IF Dominique Moceanu isn't quite the youngest competitor at the Atlanta Games she is certainly the only 14 year old here who has published an albeit ghosted autobiography, appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair and become the Olympic poster girl for Kodak.
All of this attention centres on a 4ft 61/in 72 pound daughter of former Romanian gymnasts who emigrated to the US in 1980, a child who, at 13 years, became the youngest gymnast ever to win the US national title.
It is difficult to precisely ascertain (but easy to guess) the effect all this pressure and attention must have on an adolescent mind. The effects on the adolescent body are easier to scientifically catalogue. Moceanu missed the US Olympic trials after suffering a four inch stress fracture in her right tibia.
It wasn't the first serious injury to befall her. After winning a silver medal in the World championships in Japan last Autumn she developed a severe heel injury, a chronic condition involving a growth plate in her left foot.
Moceanu is the product of fanatical parents and the protege of controversial former Romanian coach Bela Karolyi, who is now based in Houston. When Dimitry and Camelia Moceanu's girl was three and a half years old Dimitry called up Karolyi and asked if it was time to move to Houston yet. Karolyi insisted she was too young.
Dimitry enrolled her in a local club in Chicago. By the time Dominique was 10 the family were living in Houston and she was under Karolyi's spell.
It's July 1996 now and Moceanu is buzzing like a little fly around the Georgia Dome, the darling of the local media, the gymnast most constantly compared to the sports' great heroine Nadia Comaneci. Behind Moceanu's wan smile and pigtails however is a child who hasn't had a holiday of any sort since 1988, parents who have pumped $200,000 this year alone into her training and a fanatical American nation which demands success.
Moceanu has become something of the cover girl for these Olympics, yet it seems so unfair to make her the focus of such intense host nation pressure. Other gymnasts, including rivals have gently deviated from the script in the past few days to suggest that 14 years old is a female gymnasts prime. Moceanu needs to be stronger and more aggressive if she is to have an chance of a gold.
A captivated nation won't listen though. Meanwhile, Dominique's six year old sister is also enrolled at Karolyi's gym, on stream perhaps for 2004.
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