U.S. gymnasts on top of the world.(The Dallas Morning News) - Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service

Byline: Cathy Harasta

ANAHEIM, Calif. _ They, well, beamed in jubilation.

U.S. coaches and officials had plenty to celebrate when the World Gymnastics Championships' 100th-anniversary edition ended at the Arrowhead Pond on Sunday.

It's not that Team USA skipped across the surface of the Pond without a hitch, but more that the program redeemed itself after neither the men nor the women won a medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

A record five gold medals and historic firsts for the men and women positioned the United States just where it wanted to be with less than a year until the 2004 Athens Olympics.

'The message is clear,' said Evgeny Marchenko, the U.S. women's team's assistant coach and a Plano gym owner. 'We proved we are the best country in the world right now. And we will keep working to prove it next year.'

Next year is the one the 'now' generation of gymnasts has eyed for many years. The 2004 Athens Olympics, on Aug. 13-29, offer the sport an even bigger showcase opportunity than the world championships.

'This has been awesome, just awesome,' said Steve Penny, the senior vice president of marketing for USA Gymnastics. 'We took the pressure off.'

Well, maybe not all of it. A team entering the Olympic countdown as a gold or silver medal favorite for the Games has to watch its back.

'We are going to keep a positive attitude for the next Olympic Games,' said Octavian Belu, coach of the Romanian women's team, which finished second to the U.S. squad. 'We will see all the girls competing in Athens, and can expect a very different outcome.'

Ah, bulletin board material for Team USA almost a year early!

Texas gymnastics took a huge stride in Anaheim, where Allen's Carly Patterson 15, and Dallas' Hollie Vise, 15, won four medals between them in their first season of senior-level competition.

Take it from another North Texan in attendance _ Kim Zmeskal-Burdette, the Coppell gym owner who won the 1991 world all-around title:

'This could not have been better,' she said. 'We almost had another all-around champion. This is Carly's first year. She'll be there.'

Patterson finished second to Russia's Svetlana Khorkina, perhaps a sentimental favorite because this was her farewell world championships, in the all-around event. U.S. women's team coordinator Martha Karolyi said the judges overscored Khorkina's final event.

No matter, Patterson graciously accepted the silver medal. She didn't say, 'Wait `til next year!' But, well, just wait `til next year.

The U.S. women won their first world team title, snapping Romania's string of five consecutive world championships. The American squad finished fourth at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, not having had enough time to get results from the fledgling training approach that has come to be called the 'Karolyi Plan.'

After the disappointment in Sydney, USA Gymnastics officials in 1999 launched routine training camps at the ranch owned by former Olympic coach Bela Karolyi and his wife, Martha. In naming Martha Karolyi the U.S. women's team coordinator, USA Gymnastics officials sent the message that somebody was in charge.

The semi-centralized preparations included autonomy to a degree for the elite gymnasts' personal coaches. But they had to answer the bell when the U.S. camps requested the gymnasts' presence at the ranch in New Waverly, Texas, near Huntsville.

The training camps, held every month or so, stressed conditioning and measured each athlete's progress. The idea was that they might be able to run, but they couldn't hide.

Martha Karolyi denied accusations that the team over-trained. Illness and injuries sidelined three of the six-member U.S. women's squad in the days leading to the world championships.

Marchenko, the co-owner of Plano's World Olympic Gymnastics Academy and the personal coach of Vise and Patterson, probably will handle the spotlight well. In his early days in North Texas 10 years ago, he delivered pizzas to save money to launch a gymnastics academy.

'I knew that was just temporary,' he said. 'I was living my dream. It just hadn't started yet.'

It should come true in Athens, the way things are developing.

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