Men's Competition

• Competitive Roster
• Selection Procedures
• Compulsory Results
• Compulsory Quick Hit Page / June 27, 7:00-9:00pm EST
• Optional Results
• Optional Quick Hit Page / June 29, 2:45-6:00pm EST

1996 U.S. Olympic Team for Men's Gymnastics pending approval from the U.S. Olympic Committee Mihai Bagiu Jair Lynch John Macready John Roethlisberger Kip Simons Blaine Wilson Chainey Umphrey

Veterans qualify for Olympic Team

John Roethlisberger on pommel horse

An enthusiastic crowd of 15,112 people cheered on Saturday afternoon as John Roethlisberger, winner of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials, took a victory jog down the vaulting runway, hugging his father and coach along the way. "I was a little tired and had a problem getting up the intensity at the beginning, but toward the end I could taste my spot on the Olympic Team. After the pommel horse, I knew I just had to hold onto the rings and do a good vault." Roethlisberger entered the optionals with the lead and continued to stay in first after each routine, with his final score totaling 228.873 points. He errored on his last pass on floor (9.150) but was solid on all of the other events, including a high flying 9.750 on high bar.

Blaine Wilson, the 1996 national champion, scored the highest optional total but remained in second, trimming Roethlisberger's one point lead from the compulsory round to six tenths. He scored the highest mark of the meet on his best event, rings, a 9.787. A leader of the 1996 NCAA Championship team, the Ohio State Buckeyes, Wilson is looking forward to the team competition in Atlanta. "It's hard to compete as an individual. As a team, you can get something done." Wilson and fifth-place Kip Simons are both coached by Peter Kormann, the head coach of the Olympic team.

Overcome with his accomplishment, Simons said, "This is definitely a dream come true. I've worked my whole life towards realizing this dream. Having my family, friends, and coaches here to share it is wonderful."

John Macready, rings

Third-place John Macready, from Los Angeles, California, scored the highest mark on vault, a 9.525, with a one and half twisting Yurchenko. Macready's best score, however, came on floor, where he stuck all of his landings, most notably his double layout mount, for a 9.612.

Sixth-place Lynch injured himself on his first event, parallel bars, forcing him to change his elements while in the middle of his routine, which consequently started from a score of only 9.9. Lynch's normal parallel bars routine has full bonus, starting from a 10.0. Nevertheless, Lynch scored a 9.70, easily the highest score on parallel bars. Lynch was a finalist of parallel bars at the 1992 Olympics, missing a medal by less than one tenth of a point. "On pbars, I ripped my hand to pieces; it's still bloody. [He holds up bloody hand for press to see.] Unfortunately, it affected me on high bar. It shouldn't have, but it did." Two big falls on high bar, one on a Tkatchev and the other on a Gienger, which are both release moves, dropped Lynch to the precarious seventh place position. A strong floor routine with outstanding tumbling (9.637) moved him back up a notch to sixth, eventually his final position.

Chainey Umphrey, high bar

Chainey Umphrey, a crowd favorite, moved up to fourth place, with his best effort being a 9.537 on parallel bars. He acknowledged the support of the crowd, saying "I think they appreciate how much I love what I'm doing." Umphrey competed in the 1992 Olympic Trials, but missed making the team by less than a tenth of the point. "I think because of 1992, when I missed it by so little, that it was a driving force for me. Today I dislocated my finger on pbars, and I thought that everything was down the drain, but then I popped it back in and thought 'This is not nearly as bad as 1992,' and kept on going."

Securing the last place among the qualifiers was Mihai Bagiu from Orange, Calif, currently training in Albuquerque, N.M. at Gold Cup Gymnastics. Bagiu was in seventh before the last rotation, where he competed high bar, one of his stronger events. "I knew I was right on the bubble," Bagiu said. "I tried to stay relaxed and go up and hit my routine like I do in a workout. I went through my routine a hundred times before I went up. I tried to not think about being on the bubble and once I got up, I just tried to relax and swing my routine."

Both Roethlisberger and Jair Lynch, 6th place, were also members of the 1992 Olympic team, and have been elected the team captains for the 1996 Men's Olympic team. Mark Williams has been named as the assistant coach of the 1996 Men's Olympic Team. Williams coaches at the University of Oklahoma. He was an assistant coach to Kormann at the 1995 World Championships in Sabae, Japan.

Six of the top seven men (all but Umphrey) were on the 1995 World Championships team that surprised the world with a third place finish in compulsories. That team slipped back to ninth place after optionals despite very few falls. Lynch feels that the 1996 Olympic team compares favorably to the '95 Worlds team. "This team is very impressive. In 1995 we realized we weren't competitive on the optional side. Many guys went back to put in more difficulty. We've really upped the ante."

When asked about the upcoming trip to Atlanta, Roethlisberger replied, "We're not going there to trade pins."

Kormann shared Lynch's optimism and Roethlisberger's determination for the month ahead. "I couldn't be more pleased. Last year, at our World Trials, there were a lot of falls on pommel horse, and other events. We went to Sabae for the World Championships and we hit compulsories, and had very few falls in optionals. The difference is being a team. After our two week training camp, these seven guys will walk out onto the floor as a team. Once they feel the Olympic rings in their heart, feel the pride in their country, they'll relax a little bit and go out there and hit their routines."

The team departs from Boston for Atlanta for processing, and then will attend a training camp in Spartanburg, South Carolina before the Games.

Beyond the experience from the 1992 Olympics and 1995 Worlds Championships, the team is quite seasoned. Umphrey competed at the 1996 Individual Event Worlds in Puerto Rico. Bagiu, Roethlisberger, and Simons were all on the 1994 squad for the Team Worlds in Dortmund, Germany. Bagiu, Umphrey, and Roethlisberger competed at the Individual Worlds in 1994, in Brisbane, Australia. Umphrey competed on the 1991 Worlds team and was an alternate on the team in 1989, while Roethlisberger was an alternate in 1991.

The oldest qualifier is John Roethlisberger, who turned 26 in the week before Trials. The youngest is John Macready, who turned 21 earlier this year.

Roethlisberger on top after Men's Compulsories

Four-time national champion and 1992 Olympian John Roethlisberger lead all the men's competitors with 160.683 points after the compulsory round of Olympic Trials competition, held at the FleetCenter in Boston, Mass. The optional round of competition will be on Saturday afternoon. Blaine Wilson, the 1996 national champion, is currently in second, and John Macready, from the U.S. Olympic Training Center, is in third. Former Olympian Jair Lynch, from Stanford, scored the second highest total in compulsories to move from 8th place to 4th place.

Roethlisberger, who entered the competition in second place, took the lead after the first rotation with a 9.70 on rings. He remained in first place throughout the night, compiling a compulsory score that was more than a full point better than his closest competitors. Roethlisberger's 9.787 on high bar was the highest score of the compulsory competition; he also took the top score on floor (9.375, tied with Macready and Stein) and pommel horse (9.562). Each of his performances was loudly cheered and applauded by the crowd of 8,358.

"I was extremely nervous coming into this meet," admitted Roethlisberger. "I didn't tell that to anyone, not even my Dad. The more nervous I got, however, the more aggressive I'd be, so I worked all that nervousness out."

Roethlisberger, a graduate of University of Minnesota, is coached by his father Fred, a former Olympian. His sister, Marie, was the alternate to the 1984 women's gymnastics team.

Wilson, the current national champion, slipped off pommel horse (8.625) in the second rotation to drop to second. He then moved to rings, his best event, to score a 9.725, the highest score on that event. Despite the fall, Wilson's compulsory total was still third best in the competition, and he easily held onto second place overall with a 159.460 combined Championships/Trials score. Wilson later described his lapse on pommels as a "mental relaxation." Wilson and fifth-place Kip Simons are coached by Peter Kormann, who will be the head coach of the men's Olympic team in Atlanta. Earlier this year, Wilson won the NCAA All-Around and lead his team, the Ohio State Buckeyes, to its first team championship title.

Despite missing his right hand on the regrasp of the flank vault release on high bar, John Macready's easily maintained his third place standing. Macready is currently more than two points behind second and almost a full point ahead of fourth. Macready's best events were rings (9.512) and vault (9.562).

Jair Lynch on parallel bars

Lynch, who was the youngest member of the 1992 Olympic team, entered the compulsory round in eighth place, but an excellent six-for-six performance propelled him up to fourth place. Beginning on rings, his weakest event, Lynch initially dropped to eleventh place but immediately jumped to sixth place after scoring a 9.70 on vault, the highest score on that event (tied with Jay Thornton and Mark Booth). Lynch scored another event-high, a 9.625 on his best event, the parallel bars, to move to fourth place in the third rotation. He held that ranking throughout the next three rounds.

"I came here with a plan to explode," Lynch asserted. "We trained very hard and very intensely, simulating the pressure in practice. It was easy to compete."

Also making a big move in the standings, Chainey Umphrey jumped three places up to sixth overall. Umphrey was the only gymnast other than Roethlisberger to score more than nine points on each apparatus.

Mihai Bagiu, "on the bubble"

Mihai Bagiu maintained seventh place, scoring a high of 9.712 on high bar (second on that event) and a low of 8.65 on rings. His pommel horse score, 9.45, was also second best on that event. After Saturday's optionals, the seventh place man will be the last qualifier to the Olympic team.

Former Olympians Scott Keswick and Chris Waller are currently in 10th and 12th. Keswick, who was 12th after USA Championships in Knoxville, had risen all the way to seventh after the third rotation, but a poor pommel horse routine (8.15) affected his compulsory total. "I fought like hell," said Keswick about his pommels set, "but it wasn't enough." Despite scoring a 9.650 on rings and 9.575 on vault, Keswick was not able to gain much ground in the rankings.

The final scores will be weighted 40% USA Championships and 60% Olympic Trials. The seven highest ranked male gymnasts will be nominated to the U.S. Olympic Team, pending U.S. Olympic Committee approval. The men's compulsory and optionals each count 50 percent of the total score from the trials. The men will conclude their competition on Saturday, June 29. NBC Sports will televise the competition live from 4:00-6:00 p.m. EST.

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