A Tiny Dancer’s Big Dream All E Will Be On U.S. Gymnast Moceanu

The one to watch this time is 14 years old, stands 4-feet-5, weighs 70 pounds, has dark eyes, the requisite ponytail and one of those innocent, little-girl, “Hey, Ma, watch-me-do-this” smiles that muscles even Princess Di off magazine covers every four summers.

Her name is Dominique Moceanu (Moe-chee-AH-noo), she’s from Hollywood, Calif., and she is the last of the pixies, the final tiny dancer who will walk the fine line of the balance beam as a prepubescent Olympian.

Thank heaven for little girls? Not anymore. At least not the very little girls.

The International Gymnastics Federation, the sport’s governing body, has ruled gymnasts in post-‘96 Olympics must be a minimum 16 years old in the calendar year they compete. The standard has been raised from 15, not a Herculean leap, but high enough, FIG officials figure, to get the women back in women’s gymnastics.

“It’s absolutely a good thing to do,” said Bela Karolyi, who 20 years ago brought 14-year-old Nadia Comaneci to the Montreal Olympics, effectively establishing the standard for the women wunderkinds of summer. “But I say take out the age limit altogether. What does age limit do? It opens sport up to cheating, suspicion, manipulation … I say open the door and let the 14-1/2 -year-old compete with the 24-3/8-year-old and let the performance on the floor determine who is champion.”

The contradiction in Karolyi’s words - keep the kids out vs. “open the door” - provides an apt mirror for the changing dynamics in the sport. It wants to move ahead with older women, such as 18-year-old U.S. sensation Shannon Miller, but it also has achieved higher recognition on the world’s sports stage in the past 20 years because of the achievements of its mighty mites. All the world loves a winner, especially when she is still asking the tooth fairy to leave a gold medal under her pillow.

Karolyi is back again, this time coaching Moceanu, among others. His wife, Martha, is head coach of the U.S. women’s team, which could move her husband to the shadow of the sidelines. But don’t worry, Bela will be allowed to bring his bear hugs to the pit and will remain a staple of NBC’s TV coverage. The Karolyis also coach second-time Olympian Kerri Strug, 17, who wouldn’t have qualified for the Games four years ago if FIG’s move to 16-year-olds had been in place.

Steve Nunno, Miller’s coach, grew up in Burlington, Mass. Under Nunno’s tutelage, Miller has become America’s most decorated gymnast, including her back-to-back world championship all-around titles in ‘93 and ‘94. Miller is in Atlanta as a seasoned 18-year-old, one who possibly could thwart a Moceanu medal run, but Nunno remains a big believer in letting the younger girls compete.

“They want it to be women’s gymnastics and not steal their youth,” said Nunno. “Well, I don’t believe it’s stealing their youth. They compete in gymnastics because they love to do it. I’m not sure an age limit will solve anything.

Men’s gymnastics has never stirred a similar debate. The male Olympic gymnasts generally are in their early and mid-20s, old enough and strong enough to execute demanding routines on still rings and horizontal bar. A tiny 14-year-old boy might be able to dazzle the judges in the floor exercises, but it would be virtually impossible to match a 20- or 22-year-old in brute strength.

Fred Roethlisberger, the men’s gymnastics coach at the University of Minnesota the past 25 years, was a member of the U.S. Olympic squad in ‘68. His son John is the senior member of this year’s U.S. squad. His daughter Marie was a member of the ‘84 U.S. Olympic squad.

Roethlisberger believes the increase in the age requirement is appropriate and positive for the women.

“I like it because I’d rather watch mature women perform instead of little girls,” he said. “But that’s just my opinion. I like the artistry of the older girls.”

Marie Roethlisberger, who graduated from medical school last month, profited more from the gymnastics experience as she got older, said her father.

“The thing that I didn’t care for,” he said, “is that when she was younger, she didn’t have as much to say about her training. It became more valuable to her as a life experience when she was 18-20 years old and she took over her own training. When she was younger, she was more of a robot, doing what she was told.”

The Games are about to begin. For the better part of two weeks, crowds of some 30,000 will pack the Georgia Dome to see the gymnasts perform. A good chunk of NBC’s TV time some estimate up to 50 percent - will focus on gymnastics. Much of the attention will be on the cute-as-a-button, accurate-as-a-Swiss-watch Moceanu.

Four years ago, as a 10-year-old, Moceanu was sitting home in Tampa, Fla., mesmerized by TV’s coverage of the Games. Her family invested in the ill-fated Triplecast, making sure she could watch every tumble, every pirouette on the high bar.

“I was there yelling, ‘C’mon, Kim,”’ recalled Moceanu, rooting then for another of Karolyi’s top talents, Kim Zmeskal. “I never thought I’d be there. Now this is it. I’m here.”

And now she’s the one. All speed, all smiles, 4-feet-something-or-other worth of youth and innocence ready to come your way. Perhaps for a last time.