Bela Karolyi

"COME ON KERRI!!! YOU CAN DO IT!!!" Oh, sorry. Wrong Olympics. Unfortunately for Bela Karolyi--but not nearly as unfortunate as it was for NBC--this time there was no wounded gymnast to carry to the medal podium. This was partly because the American women's gymnastics team failed to earn a spot on the medal podium . . . and mainly because no American gymnast was in the mood to take a flying vault into Bela's sweaty arms after an acrimonious fourth-place finish.

Updating the progress of regional athletes competing in the Olympics in Sydney: JAMIE DANTZSCHER / GYMNASTICS When the U.S. women struggled in international gymnastics competition the last few years, Bela Karolyi was called upon this winter to help restore the national team among the world's elite. Some would say it worked as the U.S. women finished fourth in the team competition Tuesday.

How could it happen, Bela Karolyi kept asking. How could the little girls he had coaxed, cajoled, pushed, prodded, practically carried to an unprecedented gymnastics team gold medal in 1996 have fallen on their out-of-shape rumps to embarrassing back-to-back sixth-place finishes in the last two world championships? Why were these girls--his "little kiddos," his "little pixies"--always injured, lacking the stamina to finish routines, looking dispirited and uninspired?

Don't try to figure out how the U.S. Olympic women's gymnastics team will be picked. Even the competitors aren't sure. The Olympic trials begin today and end Sunday. The men compete today and Saturday, the women on Friday and Sunday. On Sunday, five minutes after the last woman has completed her last routine, NBC-TV wants the Olympians announced. Jamie Dantzscher of San Dimas, who was third after the U.S. Nationals last month in St.

Bela Karolyi is standing beneath the head of a 1,400-pound Alaskan moose, beaming like a Transylvanian Teddy Roosevelt, relishing in retelling the tale of the big one that didn't get away. Karolyi hams up every detail: How he crept up too close to the moose and ran out of ammunition after two shots . . . how the moose, wounded and rather annoyed about it, made an angry charge at his assailant . . .

There is always some project or task to be done on Bela Karolyi's 1,200-acre ranch. Elvira, one of his three camels, is pregnant and a month overdue. He just got done building a roof over the picnic area at the lake he helped make with his bulldozer. There is his herd of African cattle to tend to, and his menagerie of llamas, camels, ostriches, emus, turkeys, swans and deer to feed. And then there are the wild mallards.

Bela Karolyi, summoned out of retirement to revive prospects of the U.S. women's gymnastics program, got his first look at some of the athletes last month. He didn't particularly like what he saw. "To be honest, I wasn't pleased," he said. "The shape wasn't what is required for a world-class team. With small exceptions, the physical strength was not there. But every beginning is hard."

Distressed by a poor showing at the recent world championships and worried about the women's gymnastics team's medal prospects for Sydney, USA Gymnastics has brought Bela Karolyi out of retirement to be national team coordinator. Karolyi--the controversial figure known for his work with gymnasts from Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton to 1996 Olympic standout Kerri Strug--won't hold the title of U.S.

The hand-printed blue sign on the wall read "Orientation," as did the faces of flustered teenagers hurrying through UCLA's Morgan Center on Friday toward their brave new freshman world. A tiny one stayed behind, turned right, walked into a news conference room and onto a stage. "I'm in a little box," Kerri Strug said. Then she opened up a smile that engulfed her face, grabbed at her thimble-sized earrings. It was the smile of someone hoping to climb out.