Zmeskal

Zmeskal takes floor title in world gymnasticsKim Zmeskal bopped her way to the floor exercise title yesterday at the World Gymnastics Championships in Paris.Zmeskal, 16, performed to a medley of '50s rock 'n' roll music, including "Rock Around the Clock." She won the world all-around title last year, and she will be on center stage at the U.S. Olympic Gymnastic Trials, June 6-13 at the Baltimore Arena.In the men's competition, ex-Soviet Vitali Scherbo won the rings, tied for first in the pommel horse and came in second in the floor exercise.

GAITHERSBURG -- She lives outside the Capital Beltway, far from the mainstream of American gymnastics.To find her, you slice through Montgomery County on two-lane back roads weaving through a patch of suburbia that leads to a converted factory at the end of a road.The evening is warm, unusual in the spring of 1992. The garage doors are open. Rock music pours out into the night. But inside, all you can see are kids. Fifty or more. Most of them girls. Tumbling. Soaring.They call themselves "Hill's Angels."

BARCELONA, Spain -- Forget the sweetheart stuff. She's 4 feet 8 and weighs 80 pounds and has these big blue eyes and a bouncing blond pony tail. But don't be deceived.Kim Zmeskal has a heart as big as Barcelona, as big as the Summer Olympics.Last night, she wore a lucky bobby pin in her hair and had steel in her step, earning a reprieve while leading the United States to a team bronze medal in gymnastics.Zmeskal, the reigning world champion who nearly knocked herself out of contention for the all-around title by falling off the balance beam in the compulsories, picked herself up. She had the highest score of last night's optionals, leapfrogged two teammates and earned one of 36 spots for tomorrow night's all-around final.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The wave of kids and parents followed Kim Zmeskal out of the arena and across the street to a hotel. There were thousands of them, screaming in the night, asking for autographs and handshakes and pictures, jostling for a spot next to the 4-foot-7, 80-pound, 15-year-old girl.Zmeskal had taken this leap of faith in the Hoosier Dome on Friday night, becoming the first U.S. gymnast at the World Championships to win the women's all-around gold medal. Now, she was given this dose of superstar reality.

BARCELONA, Spain -- Forget the sweetheart stuff. She's 4 feet 8 and weighs 80 pounds and has these big blue eyes and a bouncing blond pony tail. But don't be deceived.Kim Zmeskal has a heart as big as Barcelona, as big as the Summer Olympics.Last night, she wore a lucky bobby pin in her hair and had steel in her step, earning a reprieve while leading the United States to a team bronze medal in gymnastics.Zmeskal, the reigning world champion who nearly knocked herself out of contention for the all-around title by falling off the balance beam in the compulsories, picked herself up. She had the highest score of last night's optionals, leapfrogged two teammates and earned one of 36 spots for tomorrow night's all-around final.

BARCELONA, Spain -- OK, so she's not Mary Lou Retton. She doesn't sparkle while tumbling. She doesn't smile on cue. She doesn't leap into the arms of a coach.All Shannon Miller does is pile up medals in a Summer Olympics without a boycott.Last night, the 4-foot-9, 73-pound gymnast who wears heart-shaped diamond earrings and performs with a grimace on her face took away one silver and two bronzes in the women's individual apparatus final.With a silver in the all-around and a bronze in the team competition, Miller finished with five medals, tying Retton's American record set in the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

One competition produced a controversy, the other a team. One ended with a parade as charade, the other finished with six men smiling and one man weeping, saying, "I just made my life today." The 1992 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials, which ended Saturday night at the Baltimore Arena, were the tumbling equivalent of the NHL's regular season. Was this really necessary? A world champion won on the floor yet lost on points. A women's team was named. Sort of. Adults shouted.

The nine-city, post-Olympic gymnastics tour will include stops in Baltimore and Washington.In what may be the last hurrah for many of the Olympic athletes, the tour is expected to include Kim Zmeskal, Betty Okino and Wendy Bruce, as well as members of the men's team, including Trent Dimas, who won the United States' only gold medal yesterday. Some of the foreign gymnasts may also be invited to join the tour.The tour is tentatively scheduled to begin Aug. 21 in Detroit, with a stop at Baltimore Arena on Aug. 22 and at the Capital Centre on Aug. 23.The tour is scheduled to continue on Sept.

BARCELONA, Spain -- He is tired of being the bad guy, of seasons without end, of a job that offers more headaches than perks, more heartaches than triumphs.Most of all, he is just tired of the controversy that swirls around him each time one of his little tumblers takes center stage at the Summer Olympics.Yesterday, U.S. Olympic gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi sounded and acted like aman preparing to back away from day-to-day coaching."I have no intention to abandon gymnastics and run away from the sport I love so much," Karolyi said.

YesterdayGymnastics: Kim Zmeskal tumbled from the balance beam -- and so did her hopes for an all-around medal -- but Shannon Miller and Dominique Dawes were rock solid as the U.S. team moved into second place behind the Unified Team after team compulsories.Basketball: Charles Barkley led the U.S. team with 24 points and one thrown elbow as the Dream Team outscored Angola, 116-48 -- very nearly an Olympic-record margin.Swimming: Nelson Diebel, who has Olympic rings tattooed on his hip, gave the United States its first gold medal, winning the 100-meter breaststroke in Olympic-record time.