Columnist Ron Kantowski: Schwikert moves up by accident

Thursday, July 1, 2004 | 9:31 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

A few minutes after she finished eighth in Sunday's U.S. Olympic Gymnastic Trials at the Arrowhead Pond, Las Vegas' Tasha Schwikert wasn't complaining -- unlike most in the media -- that the trials settled next to nothing as far as determining the six gymnasts and three alternates who will represent the United States in Athens in six weeks.

She talked about the prevalence of injuries in her sport, and how waiting until the last minute to select the team, at the end of a final two-day audition behind closed doors at the suburban Houston home of Bela and team coordinator Martha Karolyi on July 18, made sense.

Although she sounded sincere, you had to wonder if Schwikert was only trying to justify putting herself through three more weeks of physical and mental torture.

But that was then and this is now and today she's looking like a prophet, given the unfortunate circumstance that befell her friend Tabitha Yim on Tuesday, who will miss the selection camp after sustaining a serious ankle injury in training.

If you do the math, or at least the old math, where the top six all-around gymnasts at the trials were the ones named to the team, Schwikert and the others could wind up getting on with their lives rather than brushing up on their Greek unless the pecking order changes at the selection camp. That's why Yim's injury is so significant.

With Courtney Kupets and Courtney McCool having all but punched their tickets to Greece by finishing first and second at the so-called trials, and Carly Patterson having done the same by tying Kupets for the national all-around championship earlier this month and following up with a solid third-place showing at Anaheim, the other 12 hopefuls at the Karolyi camp will be vying for just three Olympic berths.

And that could easily be reduced to two, provided veteran Mohini Bhardwaj continues to show the form that impressed the judges and wowed the crowd in California.

At 25 and thought to be well past her gymnastics prime, Bhardwaj, who had taken to selling raffle tickets to finance her training, is the feel-good story of the pre-Olympics. Her story, compelling as is, now has Up Close and Personal written all over it, in that she has added actress Pamela Anderson as a benefactor.

If Bhardwaj doesn't make the team, anybody holding a "Go Mo" sign at the Pond this weekend or named Al Trautwig will almost certainly demand an investigation. NBC's Trautwig repeatedly fawned over Anderson's interest in Bhardwaj -- or maybe it was just his blue-blooded American maleness getting the best of him -- every time the cameras showed her.

When it comes to gymnastics, I might know about as much as the judge from the former East Germany. But most of the experts I talked to in Anaheim agree that Bhardwaj is in.

Then there's Yim, who was thought to have the inside track on one of the remaining Olympic berths after climbing to fourth place in the trials with an outstanding performance Sunday. Given her reputation as a solid all-around gymnast with two specialty events (balance beam and floor exercise), Yim seemed tailor-made for a revised Olympic scoring system that rewards both versatility (in the prelims) and individuality (in the finals).

But now, she's out with a ruptured Achilles, and given the immense sacrifice these young athletes make just to scale this verge, you've got to feel for her. Even if you happen to be one of those who will likely benefit by her misfortune.

"This is something that shows what our sport is, and how it can be heartbreaking at times," said Cassie Rice, Schwikert's longtime coach at Henderson Gymcats.

But give Rice credit for acknowledging that Yim's absence is going to remove a huge degree of difficulty from Schwikert's task of making the team.

"She worked so hard and did so well," Rice said of Yim. "But as luck would have it, it's worked in Tasha's favor. Tabitha was a competitor of hers, definitely. This is somebody who has beaten her two times in a row. It is heart wrenching, because they were really good friends, but yes, it is something that will make Tasha's quest a little easier."

Four years ago, at the Sydney Games, injuries to front-line performers enabled Schwikert to take center stage from her alternate status and provided a springboard to her winning national championships in 2001 and 2002.

But injuries have worked against Schwikert, too. Ankle surgery and an Achilles injury of her own have knocked the native Las Vegan from the top rung of her sport to where she now is considered a bit of a dark horse to even make the Athens team.

As Rice said, Schwikert would have much preferred to have beaten Yim in the gym than in the emergency room. But in gymnastics, sometimes the most telling twists and turns aren't the ones that can be scored by judges.

Sometimes, it's the cruel ones of fate that make the biggest difference.