2000 Olympic Trials (Part 1)


Written September 2000 © Stephanie Schneider

Location: FleetCenter (Boston, MA)
Date: August 17-20, 2000

Wow, where do I even begin? It had been my dream to attend this meet for the past couple years, but not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine that it would be as incredible as it was. My excitement had been growing ever since I first got the tickets and had grown even more after watching the U.S. Nationals a few weeks earlier. So, needless to say, I was very excited when we left for Boston on August 17; however, I honestly had no idea what was to come.

Day 1 (Arrival/Men’s Preliminaries): My dad and I arrived in Boston early in the afternoon, and after checking out our relatives’ house where we were staying, we went to explore the town. When we went downtown, I noticed they had signs on almost every street post advertising for the trials. I was surprised to see that Kristal was on some of them; it was neat, but it kind of made me wonder why she was on them when she wasn’t even competing.

We arrived at the FleetCenter at about 5:00 (the meet started at 7:00). I was way too excited by this point, and I made sure we were there extra early. Who knows what could happen? Right away, I was amazed by the size of the building (you must know that I’m from a very small town where nothing exciting ever happens so a lot of things in Boston were new to me). I took my very first picture of the trip of the outside of the FleetCenter. We discovered that they were not letting people into the arena until 6:00, but there were already some people outside the arena forming a line. While we were waiting in line, I noticed this little tent they had set up where they were selling T-shirts and other stuff for the trials. I knew I would have to visit it in the days to come. Anyway, it was here, while waiting in line, that I really started to feel the atmosphere of the trials. It was so cool being in the midst of so many gymnastics fans like myself. There was discussion going on all around me about the trials, the athletes, gymnastics in general. Never before had I been around so many people who actually knew what they were talking about! It was an experience, let me tell you.

At 6:00 (and not a minute before), they finally let us into the building. It was at this point that I ran into my former teammate, Ashley, and her mother. What are the chances of that? One of the very first moments in the FleetCenter, in the midst of hundreds of people, and we literally run into each other. Now I had someone to talk to (besides my dad of course, but you know). After a few moments of catching up, we went up the excalator and FINALLY entered the arena. The feeling that I got when we walked in was the most amazing feeling I’ve ever experienced in my life. It was like an NBC telecast brought to life. The banners displaying the name of the competition, the cameras, the broadcast booth, all little things that were now the most amazing things in the world. Most importantly, however, were the competition floor and the gymnasts. Everywhere I looked, I saw gymnasts, coaches, people from NBC, even non-competing gymnasts that were there to view the competition. I felt like I was in a dream world. It took Ashley and I a few moments to take everything in while we were finding our seats (she had better seats than I did, but ours weren’t bad either~18th row). But we were there an hour early, what were we going to do, sit in our seats? I think not. We were way too excited. There weren’t many people there yet (at least compared to the size of the arena), so we basically could walk around in the very front rows. Of course I had my camera and had nine rolls of film with me for the week (I thought that would be plenty, but we’ll get to that later).

Ok, so two of the first people we see are Dominique Moceanu and Amanda Borden. I was still in awe and didn’t really know what to say, but I asked Dominique if I could take a picture of her, and then this lady behind me asked if she could get one of the two of them together (thanks, now I don’t feel stupid :) ). They were very nice and let us both take a picture of them. After that, we just walked around watching the warm-ups and taking random pictures of the guys. Meanwhile, I’m thinking, if I’m this excited now, think of what I’m going to be like when we see the women tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’m also thinking, these pictures better come out because God only knows with this camera that I have. One observation I made was how many gymnasts actually sit around with their headphones on. You always see this on TV, but almost everyone was doing it. I guess it’s a good way to relax before the meet. Everyone looked great; sometimes I’m even more amazed by the easy stuff that elite gymnasts do than the hard stuff because they do it so effortlessly.

Before we finally went to our seats, I noticed John Macready down on the floor signing autographs, so of course I went down and asked him to sign my program. Before we knew it, this little intro piece started flashing on the giant screen in the middle of the arena. I always get excited during those little pieces they do on TV before the actual telecast (you know, with the music, setting up the competition), but this was way cooler. They had lights flashing and the song (I can’t remember what it’s called, it’s like “Right now, it’s everything”) was playing; how fitting. I’ll bet the gymnasts were really nervous at that point. After that, they had some local general gymnastics group perform; they were ok but nothing too spectacular. It sure must have been cool to be out there though. Then the gymnasts all marched out, and the national anthem was sung.

From this point on, I was just immersed in the competition. At some points in the meet, I almost forgot I was watching the Olympic Trials and what everything meant because I was having so much fun just watching the gymnastics. As soon as the gymnasts started their touch, I noticed that there were some empty seats down in the front row by the high bar, so of course, I went to sit down there. I was RIGHT next to the action; everyone was walking right in front of me; it was too cool.

Anyway, as for the actual meet, I thought the quality of the gymnastics was very high. I realized how much you miss on TV. Of course, the more well known gymnasts like Blaine Wilson, John Roethlisberger, Paul and Morgan Hamm, Sean Townsend, etc. were very good, but even the lower ranking gymnasts were fun to watch. This meet was run so that the gymnasts went one at a time, so you didn’t have to worry about missing anything. It was so much fun seeing the reactions from the gymnasts and their coaches after their routines. In particular, I enjoyed watching Yoichi Tomita. He got SO excited after Yewki went; it was quite entertaining. I also loved the crowd’s enthusiasm; they were all so into it. You could tell there were a lot of fans there that really knew what was going on. The whole atmosphere was awesome. Blaine’s rings were amazing as usual (he scored a 9.95 with added bonus from the special national rules). Raj Bhavsar’s high bar was incredible. I never knew he could do high bar like that! The whole crowd was booing his low score, which I still don’t understand. Just because he isn’t well known doesn’t mean he can’t get a high score too. I felt kind of bad for Chris Young; a year ago he was so good; you could tell he wasn’t quite back from his injury. His high bar was awesome though. Jamie Natalie and Justin Toman really surprised me. They were both really good on every event and displayed great form (always a plus). John Roethlisberger seemed to be struggling a bit. Paul and Morgan Hamm looked great everywhere. Sean Townsend and Stephen McCain were very consistent and appeared to be near the top of the standings. A surprise to me was the amount of handspring double fronts displayed on vault. I really didn’t realize we had so many gymnasts that could do that vault. Another observation I made was the flying cameras; I always wondered how they got those different angles on TV; now I know.

The only thing I didn’t like was that there was no scoreboard. It was impossible to tell what the standings were. It was obvious that Blaine was in the lead, but after that I could only speculate. Before I knew it, the meet was over. Jessica Howard came out and did her hoop routine; I love watching her.

I stayed in the arena as long as possible in hopes of getting autographs. None of the gymnasts came back out, but all of the coaches were out there, and I got autographs from Vitaly Marinitch and Yoichi Tomita. I also saw Tim Daggett and Elfi Schlegel for the first time. When we finally left the arena, all I could think was that if the next three days were even close to this amazing, I would be very happy. I had no idea.

Day 2 (Women’s Preliminaries): I had made a mental note before this trip to try and find out where the gymnasts were staying, but I had gotten so caught up in the excitement of everything, I almost forgot about it. This time though, as we were exploring the town, I tried to look for hotels. We didn’t even see one. I was really excited for the competition though, so I let it go. Also, this morning, we found out from the local paper that Dominique Moceanu had withdrawn from the meet due to injury. She wasn’t one of my favorites to make the team, but I still felt bad for her because she has been through so much.

Right away, I knew this night was going to be even more exciting because there was a much bigger line than the previous night to get inside the arena. If you thought I was excited the previous night, that didn’t even compare to how excited I was to watch the women.

I really enjoyed watching warm-ups; everything seems so much more amazing when you see it in person. I was all over the arena taking pictures and was basically right next to the gymnasts in the first few rows because we were among the first people there. It was neat being so close to everybody and hearing what the coaches had to say. On bars, they would warm-up with consecutive free-hips, which was amazing because they made it look like the easiest thing in the world. Right away, the gymnast that most stood out was Elise Ray. Everything she does is so artistic; it’s beautiful. The returning 96 Olympians and Vanessa Atler seemed to have the most crowd support though. Jamie Dantzscher also stood out, and it seemed like she also had a lot of support. After seeing her come on so strong at Nationals, she was near the top of my list to make the team. I didn’t get to see Shannon Miller warm-up anything but bars; I was kind of curious as to what she was going to do on the other three events. I also loved watching Mary Lee Tracy with her athletes, as usual. After warm-ups were over, Bela Karolyi came over to give the athletes some encouragement. He was a little intimidating; it reminds me of the first time I saw Jack Carter in person. He seemed really positive and motivating though.

As I was walking around, I noticed Jason Gatson signing autographs for a few people, so I immediately went over there. I felt so bad for him at Nationals; I’m sure he was very disappointed that he wasn’t competing. We all gave him our support. He was really nice and said that he was going for 2004. I’d love to see him there. Anyway, some other people in attendance that I noticed were Kim Zmeskal, Chris Waller, and Larissa Fontaine. I had been looking for the Uzelacs, and I finally spotted Kristal down on the floor right before the meet started. I quickly went over to say hi to her before the meet started. I also spotted Svetlana Boginskaya walking around outside the arena and really wanted to get her autograph, but it was impossible with so many people, and she seemed to be in a hurry.

So, as for the actual meet, from start to finish, it was SO exciting. The crowd was so much louder than the previous night; it was incredible. There was awesome gymnastics displayed by every athlete out on the floor, and it made me wonder what was going to be necessary to make the team. There were a lot of possibilities in my mind. Initially, I figured Elise, Kristen Maloney, Amy Chow, and Vanessa were shoo-ins. After that, it could be a few people. I really hoped it would be fair. I found myself really cheering for Jamie Dantzscher. She looked better than ever, and I knew that she should be on the team; however, I was afraid that Bela would overlook her because of some things he had said about her not being committed initially. I just so didn’t want him to play favorites. So, basically, I was cheering the loudest for Jamie, Elise, and Vanessa. The whole place went absolutely crazy before Vanessa mounted bars. I think everyone in that building knew of her problems on that event. As the night went on though, it seemed as if she had more problems than just bars. She seemed to be struggling everywhere. Her beam dismount completely took me by surprise; I don’t think ANYONE expected that from her. The whole place just collectively gasped when her foot missed the beam.

Another surprise was Shannon’s vault. I don’t really know what I expected from her, but I sure didn’t expect that. Overall, I thought she looked pretty good, but in my opinion, she was borderline on or off the team. This whole selection process was making me really nervous. Elise looked wonderful; I hope she goes on to do something really great in Sydney. Alyssa Beckerman was another favorite of mine; I just love artistic gymnasts. I wanted her on the team, but I knew everyone that I wanted to make it couldn’t be on the team. Ah, the drama! Morgan White was very consistent, but nothing really stood out except for maybe her bars. Same for Dominique Dawes; however, her Hindorff on bars blows me away every time I see it. Kristen, other than her error on bars, was consistent as ever. More surprises on vault came in Rachel Tidd and Amanda Stroud. I didn’t know a lot about them coming in, but they were two of the best vaulters in the meet. As for Tasha Schwikert, she has gotten some publicity lately, but with all of the talent in that building, I really didn’t see her making the team. Jeanette Antolin looked good, but I didn’t envision her making the team either. Amy Chow’s skill level never ceases to amaze me; that standing full on beam is incredible.

Midway through the third rotation, I attempted to get closer to get some better pictures of Vanessa and Alyssa on floor, but it was impossible. Those security people wouldn’t let you be anywhere but in your seat. You couldn’t even stand away from the seats by the exit. So I ended up half watching a couple of the floor routines in an attempt to get back to my seat and not miss anything. Somewhere in the midst of running all over the arena, I made it over to Ashley and her mom, and they informed me that Vanessa’s family was sitting a couple rows to the side. Of course, I took a picture (I’m not obsessed; I’m just very interested :) ).

Overall, it was an eventful competition, and it was over before I knew it. As everyone was leaving, I saw Amy Chow’s mother. There was a bunch of people congratulating her, but I was too busy looking for people out on the floor. Like the previous night, I wanted to stay as long as I possibly could. I wasn’t the only one with that idea; the security really wanted to get rid of us though. A bunch of people was crowded around Tim Daggett and Peter Vidmar asking them for autographs, so of course I went over. They were saying how they felt like they were twenty again with everyone asking them for autographs. What I don’t understand is when people are nice enough to stay and sign autographs for us fans and obviously don’t mind and those annoying security people have to make them leave. I didn’t end up getting their autographs because they were forced to leave. After that, I spotted Steve and Beth Rybacki, and I went over to congratulate them on Jamie’s performance. They were both really nice and even let me take a picture of them. At this point, there really wasn’t anybody left out on the floor, so I finally exited the arena, and as I was walking out, I saw Elise Ray’s dad! He didn’t have anybody with him, so I went over to congratulate him. The families of these gymnasts must feel so weird when someone like me actually knows who they are. He was extremely nice, and I actually ended up talking to him for a few moments. I told him that Elise was my favorite gymnast and how much I loved watching her. He asked me if I was coming to the finals; I said of course.

Well, after that, my excitement was just too much. It had been an incredible night, and I could not wait to see what the next day had in store for me.

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