More than a decade after Mary Lou Retton and a year since the triumph of Atlanta’s self-proclaimed ““Magnificent Seven,’’ gymnastics in America remains a quadrennial celebration, little noticed except in Olympic years. But out of cheershot, thousan ds of young girls across the country are embracing the sport. Some 1,600 girls are now enrolled in classes at ‘96 Olympic coach Mary Lee Tracy’s Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy, up 60 percent just since last summer’s Games. Training can be the equivalent o f a full-time job. Dantzscher, who began gymnastics at the age of 7, commutes three hours a day to train with coaches Beth and Steve Rybacki in Covina, Calif., and puts in an average of six hours a day five days a week. ““The U.S.A. team inspired me,’’ s he says. ““They all looked so happy. I wanted to be there and do that.’'
The happy gymnast is at the very core of the sport’s new gospel. There is a conscious effort to combat the notion that gymnastics has thrived at the expense of the bodies and psyches of adolescent girls. Steve Rybacki says gymnastics bolsters self-esteem. And Kathy Kelly, women’s program director for USA Gymnastics, wonders if female gymnasts aren’t victims of a sexist double standard. ““It’s funny how in our society there’s never any criticism of boys’ sports,’’ she says. ““But girls are not supposed to be dedicated, perspire, get sore.’’ Kelly doesn’t believe today’s gymnasts can be browbeaten to the top. ““With the amount of dedication it takes, it can’t be forced. You have to want to do it.''
Still, the sport has made some changes to deflect the criticism. Gymnastics is no longer performing its head-in-the-sand trick. The age for eligible gymnasts has been raised to 16 for the Sydney Olympics. (Of course, if this rule had always been in effect, fans would been deprived of the most stirring performance in gymnastics history, Nadia Comaneci’s quadruple gold at the ‘76 Olympics - when she was 14.) And USA Gymnastics has deployed a task force to find ways to fight the ““female-athlete tria d’’ - eating disorders, delayed onset of menstruation and premature osteoporosis (thin and brittle bones). But any sport that puts a primacy on body flips will always favor girls over young women. Moceanu, the youngest of Atlanta’s Mag Seven, could be it s only member still competing in 2000.
Atler, a sunny, ponytailed blonde from Canyon Country, Calif., is the perfect poster child for gymnastics’ new era. She began the sport at the age of 5 (her mom thought a gym was a better place for backflips than the bed), and it soon superseded he r cheerleading ambitions. Vanessa pursues her ninth-grade studies at home in order to meet her demanding training schedule. She combines a bubbly, gung-ho spirit with a southern California flair for showmanship. After ““the worst meet of my life’’ earlie r this year, she concocted a Letterman-like ““10 Reasons Why Vanessa Atler’s Meet Didn’t Suck!’’ for her Web page. Among them: ““I didn’t have a sore neck from medals hanging from it’’ and ““My ears didn’t hurt because there wasn’t any loud cheering afte r my events.’’ If her performances at recent major meets are any indication, Vanessa will have to endure sore necks and ringing ears all the way to Sydney.
