' elbows. Or women's high school and college basketball for the knee and shoulder surgical scars. Has Candace Parker, her coaches or family ever been criticized for letting her continue to play basketball after her knee injuries?

These girls may be tiny, but they also are driven athletes. Shawn Johnson would rather be in the gym than on the computer, would rather eat grilled fish than a Big Mac, and says "that's OK" if she ends up with aches and pain in 10 or 20 years. "So do football players," Johnson says. "Nobody stops them."

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: Dominique Moceanu is shown with other gymnasts before the start of a 2006 competition in Kansas City. Credit: Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star

Comments

[Unimpressed reader and former newspaper reporter]

Yeah; and no big deal if these girls--all under the age of
20 should tackle such hardcore physical training on such a restricted calorie diet that they are setting themselves up
for stress fractures and hip injuries. These are GIRLS; not
fully grown. Pro athletes or not, this is 2008. Let's apply MODERN PHYSICAL TRAINING METHODS.

This blog was an editorial, not facts.
Every sport can benefit from hiring educated, progressive coaches to help these young people mature into healthy individuals. They are people, not racehorses, correct?

[MtnBiker]

I find it ironic that girls under 13 are making decisions that affect their whole lives, but are not allowed to post comments to this discussion.

[Diane Pucin]

This is in response to "Unimpressed Reader." Yes, the post contained some of my opinion. That opinion is based on having covered gymnastics in every Olympics since 1992. What information do you have that the coaches are not informed or progressive or that modern physical training methods aren't used? The equipment is better, the training is better. The fact remains that gymnastics and figure skating demand consistent pounding on growing bones. And with new scoring systems that reward more and more difficult tricks, it encourages even more pounding.
-- Diane Pucin

[Catalina]

Dominique Moceanu has all the reasons in the world to complain about the treatment by her coaches. I am just happy for her that she is so well rounded and happy. I hope this for all the girls that didn't make the Olympic team, like Shayla Worley. Seems her coach never allowed her to heal 100% and then she ends up breaking her leg at the last "training" camp.

[Dannely]

Wow, that was a really dismissive blog. While I agree with you that injuries to gymnast shouldn't be considered all together different than those acquired in other youth sports that doesn't take away from the fact that these athletes are often expected to not just train but compete through serious injuries. There are some gyms and coaches who are better than others - Shawn who you used as an example trains about 2/3 the hours that others put in, when she developed an injury in her leg after the last Worlds it was allowed time to heal before it became a stress fracture. Now compare that to Shayla Worley who was injured and reportedly training seven days a week for around six hours a day only to break her leg not on an acrobatic skill but a dance element on beam. That tells me that Chow is using better training methods than Worley's coach...

Marta's centralized training camps are a great idea but the methods Marta favors when selecting teams are disturbing. Look back at the American Cup this year Worley was told to compete despite a nagging injury and we all know how that story ends. Maybe if she had been allowed to rest then it would have had ended differently.

Above you posted that you have covered gymnastics since 1992 - Moceanu was involved long before that, she's experienced it all first hand, she's friend and mentor to a lot of the current elites and she was successful enough for her opinions to not be dismissed outright as sour grapes. Thus, she's in a unique position to speak out over how these athletes are treated in hopes of sparking positive changes. I for one am incredibly proud that the little gymnast I looked up to in 1996 when I was introduced to the sport as an eight year old has the guts to do what she can to foster a better environment for the little girls who want to follow in her footsteps.

[Lindsay]

I love reading your coverage of gymnastics, Diane! I'm very much appreciative of your work. Keep it up! :)

[boring]

Moceanu wants attention. She is attention seeker bitter she wasn't allowed to compete at nationals in 06 . She loved the sport and evrything about it before she didn't get her own way. She couldn't eat junk? so what. Most athletes don't.

She isn't a mentor to the younger gymnast except Sacramone because the two of them will do anything to get some media time.

[robert]

fruit for breakfast, chicken for lunch, more fruit for dinner? welcome to my life, minus the chicken. and nobody has ever told me what to eat. i'm a marathon runner with olympic aspirations, and i live on cereal and fruit. and more cereal and fruit. and granola bars. and lots and lots of water. i love to work out, partly because some of the tastiest, most sinful (for me) foods are consumed during workouts so that i can get carbs, protein and fat for energy input/output.

know what sucks the most? how much all that fresh fruit costs. that and the stomach cramps that 1000 calories of fruit sugar gives you. it tastes sooooo good though, that the cramps are worth it. and the cost . . . i just run to work and back every day. 32-mile commute.

self-discipline, guys. it's not a bad thing. you don't want kids to give up junk food, but you want to keep them from having sex?

[Heather]

Robert--That's not self discipline, that is disordered eating.