Wednesday, July 23, 2008
The visa problems may stem from China’s desire to win.
Associated Press
Apparently, a visa isn’t accepted everywhere during the Beijing Olympics.
The alternates for the U.S. women’s gymnastics team will go to Japan after visa problems forced them to abandon their plans to train in Tianjian, China. Participating athletes get a card that doubles as visa and Olympic credential. Alternates, however, must get tourist visas because they are not considered part of the official delegation.
“The organizing committee is not automatically issuing visas for replacement athletes,” Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics, said Tuesday.
The fact that the Chinese gymnastics federation controls the gym the Americans were going to use in Tianjian also might have played a part.
Gymnastics is one of China’s highest-profile Olympic sports, and the Chinese desperately want to win both team titles on their home turf. Although the Chinese men are overwhelming favorites for gold, the American women are considered the team to beat after winning the world championships last year.
The American men got their tourist visas and will go to Beijing Normal, where the U.S. Olympic Committee will have a training center.
“I don’t know so much the details. This is really more administrative, and I’m more in charge of the gymnastics preparation. I just was told we were not able to train in China,” said Martha Karolyi, coordinator of the U.S. women’s team. “I proposed why we just don’t go train in Japan.”
Tianjian is only about an hour from Beijing. Japan is about a 21‚Ñ2-hour flight from Beijing.
The alternates — Jana Bieger, Ivana Hong and Corrie Lothrop — can be called upon to replace an injured gymnast until the U.S. women submit their roster, 24 hours before the team competition begins Aug. 10.
Also, Karolyi declined to address Dominique Moceanu’s criticisms of her, saying only that she was “sad” the Olympic gold medalist chose to focus on the hard times in training rather than the success she had.
In an interview that aired Tuesday night on HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” Moceanu criticized Karolyi and her husband Bela for their strict training regimen and diet restrictions, and said Karolyi should be removed from her job as national team coordinator.