Time - Man of the Year/Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso/moy/072792/07279932.000

Text File | 1993-04-08 | 4KB | 88 lines

                                                                                OLYMPICS, Page 59

1992 SUMMER GAMES

Star Gymnasts


    GRACE AND GUTS, BUT WHAT ABOUT HER STAGE FRIGHT?
    Henrietta Onodi, Hungary

    "She is so far ahead of her country's other gymnasts that
finding training partners has been a problem. "There was a year
when I trained alone," says Hungary's Henrietta Onodi. "It was
terrible." Her isolated, gutsy quest has won international
renown. "She's got the hearts of everybody," says Donna Strauss,
a U.S. coach.

    The question is whether the green-eyed, dark-haired
18-year-old can conquer her stage fright. Dogged by a history
of erratic performances, she could be her own worst enemy if she
suffers a small slip early in the competition and loses her
concentration. Behind the scenes, Onodi's precompetition jitters
can be comical. "Henni always forgets something," says teammate
Ildiko Balog, "like her leotard or her competition number." But
if she stays calm and summons some hey-look-at-me showmanship,
she could hit gold. At 4 ft. 10 in., her lithe,
well-proportioned frame creates the illusion of greater height,
and her floor routine, set to West Side Story, offers a grace
and artistry rare in the tumbling-heavy all-around event.

    A LITTLE SHORT IN THE TOOTH
    Kim Hwang Suk, North Korea

    Even in a sport where champions are tiny, Kim Hwang Suk
makes her rivals look like giants. The North Korean is just 4
ft. 4 in. tall and weighs only 68 lbs. On the uneven parallel
bars, however, no one stands above her. At the world
championships in Indianapolis last September, she scored a
perfect 10 to win the event and was called back to the podium
twice for bows.

    But her triumph rekindled speculation about her age. The
controversy began at the Stuttgart world championships, where
she listed her birth date as Feb. 15, 1975, which met by 46 days
the competitive minimum of 15. "Nonsense," insists Bela Karolyi,
the U.S. trainer, who admits to faking birth dates in his native
Romania to allow underage gymnasts to perform. As evidence,
Karolyi points out the missing front tooth in Kim's engaging
smile. "I lost it when I hit the bar in practice," explains Kim.
"But she was missing two in Stuttgart," replies Karolyi. "One
grew in." Whatever her age, her maturity as a competitor is
beyond question.


    BIG ON THE SMALL SCREEN
    Li Jing, China

    No one can say that the popular Li Jing -- China's premier
gymnast -- is a stuffed shirt. "Gymnasts only look big because
TV screens are so small," he says with a wink. Among his
teammates, he's the life of the party. "Li Jing is always a
joker," says his coach Zhang Jian. "Except, of course, during
competition, when it counts."

    At those moments he becomes a different Li Jing, serious
and concentrated, his legs moving about the parallel bars and
pommel horse like impossibly fast knitting needles. At the world
championships this spring, the 22-year-old took first place in
both those events, plus a second on the high bar. His
pre-eminence is the result of 13 years of practice, ever since
the Hunan native was uprooted from his hometown at the age of
nine and taken to Beijing for training. "It was not easy at
first," says Li of leaving home so young. "I missed my mother
a lot." Now, however, his mother does not have to wait for one
of his annual visits to see his face. Since 1990, when he won
the all-around title at the Asian Games, Li's photo has become
a familiar sight in Chinese magazines and newspapers. "Sure, I'm
famous at home," he says, "but not like a movie star or
anything." There he goes again with that self-deprecating thing.