U.S. teen trumps Russian’s diva routine

ATHENS, Greece — She did not have the magnetic power of Mary Lou Retton, or the dizzy charm of Sarah Hughes, but Carly Patterson did have one final dance in front of her, one last chance to prove that her face belonged on those 70 million McDonald's bags and cups after all.

Svetlana Khorkina, the Russian diva, had just sneered her way through the floor exercise. The self-proclaimed "Queen of Gymnastics" had just finished romping her praying mantis body across the mat, breaking into an I-know-I'm-going-to-win, you-know-I'm-going-to-win smile midway through a routine that landed her in first place, and hand-delivered this smug message to a 16-year-old dreamer from Baton Rouge:

Let's see what you've got, kid.

Khorkina is a drinker, a smoker, a poser (she appeared nude in Playboy) — a party hardy Russian who had won gold in the uneven bars in Sydney and Atlanta and who looked ready to use Patterson's schoolgirl dream as an ashtray. Khorkina is a Jurassic gymnast in more ways than one, ancient at 25 and brontosaurus-like at 5-5. Inside the Olympic Indoor Hall, her body language screamed, "I am woman, you are girl."

Then Patterson attacked the mat, as if those encouraging words from her idol, Retton, were ringing in her ears. "I believe in you," Retton had told her at the trials. "You can do it. You have the talent and you have the desire."

Retton didn't tell Patterson, "You have the guts." Those discoveries can only be made when the lights are hot and the stakes are high, when there's a minute and change separating you from the first all-around gold medal won by an American woman since Retton stole her country's heart in 1984.

"Smile, have fun and do what you can do," Patterson's teammate, Courtney Kupets, had told Patterson before the deciding floor exercise.

Those were nine more words than Patterson's coach, Yevgengy Marchenko, needed to tell her. "I saw in her eyes that she was ready to do it," Marchenko said. "She just went out there and nailed it."

Patterson nailed it like Paul Hamm nailed it here the previous night. She nailed it like another 16-year-old, Hughes, nailed it on the Salt Lake City ice, taking that Bob Beamon leap into history.

Patterson was the last competitor in the last event. Only two athletes in the house had a shot at the gold, and Patterson was one of them. She needed to score a 9.537 to pass Khorkina. She needed to be like Mary Lou the way so many young boys need to be like Mike.

With the sound of anticipation rattling through the crowd, Patterson slapped powder across her hands, steadied herself, and unleashed an athletic energy Khorkina was powerless to match. The American ran, flipped, twirled, somersaulted and, ultimately, hurdled over the Russian, who watched her last chance to win the all-around drift away like a blue-white cloud of cigarette smoke.

After outleaping the world on her four tumbling passes, and after delivering a perfect landing, the kid smiled just as surely — if not as smugly — as Khorkina had before. The judges awarded Patterson a 9.712, sending her into the arms of her coach, Marchenko, who lifted her toward the roof as they both dissolved into a puddle of tears.

"I can't believe it," Marchenko told her. "You're the Olympic champion. You're the all-around Olympic champ."

Actually, the coach could believe it. "She's famous for fighting back," Marchenko would say.

Patterson was in eighth place after the vault, in fourth place after the uneven bars. The beam is where everything changed, where Patterson scored her highest mark (9.725). Khorkina slipped during her routine, and paid the price with a score of 9.462. "I believe it was a minor mistake," the Russian said. "It was barely noticeable and I don't think that it could compare to one point."

It was every bit as noticeable as Adam Nelson's foot fault that lost the shot put on Zeus' homecourt.

"After (Patterson's) beam routine, I knew it," said Bela Karolyi. "We are Olympic champion."

Karolyi coached Retton to gold, and presided over that all-American disaster in Sydney. His wife, Martha, runs the U.S. team now, but even in the shadows, Karolyi remains the master of the program, the most credible voice in the discussion about Retton and Patterson and where their legacies go from here.

"They're two great athletes," Karolyi said, "and very different personalities. But one thing is common: They are strong. They are dedicated. They are aggressive. And that's what makes them great champions.

"Mary Lou was like an open book; what was on her mind was on her mouth. I still call her the sunshine of my coaching career. She was the loveliest person I ever coached in my life. Carly is a little more sturdy, a little more stubborn, more inside, but a ... hell of a competitor.

"They are strong, they are tough, and they will die to win."

But Patterson doesn't pack half of Retton's charisma. On Madison Avenue, spunky sells better than silent and stubborn.

"The American public is going to love her and her sturdiness and her characteristic fighting face," Karolyi maintained. "Yes, she's going to be a very positive idol for American kids. I guarantee you tomorrow millions of young American kids are going to go, ‘I'll be the next Carly Patterson."'

The way Patterson and millions of young American girls woke up wanting to be the next Mary Lou Retton.

"I wanted all my life to be an Olympic champion," Patterson said. "This is a dream come true."

Retton didn't have to beat the entire world in Los Angeles; the Russians spearheaded an Eastern Bloc boycott to answer President Carter's boycott of Moscow. Khorkina defeated Patterson at last year's world championships, and then rubbed her American face in it. In their post-event news conference, Khorkina greeted the silver medalist by showing her pictures of the Russian posing in a magazine.

Khorkina hadn't even bothered to stick around and watch Patterson perform her final vault routine, the one that would separate first place from second. But last night, Khorkina wasn't quite so arrogant. She watched Patterson attack like the American in her bedroom posters, Retton.

Patterson ended up singing "The Star-Spangled Banner." Khorkina ended up proudly carrying the Russian flag across the arena, running the flag across one half of the uneven bars — the lower bar.

"I'm still Olympic champion," Khorkina declared in her news conference, referring to Sydney and Atlanta and the title she demands for eternity.

She wasn't an Olympic champion last night, just a diva who watched Carly Patterson become the queen of gymnastics long before she made it to the senior prom.