Balance Beam

Ever since she was a little girl, Erin Nett has been as comfortable flipping through the air as she is walking on the ground.Life as a competitive gymnast kept her in the air five days a week for most of the past 13 years. When a broken foot ended her gymnastics career last winter, Nett turned her attention to new heights.Now, the Bel Air High senior is soaring again -- as a pole vaulter."I love the feeling. I can't even explain it," said Nett, 17. "I'm used to flipping around from gymnastics, and this is so much higher.

ATLANTA -- Shannon Miller wanted a gold and Dominique Dawes wanted respect.Last night, these 19-year-olds reached out one last time to seize a bit of glory at the Summer Olympics. Tumbling across a four-inch tightrope, Miller claimed the gold in the balance beam. Dawes, of Gaithersburg, Md., showed she could withstand pressure and pulled out the bronze in floor exercise.It was a magnificent finish for the American women, who sputtered in the past few days after claiming the team gold last week.

In this era of the glib and overly polished sportscaster, the guy who writes out and tosses off his best lines in hopes that television sports columnists will note his "spontaneity," NBC's Dick Enberg stands practically alone.Enberg, the network's lead football voice and nightly essayist during the Olympics, is that increasingly rare breed of sportscaster whose work consistently is of high quality. In the early days of these Games, Enberg, the best storyteller of his era, is up to his usual.

BOSTON -- Dominique Dawes came into the U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials here at the FleetCenter a lot healthier and seemingly a lot happier than she's been since going up on the world's stage four years ago in Barcelona.The most recent and potentially serious injuries, stress fractures of her wrist and foot in the past year, have healed. The last goal of her career as a gymnast, making her second U.S. Olympic team, is in sight."I feel like I'm in control of what I do," Dawes said earlier this week.

BOSTON -- There were not many questions left to be answered in the women's optionals of the U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials last night.The fate of injured stars Shannon Miller and Dominique Moceanu had been decided after compulsories Friday, their places on the team of seven going to Atlanta later this month guaranteed. Four of the other five spots probably were locked up, too.But Dominique Dawes and Kerri Strug had an entirely different agenda. Despite being members of the 1992 team that won a bronze medal in Barcelona, Spain, Dawes and Strug had been in the shadows of Miller and Moceanu.

A record-breaking performance by sophomore Erin Shanley was the highlight of Towson State's victory over six East Coast schools at the 10th Towson State Invitational yesterday at the Towson Center.Shanley's first place all-around score of 39.025 was the second highest in Towson State history and a meet record. She broke another meet record with her first-place floor exercise score of 9.775. Her score of 9.8 on the balance beam was a meet record, as well, and put her in a three-way-tie for first in that event with sophomore teammate Sari Lehmuskallio and William & Mary junior Lynn Dameron.

NEW ORLEANS -- Bela Karolyi said earlier this week that he preferred his latest prodigy, Dominique Moceanu, not win the all-around title in the 1995 National Championships here at the Louisiana Superdome.She would be too young.It would mean too much pressure.Karolyi didn't get his wish, because Moceanu also was too good.In an inspiring performance that many believe served as a preview for next summer's Olympic Games in Atlanta, the 13-year-old wunderkind from Houston won the women's competition last night to become the youngest female national champion in the 33-year history of the event.

NEW ORLEANS -- When she had finished her last routine in the all-around competition of the 1995 national championships Friday night at the Louisiana Superdome, Dominique Dawes could hold back no longer.It had been a long year for the gymnast from Gaithersburg, one filled with injuries and inconsistent results. So as the television camera focused on her, Dawes did something that many hadn't seen her do in a while.She cried."My beam routine made me upset," Dawes said later.Dawes had much different emotions last night -- and much different results.

Ice hockeyThe Carroll County Cougars, a high school ice hockey team, is having trouble adjusting in their first year in the Maryland High Scholastic Hockey League.With Tuesday night's 9-4 loss to Hammond, the Cougars remain winless with a 0-5 record in their 10-game schedule. Carroll competes against Spalding, Wootton and several Howard County teams.The main problem is that the Cougars have only five players with any hockey experience and have limited practice time at the Frederick Sport and Ice Arena.

Did the Baltimore Arena play host yesterday to a gymnastics exhibition, where style had the upper hand over substance, or was the Reese's World Gymnastics Cup a full-fledged competition?The answer, on both counts, was yes.Well, sort of.For Oksana Chusovitina, who claimed the women's all-around title, there was no question that the Reese's Cup was a combination of serious competition and exhibition.And because she approached the exhibition in that fashion, Chusovitina walked away with the gold medal, besting Gaithersburg's Dominique Dawes by one point, and winning $6,550 in prize money.

BEIJING - Shawn Johnson had dark circles under her brown eyes and a headache, but when she jumped on the balance beam last night, she switched on her smile and defiantly pounded out a gold-medal routine. It wasn't the gold Johnson wanted. She had come here as the favorite to win the all-around title, had hoped to lead the U.S. team to a gold medal, had hoped to defend her world championship in the floor exercise and add to that a balance-beam gold medal. But through a succession of silvers - team, all-around, floor - Johnson, 16, of West Des Moines, Iowa, stuck out her chin, wiped away tears and insisted that silver was just as nice as gold.

One-by-one, Dominique Dawes straightened the young gymnasts as they struck a pose on the balance beam. "Stomach in. Hips are squared. The body is lean and tight," she told 9-year-old Christina Riggins, who was striking a graceful pose on the balance beam with her arms outstretched and forming a V. Christina quickly adjusted her position, her face tensed with concentration. Once the girls struck their positions on the 4-inch wide beam, Dawes pushed them. Christina teetered for a moment, then slipped off the beam.

GAITHERSBURG -- The lip-biting started yesterday even before Olympic gymnast Courtney Kupets completed her slide to ninth place in the women's all-around competition. Over the past year, the elite teenage gymnasts she trains with here at Hill's Gymnastics have watched her nail vaults and floor routines with power and grace. But Kupets' early scores from Athens yesterday -- particularly the 8.975 on the balance beam -- rained a quiet disappointment over the leotard-clad girls tumbling and leaping across the cavernous gymnasium.

ATHENS - The team built for gold came up short a few parts last night. Instead of being atop the podium, U.S. women's gymnasts stood one step down, the medals around their necks silver. Romania, which won the team gold in 2000 and was runner-up to the Americans in the 2003 world championships, proved to be the superior performer. "They were the better team tonight," said U.S. coach Kelli Hill. "We opened the door a little bit, and they walked in." After the disappointing 2000 Summer Games, when the women finished fourth, the president of USA Gymnastics, Bob Colorossi, said the Athens squad would be built to win the team gold.

ATHENS -- U.S. women's gymnasts marched into yesterday's team qualification with an unwanted teammate: jitters. Rookie nerves nagged all but one of the gymnasts and caused the youngest member to lose her composure. At the end of the day, however, the little setbacks remained little, as the U.S. squad finished second behind Romania and became one of eight teams to move on to tomorrow's final. Only Carly Patterson seemed inoculated against the jitters, finishing first in the individual rankings and qualifying for the individual all-around final and the apparatus finals in balance beam.

To understand what makes Courtney Kupets the best women's gymnast in the country, you have to stop the action. Look at photos of her on the uneven bars, the vault, even the 4-inch-wide balance beam. Upside down, right side up, somehow the two-time U.S. champion keeps her body as taut as an archer's bowstring. "She's the best. So strong, so straight. Others are very good, but she's picture perfect - literally. Everything is a straight line," says Paul Ziert, the publisher of International Gymnast magazine and former coach of two-time Olympic gold medalist Bart Conner.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - It wasn't medical science alone that allowed Courtney Kupets to regain her world-class gymnastic skills less than 10 months after she ruptured her left Achilles' tendon. Surgical skill was part of it, certainly. But her remarkable recovery was also due in equal parts to hope, perseverance and a determination to remember why she pursued this often painful sport and endured tough months of rehabilitation. "You just go out there and have fun," the 17-year-old from Gaithersburg said.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Even if Courtney Kupets had finished second last night at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, it would have been a storybook comeback to a year filled with injury and rehabilitation. Instead, with a gutsy final routine, the 17-year-old from Gaithersburg won her second consecutive national title, tying Carly Patterson of Texas with a two-day total of 76.450 points. "What a wonderful way to win this, to tie with somebody who's your friend," said Kupets, unaware of the score she needed when she swung onto the uneven bars.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Courtney Kupets may have torn her Achilles' tendon last summer, but she didn't show weakness in her heel or anywhere else last night at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships. The reigning all-around national champion from Gaithersburg led all 32 competitors, completing her four routines with a total score of 38.225, and winning the balance beam. "I was confident," Kupets said, beaming. "Right now, winning nationals isn't as important as doing all my routines cleanly ... but who wouldn't want it?"

MILWAUKEE - Courtney Kupets knew a slip on the balance beam might end her chances of winning the national all-around title. The 16-year-old gymnast from Gaithersburg never flinched, scoring a 9.650 on her final event to claim her first gold medal in a tense battle with two-time defending champion Tasha Schwikert and 15-year-old phenom Hollie Vise last night at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships. Schwikert and Vise tied for second place, joining Kupets as the first three members of the U.S. team that will compete in the World Championships later this summer in Anaheim, Calif.