Posted Sunday, August 8, 2004; 11.13BST
It was a vintage Svetlana Khorkina performance, from the midair half-twist to the glittering diamanté leotard to the haughty demeanor afterward. When the reigning Olympic asymmetric bars champion claimed her 13th major title on the apparatus at May's European Championships in Amsterdam, she displayed her characteristic egomania in victory. "These little girls don't have my experience, my maturity and my [ability to please] the public," she sniffed. Khorkina, 25, is in the same dismissive mood as the Summer Games get under way this week: "I don't have any concerns about my potential rivals" in Athens.
That kind of confidence comes from Khorkina's near total dominance of her signature event — the uneven bars. It's a truism of women's gymnastics that reigning queens must be dethroned at the Olympics. But in Athens, Khorkina looks set to keep the "little girls" at bay and defend her apparatus title for a third consecutive Games, after nailing gold at Sydney in 2000 and Atlanta in 1996. That feat has only been accomplished once before in gymnastics: Ukrainian Larisa Latynina won gold for the U.S.S.R. in the floor exercises in 1956, 1960 and 1964. The hat trick eluded even the great Romanian Nadia Comaneci, who claimed gold on the balance beam in 1976 and 1980.
At 1.64 m, Khorkina was always likely to tower over much of the competition in Athens. She already has several gymnastic moves named after her in the lexicon of the sport, including a blind half-twist from the lower to upper bar. But there are other things that set her apart. Never one to shy from the limelight, she made headlines in 1997 when she posed nude for Playboy. As Khorkina, who has said she will retire after Athens, once declared, "I want to be recognized from half a mile away."
Khorkina also desperately wants to win gold in the all-around, in which gymnasts compete on all four apparatuses: floor, vault, balance beam and uneven bars. Khorkina is the reigning world all-around champion, but she has never won an Olympic gold in the event. In Sydney 2000, she crashed out when officials mistakenly set the vault too low — at 1.20 m instead of the regulation 1.25 m. Eighteen gymnasts took their vault at the incorrect mark, and during her turn, Khorkina failed to get enough height and landed on her knees. After a subsequent poor performance on the bars that put her out of contention for a medal, she declined to retake the vault when the error was discovered.
Among the "little girls" who could challenge Khorkina for the all-around gold in Athens is American Carly Patterson, part of a resurgent U.S. team. Romanian newcomer Catalina Ponor also has an outside chance. But if nerves are getting to Khorkina, she doesn't show it. "Don't ask me about that episode in Sydney," she snaps. "I just pushed it out of my mind." But don't count on such nonchalance if she triumphs in Athens. When she won gold on the asymmetric bars in Sydney, she gave the lower bar a doe-eyed kiss. The diva may diss her rivals, but she knows how to play the crowd.
— With reporting by Yuri Zarakhovich/Moscow
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