Retton and Daggett to Lead U.S. in American Cup Gymnastics Meet

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. —  Though the past six months of post-Olympic travel, toasts and TV appearances have been enjoyable, gold and bronze medal-winning gymnast Tim Daggett is beginning to suffer withdrawal symptoms.

The 22-year-old UCLA student, who won his individual Olympic bronze for a dazzling side-horse routine, has found he is not yet ready to live without the bittersweet combination of dread and eagerness that is an integral part of international gymnastics comptition.

Daggett therefore is ending his well earned post-Olympics vacation from competition by representing the United States in the 15-nation American Cup invitational at Indianapolis’ Market Square Arena March 2 and 3.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” Daggett said during a telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles. “One of the reasons I got into gymnastics and stayed with it all these years was because I liked that feeling that goes with competing. You know, there is a lot of pressure, but there are a lot of rewards in dealing with that pressure successfully too.”

Daggett is the first members of the U.S. men’s Olympic gold medalist gymnastics team to return to competition since the Los Angeles Games. He and Scott Johnson, a late scratch from the America Cupn because of illness, also are the only members in training.

Teammates Mitch Gaylord, two-time American Cup champion Peter Vidmar, Jim Hartung and Bart Conner apparently have not decided whether to continue in the physically and emotionally demanding sport.

The United States’ Olympic sweetheart, all-around gold medalist Mary Lou Retton, also has decided to resume her competitive career by defending her 1983 and 1984 American Cup titles.

The American Cup is an apt venue for Retton’s return, for it was in the 1983 meet that she tumbled into the international limelight by winning the two-day competition as a last-minute substitute for injured teammate Dianne Durham.

Also representing the United States in the competition are one of the two youngest members of the U.S. women’s Olympic silver-medalist team, Michelle Dusserre; Olympic team alternate Marie Roethlisberger, and Dan Hayden and Brian Meeker, who finished ninth and 10th in the competition last June to select the United States’ eight-man Olympic squad.

Though Daggett will be the sentimental favorite in Indianapolis, the strongest competitor in the men’s half of the American Cup competition should be China’s Li Ning. If Li is in good shape, he no doubt will be looking to atone for his dual disappointments at the Olympics: the silver-medal finish of the 1983 world champion Chinese team behind the United States and his bronze-medal finish in the all-around competition behind gold medal-winner Koji Gushiken of Japan and silver medalist Vidmar.

Retton’s chief rivals in the Olympic all-around competition, Romanians Ecaterina Szabo and Simona Pauca, will be absent from Indianapolis. Instead Olympic gold medalist Romania will be represented by Camelia Voinea and Daniela Silizas.

The Soviet Union, which led a Los Angeles Olympics boycott, did not enter the American Cup. East Germany, which also boycotted the Olympics, entered the invitational and then backed out about two weeks before the meet, saying its gymnasts were suffering from flu.

Though Retton, Li, and Daggett are the main attractions of the American Cup, the meet will provide gymnastics fans with an opportunity to watch younger, lesser known gymnasts waiting to replace aging veterans such as Conner, Hartung, Julianne McNamara and Kathy Johnson. CBS will televise the second day of competition at live.

Daggett is young enough to stay in competition four more years and be the veteran of the 1988 Olympics team, but he is unsure whether he will be financially or physically able to keep up with the demands of the sport.

But for now, he is training with the same kind of dedication towards improvement and perfection that he did heading into the Los Angeles Games.

“Four years are a long time, so I don’t know about the ’88 Olympics,” Daggett said. “But I really enjoy what I’m doing. It’s a challenge and a lot of fun, and if I keep going, I’m going to do it right. There’s a lot of opportunities for those of us who were in the Games, but if you want to train and you want to compete, you have to turn some of those opportunities down. I have turned some down already.”

Daggett says he will use a brand new horizontal bar routine in Indianapolis and will introduce some new elements in his floor exercise. Brazen in his approach to the sport, he regrets that the rules of scoring and the levels of competition force him to limit his derring-do.

“The level of competition is so high already, you just can’t make any errors at all in your routine,” he said. “From the time you start, there can’t be any bobbles at all, so I just can’t risk doing too many new things.”