FROM THE EDITOR: ENJOYING THAT OLYMPIC YEAR MAGIC

Although a little of the excitement of other years seems to be missing, I have still enjoyed the 2000 Olympics. Perhaps the 15-hour time delay (and accidentally hearing the results of one event I was planning on watching that night) has taken a little of the spontaneity out of it. Still, the Olympics have their own magic.

I well remember watching the 1972 Munich games. They were my first. I got to see Mark Spitz and Olga Corbett step into the limelight. There have been many highlights during the intervening years, such as Bruce Jenner and Nadia Comaneci dominating in Montreal in 1976 and Mary Lou Retton shining in 1984.

I have to admit that women's gymnastics has always been a favorite Olympic sport of mine. Maybe Olga got me hooked back in 1972. If she didn't, then Mary Lou definitely did. I guess there's something about such seemingly fragile little athletes displaying such huge amounts of guts, competitive fire and athleticism that awes a spectator. I naturally root for the US athletes, but have always had some favorite individuals from other nations.

I became a lifelong fan of Svetlana Boginskaya during the 1992 games in Barcelona. I had always admired her work. Nicknamed "The Belarussian Swan" due to her elegance and grace, she also had the somewhat less flattering moniker of "The Ice Princess." She was considered an overly-competitive, frigid individual, who was criticized for glaring angrily at American Kim Zmeskl when Zmeskl narrowly beat her for the world championship in 1991.

Personally, I have never seen anything wrong with a competitor disliking losing. Acting rude is one thing; being visibly unhappy with losing is another. In any case, one of the women's individual competitions was taking place and a feature had just been aired on the Unified Team's Tatiana Gutsu. It explained how like with most of the present and former Communist countries she was taken from her parents and sent to a year-round gymnastics school, getting to see her family only once or twice a year. A hint of the pressure the young athletes are under was also given. They were taken care of by the state and they were expected to win. Period.

To make a long story short, Gutsu messed up. I cannot recall the exact event, but it was her specialty. She had been expected to take gold. Instead she fell and failed to medal at all. The camera showed the tiny blonde teenager sobbing inconsolably. Suddenly the towering (compared to Gutsu) figure of the "Ice Princess" was standing behind her, holding her tight as she cried. From that moment on Svetlana has been my favorite gymnast. I was happy to see her hang around long enough to qualify for the 1996 games for her native Belarus -- although she didn't quite have the flexibility (at the ripe old age of 23) to medal.

She has since moved to America and "retired" to the entertaining Rock & Roll Gymnastics competitions, as have Zmeskl and others. For those who haven't seen these competitions, they are floor routines only, with classic rock music, grown-up gymnasts and an attempt to put a little extra pizzazz and sex appeal into the show. Some currently active gymnasts like Dominique Moceanu also compete. Zmeskl, by the way, who also created some warm fuzzy moments for TV audiences in 1992 when she continually failed to live up to her huge billing entering the Olympics, has been the most dominant female in the Rock & Roll Championships.

This year I enjoyed watching another Svetlana. Like the Belarussian Swan, Svetlana Khorkina is tall (comparatively speaking), graceful and potentially intimidating. It was easy to see her displeasure when the Russian team failed to take gold in the team competition. Her competitive spirit and willingness to lead her team by example cannot be questioned, though. Other than the uneven bars disaster (with bars being at the wrong height during warm-ups, then changed prior to the competition), she came through brilliantly and tearfully dedicated her success to the people of Russia. (She did note, though that she would never forget "what they did to me" during the aforementioned team competition mix-up.)

She also -- like Boginskaya -- showed some real class when she suggested that teammate Elena Zamolodtchikova take her place in the vault finals. This was both because she felt Zamolodtchikova had a better chance at taking gold and so her teammate would have her own opportunity to shine. Zamolodtchikova (and, yes, I AM going to an Olympic gymnastics web site and cutting/pasting these names to my text!) did indeed take the gold and Svetlana captured her own gold in the uneven bars.

Of course who could NOT love Laura Wilkinson? The 22-year-old Texan smiled her way through a grueling test in the women's 10 meter platform diving competition. Breaking three bones in one foot this spring, she had not been in the water until a few weeks ago. Having to wear a special right shoe to climb the tower ladder, she rallied from eighth place to win gold, then tearfully quoted scripture as soon as the microphone was in front of her. Wheaties boxes, here she comes!

I guess the only thing that would have made this year's Olympics more exciting -- other than the time lag -- would be more success by the Americans. Still, I don't like the move to professional sports. The "Dream Team" concept was a joke. It used to be exciting to see if the best American college kids could beat the burly Russian and Spanish veterans. Usually they did. I guess gold half the time and silver half the time wasn't good enough.

Perhaps instead of sending the NBA all-star team to the Olympics, we should try the old Communist strategy. We could boost US basketball by shipping all the best youth league prospects to some high security training site 11 months a year throughout their teenage years. That way we would have a right to DEMAND a gold medal.