Gymnastics: Tragedy hits Fournier in rehearsals

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Under the gaze of 33,000 eyes and in the glare of a million sequins, one of gymnastics' darlings ended her Olympics yesterday before they began.

Top Canadian hope Emilie Fournier cried in agony after she landed heavily on her right leg in the dress rehearsal at the Superdome - her Olympic dreams immediately shattered.

Seventeen-year-old Fournier, who came from nowhere months ago to win the pre-Olympics in Sydney, was carried off the floor by her coaches to the sympathetic applause of a full house.

She was rushed to hospital for x-rays, fearing she had broken her leg or an ankle in the nasty fall on the floor. Even before the diagnosis was made, the Iberville schoolgirl's Games were over.

It was supposed to be an innocuous rehearsal - the Podium Day where gymnasts get to wear their prettiest sparkling leotards in the Olympic arena before competition begins.

It was almost like the real thing - a sell-out crowd of 16,500 packed the amphitheatre to watch the tiny gymnasts flip and fling themselves about.

Sequins are the fashion statement of the 2000 Olympics, among gymnasts at least. Up for a medal for the most glitter was our sole New Zealand female gymnast, Laura Robertson.

The Aucklander bounded her way through all four routines with very few wobbles yesterday.

Robertson did the rounds alongside gymnasts from Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and earned polite clapping for her efforts on the bars and beam.

At the uneven bars she went through an incredible ritual - spraying them with water and scrubbing them clean before she launched into her routine.

Gymnasts often spray a sugar or honey liquid onto the bars - the stickier the better their grip - but Robertson wanted them sugar-free.

On her strongest apparatus, the floor, she stumbled in her final tumbling run, so her Russian coach Alexandra Koudinova sent her back on to the mat when everyone else was done to repeat the string of somersaults, over and over.

But at the end of it all, Robertson was happy - yet in pain.

New Zealand's gymnastics team manager Mark Jujnovich said the gymnast was still suffering from tearing a knee cartilage three months ago.

"She doesn't show it when she's out there, but the pain is still there," he said.

New Zealand's only male gymnast, David Phillips, had his podium training on Tuesday. He came through it well, even though he still feels the effects of two stress fractures in his spine.

Phillips will compete in the team event, but alone, tomorrow; Robertson the same the following day.

Among the gymnasts at the centre of attention in Robertson's group yesterday was Uzbekistan's sole gymnast, Oksana Chusovitina, a former Olympic gold medallist who is now a 25-year-old mother. Chusovitina, who won gold for the Unified team in the 1992 teams event, is competing at her third Olympics less than a year after giving birth to her son.

She is an example of the new veteran breed in world gymnastics, now that the Olympics have restricted the age of its gymnasts to 16 and over.

Not everyone is happy with the limit. It meant US coach Bela Karolyi had to leave behind one of his top medal hopes, Kristal Uzelac, because she is only 14.