Gymnastics

Nadia Comaneci confirmed rumors that she tried to kill herself at age 15 by drinking bleach, according to Life magazine's March issue. Comaneci said she was hospitalized for two days and was "glad because I didn't have to go to the gym," according to the magazine. It had been rumored, and the 1984 film "Nadia" indicated, that Comaneci attempted suicide at the height of her fame in 1977 after scoring perfect 10s in the Montreal Olympics in 1976. She had denied the rumors, however.

Danusia Francis, a charismatic freshman on the UCLA gymnastics team, had a little trick up her sleeve Sunday for the balance beam event final in the NCAA championships at Pauley Pavilion. Francis did something you probably shouldn't try at home — even on the ground and certainly not on a balance beam. It was a move she described as "a backward cartwheel with no hands. " And she landed it, the first collegiate gymnast to perform that difficult aerial trick on the balance beam.

BEIJING -- In a gymnastics meet that has been littered with controversy about allegedly underage gymnasts, a 33-year-old woman, the oldest by a decade in the Olympics, won a medal Sunday. Oksana Chusovitina, a veteran of five Olympics who won a team gold medal in 1992 with the Unified Team of athletes from the former Soviet Union, earned an individual silver medal Sunday when she did two sturdy vaults. Her 9-year-old son, Alisher, is in recovery from leukemia, the illness that brought Chusovitina to Germany six years ago. It is because of that illness that Chusovitina competes for Germany instead of her native Uzbekistan.

UCLA had three of the top six competitors in the vault competition Sunday at the NCAA women's gymnastics event finals at Pauley Pavilion. Junior Olivia Courtney, who was the very first of 23 competitors on the vault, scored 9.9167 points, good for third place, while senior teammate Kaelie Baer was fourth and senior Vanessa Zamarripa finished tied for fifth. Diandra Milliner of Alabama and Rheagan Courville of Louisiana State were tied for first with scores of 9.9250. Florida's Alaina Johnson, who was sidelined by a stress fracture in her back as recently as last month, won the uneven bars title with a score of 9.9125, edging  her Gators teammate and former Olympian Bridget Sloan and Utah's Georgia Dabritz, who tied for second with 9.9000.

Chinese gymnast Sang Lan was paralyzed Tuesday after damaging her spine in warm-ups for the women's vault in the Goodwill Games. "At this time, she is paralyzed and cannot move her legs and she has a minimal amount of motion in her arms," said Dr. Brock Schnebel, chief physician of the Goodwill Games. Officials said Sang, 17, injured her neck while attempting a forward vault in warm-ups and lost control in midair, striking the ground head first.

Since November, when the Berlin Wall fell, it has been expected that the dominance of East German sports would also crumble. But few could have expected it this soon. If there can be such a thing as a rout in gymnastics, it happened Saturday. The United States women beat the East Germans by five points in a exhibition dual meet. The United States scored 192.75 points to 187.588 for the East Germans. The American score wasn't particularly high, but still solid.

One daughter, barely 16, lives in Houston, where she has developed into the country's best gymnast. Another daughter, 14, lives in Southern California, where she is making a name for herself as a figure skater. A son, 18, the eldest of half a dozen children, has returned to the family nest in Northfield, Ill., an upper middle-class suburb of Chicago, after sharpening his speed skating skills for a year in Butte, Mont., and Calgary.

Pity the poor, unsuspecting teacher who asks 14-year-old Rich Lorenat to write a composition on what he did this summer. Lorenat's essay won't describe trips to the beach, Disneyland, the movies or even grandma's house. Instead, he'll be able to share memories of the Great Wall, the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City. No, these aren't new lands at a local theme park. Lorenat, a resident of Irvine, is one of five Orange County gymnasts going to China for three weeks starting today.

Tim Daggett, the United States' top gymnast at the World Gymnastics Championships, fell and broke his left leg in competition Thursday. The accident occurred while Daggett was competing in the vault event of the team competition. A loud crack sounded as he landed. He stumbled backward and crumbled to the floor. "It's a fracture of the lower left leg. But it is not a complicated fracture," a medical official said.

The NCAA has denied the University of New Mexico's request to reinstate the eligibility of Mexican gymnast Luis Lopez, who said he received a $500 monthly stipend from his country's national gymnastics federation.

Florida, led by 2008 Olympian Bridget Sloan, won its first NCAA women's gymnastics team title Saturday at Pauley Pavilion. The Gators overcame two falls on their opening apparatus, the balance beam, to score 197.575 points, edging runner-up Oklahoma. The Sooners finished second with 197.375 points. Two-time defending champion Alabama was third with 197.350 points. Ultimately UCLA couldn't overcome a series of injuries that sidelined 2008 Olympian Samantha Peszek, former national team member Mattie Larson and Canadian national team member Christine Peng-Peng Lee. The Bruins settled for fourth place.

Based on Friday night's team qualifications, UCLA has five gymnasts in three of the four NCAA women's gymnastics event finals Sunday at Pauley Pavilion. Four Bruins -- Olivia Courtney, Kaelie Baer, Vanessa Zamarripa and Lichelle Wong -- will perform on the vault; Danusia Francis will represent the Bruins on the balance beam and Courtney will perform in floor exercise. Florida freshman Bridget Sloan, a 2008 Olympian, qualified for the finals on the uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise.

When UCLA's Vanessa Zamarripa flew around the uneven bars at Pauley Pavilion, soared almost to the ceiling, it seemed, and landed with a bit of a wobble but without a fall, it became certain. The Bruins had qualified for Saturday's six-team women's gymnastics NCAA finals. UCLA tied with Oklahoma in second place in Friday's evening semifinals and joined session winner Alabama, along with Friday's afternoon best threesome of Florida, LSU and Georgia as earning spots in Saturday's team final.

Vanessa Zamarripa, the Pac-12 Conference gymnast of the year, is a fifth-year senior at UCLA who has steadied the Bruins as three key team members suffered season-ending injuries. Hers was a voice of experience based on how she dealt with her own serious injury, a torn Achilles' tendon she sustained two years ago. "I'd be happy to give Kobe [Bryant] some tips," Zamarripa quipped Thursday before practice in advance of the 12-team NCAA championships that begin Friday at Pauley Pavilion.

The Times has gymnast Aly Raisman , a two-time Olympic gold medalist at the London Games, guest-blogging while she competes on "Dancing With the Stars. " Each week while she competes on the show, Raisman will answer a few questions from Sports Now editor Houston Mitchell and give some insight into the competition. Here are Raisman's thoughts about Week 4, which she offered via email.   Q. Len Goodman had a rare joke when he said you didn't get enough height on the last flip.