Olympic Flame Still Burning Bright In Miller Gymnast Says Age, Past Injuries Have No Bearing On Gold-Medal Goal

Shannon Miller doesn’t put much stock in what’s already happened. Her focus is the future, one she hopes includes an Olympic gold medal.

Never mind the injuries that have bothered Miller the past few years - her back, her ankle, her wrist. America’s most-decorated female gymnast, now 19 and a part-time college student, believes she has what is needed to win in Atlanta.

“First of all, I think you’re as old as you feel,” she said after a recent workout. “If I can still train hard and still do the skills that are right up there with everyone else, then the numbers they put as your age don’t matter.

“I think for this year I have a lot more added difficulty (in routines) and I’m going to be right up there with everyone else. Also, I think that being older you have more experience. I’ve been through the Olympics before, so it’ll help some.”

Miller won five medals at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and nearly won the all-around title. In the next two years she dominated the sport, winning back-to-back world all-around championships.

But at the 1994 Goodwill Games, she finished second. “I think that’s mostly when people started saying, ‘Well, she’s going downhill,”’ Miller said.

The tiny gymnast was still tiny, but she had grown about 4 or 5 inches - she is now 5-foot, 95 pounds - and she thinks the growth spurt contributed to a nagging back and shin splints.

After the back healed, other injuries followed. At the 1995 World Championships, a bad ankle caused her to withdraw from two of the individual events. Most recently she has been nursing an injury that started in her right forearm and has settled in the wrist.

“It happens every year, there’s something that bothers a high-level athlete,” said her coach, Steve Nunno, who kept Miller out of the prestigious American Cup meet in February. “This time around we really tried to play it safe.”

Miller reminds people that in the months prior to the 1992 Olympics, she pulled a hamstring and broke her elbow.

“We just want her to be safe and healthy and strong come June,” Nunno said.

The U.S. Championships are June 5-8 in Knoxville, Tenn. The top 14 from that meet will advance to the Olympic Trials later that month in Boston.

Miller is virtually assured of a spot on the Olympic roster. But there also is the question of whether she can outduel the younger athletes, particularly 14-year-old Dominique Moceanu, who beat Miller at the 1995 U.S. Championships.

Nineteen is young, unless you’re a female gymnast, where the mats and beams are teeming with much younger girls.

Nunno doesn’t think the age issue is an issue at all. He contends that advances in equipment and training have started pushing the peak age in the sport toward the later teen years.

“I think it’s like any other sport: When is the optimum time for a body to be at its physical peak?” he said. “It certainly isn’t 14 years of age. It isn’t 15. For the most part, it takes years to develop some of these big skills and very difficult skills the girls can do.”

He uses Belarus’ Svetlana Boguinskaia, one of the top gymnasts in the world, as an example. Now in her early 20s, Boguinskaia is considered one of the favorites in Atlanta.

“She’s winning. It’s not like she’s just hanging in there,” Nunno said.

Miller isn’t the only veteran seeking a spot on the U.S. team. Kerri Strug and Dominique Dawes, both members of the ‘92 Olympic team, are favorites to make it again this year. Dawes is 19, Strug 18.

Miller, a freshman at the University of Oklahoma, where she is taking one three-credit class this semester, works out six days a week for about 5 to 9 hours a day. It’s a routine that has taken her to the top of her sport and sent her around the world.

But it’s also one that, after so many years, can take its toll on the mind and body.

“But you know, you get a lot more out of it, too. The more you put in, the more you get out of it.”

Miller hopes that what she gets out of Atlanta will be coated in gold. After that she wants to complete college, perhaps getting a degree in business, and said there are many other things she would like to do with her life.

But first things first.

“Right now I have to focus on the Olympic Games,” she said.