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Matured Moceanu takes aim at Olympic return in Sydney
By Kevin Goheen
Little by little, Dominique Moceanu feels it coming back. The skills she once made look so simple as a tiny 14-year-old are being re-learned and polished as a matured 18-year-old who has hopes of a second chance at the Olympics.
It's been three months since Moceanu, a member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic gold-medal-winning gymnastics team in Atlanta, relocated her training to the Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy and coach Mary Lee Tracy. Three months of putting in five-to-eight-hour workout days six days a week with fellow international elite-level gymnasts Alyssa Beckerman, Sierra Sapunar, Jennie Thompson and Morgan White.
Three months to get a little closer to Sydney, Australia.
''The environment and the training here are exactly what I've been looking for,'' Moceanu said. ''It's just not going to come overnight and you need to be patient with it. I knew there wasn't a lot of time, so I've had to speed up the process by doing extra stuff just to get back into shape.''
Her post-Olympics saga is well-known - she was granted legal independence from her parents when she was 17 and the CGA is her fourth training base since the Atlanta Games - but she seems to have put any troubles well behind her.
Former Cincinnatian Jaycie Phelps, another '96 Olympian who now lives and trains in Arizona, grew under the tutelage of Tracy until graduating from Northwest High School in 1998. She said Moceanu can prosper in Cincinnati because Tracy will provide plenty of discipline and strong support.
''I think she needed a team to train with and Mary Lee's a great coach,'' Phelps said. ''I'm happy for Dom that she found a place that fits her and what she needs.''
Moceanu is one of four members of that '96 team - along with Amy Chow, Shannnon Miller and Phelps - who are attempting to make this year's team after either retiring or taking significant time off. Moceanu won the all-around competition at the 1998 Goodwill Games, but that was her last international competition.
''I'm being optimistic. I have as good a chance as anyone else,'' Moceanu said. ''I know its inside of me, it just a matter of getting it all back.''
The next big step for Moceanu is a May training camp in Huntsville, Texas, at the ranch of her former coach, Bela Karolyi. Karolyi is now the coordinator for the 2000 USA Gymnastics women's national team and has been conducting monthly camps at his facilities outside of Houston since January.
Moceanu's four other CGA training partners are at this month's camp, which begins today a nd runs through Thursday.
Moceanu is pleased with how her routines are coming together. She's been able to do full sets on the balance beam and all of her tumbling on the floor exercise - her two favorite and strongest events. She placed fourth on the floor and sixth on the beam in Atlanta.
She's comfortable that with a little more than three months to go before the national gymnastics championships in St. Louis, she's on target. Experience tells her so.
''When you're older, you see gymnastics in a different light,'' Moceanu said. ''The maturity sets in and you understand what you have to go through.
''It's a completely different outlook at the sport. I'm glad I got to experience it at th at age and now I'm having an opportunity to experience it at this age.''
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