Zmeskal

A world champion raised in a humid Houston gym scored two perfect 10s and finished second.Or maybe it was first.A brittle 15-year-old tumbler from the dusty plains of Oklahoma struck gold inside the Baltimore Arena.Or maybe it was silver.And a kid from Silver Spring vaulted from beyond the Capital Beltway to the big time.The 1992 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials for women ended amid glitter and controversy yesterday.Kim Zmeskal, the reigning world champion, won the two-dashowdown at the Baltimore Arena over challenger Shannon Miller by 1/1,000th of a point, but she finished behind Miller in the overall trials scoring, because it includes results from last month's U.S. championships.

A brittle 15-year-old tumbler from the dusty plains of Oklahoma struck gold inside the Baltimore Arena.A world champion raised in a humid Houston gym scored two perfect 10s and finished second.And a 15-year-old from Silver Spring vaulted from beyond the Capital Beltway to the big-time.The 1992 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials for women ended amid glitter and controversy yesterday.The winner, with the help of a microscrew in her elbow and a loophole in the scoring system, was Shannon Miller, a 4-foot-7, 71-pound wisp from Edmond, Okla.

Wendy Bruce is a woman among children. Nineteen is young, but not in gymnastics, where getting your driver's license is a ticket to retirement.But Bruce is still tumbling, keeping up with kids so tiny they look like a troop of Brownies."

With a microscrew in her left elbow, a bow in her hair and ice in her heart, Shannon Miller took a grip on first place at the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials last night.Three months after tumbling off the uneven bars and dislocating her elbow, the fragile-looking-yet-ferocious-performing 15-year-old from Edmond, Okla., led the compulsories at the Baltimore Arena, piling up a score of 57.057.Miller was all grace and guts, a 4-foot-7, 71-pound dancer who performed with a glint of steel. She stared down the toughest little tumbler of them all, 1991 all-around world champion Kim Zmeskal.

With a microscrew in her left elbow, a bow in her hair, and ice in her heart, Shannon Miller took a grip on first place at the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials last night.Three months after tumbling off the uneven bars and dislocating her elbow, the fragile-looking yet ferocious-performing 15-year-old from Edmond, Okla., led the compulsories at the Baltimore Arena, piling up a score of 57.057.Miller was all grace and guts, a 4-foot-7, 71-pound dancer who performed with a glint of steel. She stared down the toughest little tumbler of them all, 1991 all-around World Champion Kim Zmeskal.

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."

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Look out, Baltimore. Bela's coming to town. And he's bringing a big, ol' bad mood with him."Eleven years I fight and I fight the same kind of response," Bela Karolyi said after the judges failed to deliver marks he felt Kim Zmeskal deserved during the U.S. Gymnastics Championships this weekend."

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Look out, Baltimore. Bela's coming to town. And he's bringing a big, ol' bad mood with him."Eleven years I fight and I fight the same kind of response," Bela Karolyi said after the judges failed to deliver marks he felt Kim Zmeskal deserved during the U.S. Gymnastics Championships this weekend."

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A smile broke through the glower on Bela Karolyi's face.The mountain of a man who pushes those tiny dolls to greatness held his head in mock amazement and then thrust his big paws skyward.And then he used them to hug tiny, size-1 Kim Zmeskal.The little girl who had disappointed him so with a second-place finish in the compulsory round had just scored a 10 in the vault during the optionals last night.It was her first event en route to a third straight U.S. Gymnastics all-around championship -- and almost certainly an Olympic gold medal in Barcelona, Spain.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Kim Zmeskal wobbled the tiniest bit and hesitated for no more than a breath on the balance beam. But it was enough to cost her first place after the compulsory round at the U.S. National Gymnastics Championships last night.The overwhelming favorite to claim this title for a third straight time then fled St. John Arena on the Ohio State University campus shaken and near tears. The face of her coach, Bela Karolyi, was like stone.She left behind tiny, brittle Shannon Miller, whose skin is nearly translucent, whose voice is barely a squeak -- and whose elbow injury supposedly was going to prevent her from doing any more in this meet than some elaborate training.