Carly Patterson stands at the edge of fame

By JEFF METCALFE

The Arizona Republic

ATHENS, Greece — The Courtneys beat her at the Olympic Trials, but there was never any doubt that the leader of the U.S. women's gymnastics pack is Carly Patterson.

The 16-year-old Texan was second all-around in the world last year and reinforced that by leading all qualifiers for the Olympic all-around final on Thursday. On Tuesday, she'll handle a third of America's 12 routines in the pursuit of a team gold medal to bookend with the 2003 World Championships team title.

Patterson is on the verge of breakout fame akin to Mary Lou Retton in 1984 or Kerri Strug in '96.

That's why McDonald's already features her on 70 million cups and bags even though Patterson admits she's not a client.

"I can't tell you" about her last McDonald's meal, Patterson said in May. "I can't really have McDonald's right now." After a gentle tap on the shoulder, Patterson was careful to point out that salads now are offered under the arches.

NBC analyst Tim Daggett, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist, believes Patterson has breakout star potential.

"She's a tremendous athlete," he said. "One of the things Carly has going for her is that she is one of the most calm athletes I've ever seen in the sport. You hear about the zone. You can almost see the zone in her eyes when she's going.

"It's a wonderful quality to have as an athlete. There have been so many incredible gymnasts and athletes that nobody in the world knows about because they don't have that quality, and she does."

It's possible that Patterson will do what no American woman gymnast has: lead the team to gold and win all-around. Retton did the latter when the team won silver. The Magnificent Seven, with Strug, won as a team but the only individual gold went to Shannon Miller on balance beam.

Patterson began to distinguish herself last year when an Achilles injury kept Courtney Kupets out of the world team final. The two tied for the all-around title at this year's U.S. Championships, then Patterson fell off the balance beam in qualifying and finals at the trials, finishing behind automatic Olympic qualifiers Kupets and Courtney McCool.

Yet it was a no-brainer to pick her for the Olympic team. She reinforced that by scoring 9.5 or higher on every event in preliminaries, which McCool botched so badly that she is not competing at all. Kupets will do all but vault and also is in the all-around final fight along with reigning world championing Svetlana Khorkina of Russia and Romanians Daniela Sofronie and Oana Ban.

Patterson dreams sometimes of being like her 14-year-old sister Jordan, whom she describes as "totally normal" with the understanding that her life is not.

"She has her friends over and they order a large pizza and stay up all night talking and eating," Patterson said. "I can't do that. I have to go to sleep early to get my rest or else I'll be dead in the morning. It really helps me just to stay focused and it doesn't matter because all that's going to be the rest of your life."

Patterson believes her biggest sacrifice to be not having many friends outside World Olympic Gymnastics Academy in Dallas. Sometimes she envies her sister "for a minute maybe," then the big picture kicks in.

"Then I realize what all I've accomplished in gymnastics and I wouldn't want to trade it because I've won so much and gotten to experience so much at a young age and gotten to travel the world. Most people don't do that in their whole lifetime."

What to watch

— Teams: Reigning world champion United States, defending Olympic champion and qualifying leader Romania, China, Russia, Ukraine, France, Spain, Australia.

— New format: Each team uses three gymnasts per event. All scores count. The U.S. team is up second on vaulting, first on uneven parallel bars, fourth on balance beam and third on floor exercise.

— U.S. lineup: Carly Patterson is competing all-around with Courtney Kupets on everything but vault. Terin Humphrey is on bars and beam, Mohini Bhardwaj on vault and floor and Annia Hatch on vault. Courtney McCool is not competing after problems in preliminaries.

— The competition:@ Romania beat the Americans on everything but bars in preliminaries with Daniela Sofronie and Oana Ban finishing second and third all-around behind Patterson. Russian Svetlana Khorkina is the reigning world all-around champion. China is led by Zhang Nan.

— Quotable:@ "They are not going to put anything risky out there. Marta (Karolyi, U.S. national team director) will do exactly what she needs just to win the meet. She’ll go with kids who are rising to the occasion. The rest of the world doesn’t want us to win. We need to be a little bit better than everybody else." Geoff Eaton, Desert Devils Gymnastics.