Decade after the fact, US gymnasts receive medals that once belonged to China

Ten years later, US gymnasts get their medals

HARTFORD, Conn. — The bronze medals are beautiful. Clearly, though, they don’t make all the memories go away.

Ten years after finishing fourth at the Sydney Olympics, the U.S. women’s gymnastics team received the third-place prizes that were stripped from China because a member of that team was found to be underage.

The new bronze medalists are Amy Chow, Jamie Dantzscher, Dominique Dawes, Kristin Maloney, Elise Ray and Tasha Schwikert.

“To me, it feels very separate,” Ray said after Wednesday’s ceremony. “Everything we went through in Sydney is still very fresh. Today feels like a different time. The two emotions couldn’t be more opposite.”

Indeed, all said they were happy to be recognized for their efforts in 2000. But this was a team mired with injuries and controversy — and more than happy to take an unflinching look back on a night that was designated as a celebration.

“We were definitely the guinea pigs of the new system they were trying,” Dantzscher said. “Whenever you’re the guinea pig, it’s not easy.”

Problems on this team resulted from a decision, nine months before the games, to bring Bela Karolyi (who was absent from the ceremony) back into the fold after disappointing results in the years leading up to 2000.

The move was the first step in a renaissance of U.S. gymnastics that has produced the last two all-around Olympic champions — Carly Patterson and Nastia Liukin — and a total of 50 international medals over the past 10 years.

But at the time, Karolyi’s presence was divisive. The U.S. women had a terrible qualifying round that year — barely making it to the finals, where they hit all 20 of their routines, but still finished fourth.

It was a bittersweet ending to a difficult Olympic experience.

“It almost felt like ‘Survivor,’ a little bit,” Schwikert said. “It was just, ‘We’ll just run you down, wait ’til we find the last man standing and we’ll see what the team is.’”

Their half-hour interview session before receiving the medals featured a number of similar observations. It came off like a therapy session of sorts, and it was a bit surprising that some of the feelings remain so raw.

“It’s hard for us. Honestly, the experience was not great,” Dantzscher said. “It makes us sound like we’re being negative, but it’s just the truth.”

It may have been worst for Dantzscher, Ray and Maloney — none of whom were on another Olympic team. Chow and Dawes had been on the 1996 gold-medal team and Schwikert went back as an alternate in 2004, after Martha Karolyi had taken over for her husband and many of the kinks had been smoothed out in America’s semi-centralized training program.

“They were true pioneers,” USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny said. “They worked hard. We’re proud to recognize them, make them smile and put a bronze medal around their necks.”

The medals were redistributed after the International Olympic Committee took the recommendation of gymnastics’ governing body, which nullified the results of Dong Fangxiao after determining she was only 14 at the 2000 Games.

Gymnasts must turn 16 during the Olympic year to be eligible.

Age falsification has long been an issue in gymnastics, though it drew unprecedented attention in 2008 when media reports and Internet records suggested some girls on China’s gold-medal team in Beijing might have been underage. That led to an investigation, which resulted in no changes in the 2008 results but did raise questions about China’s 2000 team.

The IOC made its decision in April, and the medals were given to the Americans on opening night of U.S. Championships — presented by Anita DeFrantz, an American IOC member.

The medals actually had to be recast because the originals had the Chinese girls’ names on them. But they are the same design. And USA Gymnastics officials went so far as to get pictures from the medals ceremony in 2000 so they could present them with the same flowers that were handed out in Sydney.

“I want you to close your eyes, think back to the games, think about where you were and put yourself on that medals podium,” DeFrantz said.

A nice notion, even if none of these women really want to go back there.