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THE SUPERDOME in Sydney's Olympic Park was more than just a sports arena this afternoon. As the venue for a glittering gymnastics gala - a FIG (International Gymnastics Federation) presentation of all the remarkable skills in the sport - it was also a theatre. For Russia's Alexei Nemov, and the other gymnasts who have won gold medals there, it was a time to relax; to forget about scorecards and concentrate on putting on a show. The one they produced - against a background of jazz music and clever lighting - was so entertaining that all it needed to make the picture complete was a curtain to allow them to milk the applause in a more appropriate manner. Not that Nemov, the undisputed star of the men's artistic gymnastic competitions in Sydney, was in need of this. When all the gymnasts were taking their bow at the end, he was the one who appeared to play to the crowd the most. And, while he clearly enjoyed taking centre stage, he had no compunctions about urging other gymnasts to share the public spotlight with him.
IT WAS a moment which went some way towards explaining why Nemov, in addition to being the most successful male gymnast in Sydney with two gold medals, one silver and three bronze from eight events, can also claim to be the most popular. Russia's former FIG president, Yuri Tito, an Olympic gold medallist himself in 1956, talked about him afterwards like a father discussing his child. Referring to the tendency for top gymnasts to become too intense and shut themselves off from the crowds watching them, he said: "One reason why I like this gentleman is that he is so contactable to the public. He always wants to bridge the gap between the gymnasts and the spectators." This principle can be a sensitive issue, even to Tito. "Some gymnasts will try to get the crowd behind them in the hope that it will influence the judges. They take it to the point where it is so artificial. I do not trust them. "But with Alexei, it is different," he added. "The warmth he shows to the spectators is genuine and he knows where to draw the line."
HE ALSO appreciates that, for all his individual success in being crowned the all-round Olympic champion, he is essentially part of a team with responsibilities towards the group. Trent Dimas, the former US gymnast who won an Olympic gold medal in the Barcelona Games of 1992, said: "He has a good attitude. What I found so interesting about him was the way he helped the Russian team get their bronze medal. They were in fourth position when he went into his parallel bars routine, and there was immense pressure on him - it would have been a huge upset if the Russians had not got a medal. "But he handled it superbly. The thing was, he wanted to pull out all the stops for them. There is clearly an all-for-one one-for-all atmosphere within the team, and that stems as much from his attitude as it does from anything else." This spirit of cameraderie should not be taken for granted. Dimas felt that when he won his gold medal, an unexpected triumph which gave him the distinction of being the only US gymnast to do it in an Olympiad outside America, his colleagues were jealous of him.
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