Selection camp is breath of fresh air

For all the things that were the same about the USA Gymnastics women’s team that lined up for a weekend training and selection camp, it’s the differences that might say the most about the sport’s future direction.

For one thing, the 22 athletes who traveled along with about 40 coaches and support staff gathered at World Champions Centre, the 61,000-squarefoot Montgomery County gym owned by the parents of four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, a stone’s throw from the Grand Parkway, not the Karolyi Ranch deep in the Sam Houston National Forest.

For another, there were spectators on hand — not just spectators but athletes’ parents, who under the regime of former national team coordinator Martha Karolyi were per-

sona non grata at camp time.

Competition, of course, is competition. Six athletes were selected Sunday to represent the United States at the upcoming Pacific Rim Championships, just as they would have been picked at the secluded camps over which Karolyi presided for 15 years.

And myriad questions remain about the future course of USA Gymnastics, ranging from future training sites to the organization’s fate at the hands of investigations by Congress and the U.S. Olympic Committee in the wake of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal.

But at least for this particular weekend, as part of the day-to-day business of supplying athletes for international competition, there’s a new way of doing things, and federation officials, coaches and parents think it’s a success.

“There’s definitely a different feel,” said Kim Zmeskal-Burdette, who became a world champion training under Bela and Martha Karolyi in Houston in the 1980s and ’90s and who owns a gym in suburban Dallas-Fort Worth. “I hope that everybody can kind of take a breath and reassess how we want things to be, not just taping things back together but examining what we have done and learning from it.

“Gymnastics is a piece of it, but life is the bigger piece.”

Family, guests welcome

The Saturday-Sunday camp, which was open to athletes’ families and guests, is only the second since USA Gymnastics’ established order was turned upside down by the life prison sentence given Nassar, the former national team doctor who pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct, and the decision not to resume training at the Karolyi Ranch, where gymnasts say they were abused by Nassar under the guise of medical treatment.

“It’s important for our organization that family and friends and athletes can see and watch a verification or a training camp and to appreciate the athletes who are working so hard,” said Rhonda Faehn, who trained in Houston under Bela and Martha Karolyi before becoming a college coach and, in 2015, a senior vice president of USA Gymnastics. “This is a challenging time.

“We don’t want our current athletes to lose opportunities, so we are trying to provide a situation for the athletes in which they feel safe and can have their parents with them in a place where coaches and athletes can feel comfortable.”

Some elements were familiar: the carefully choreographed warm-up rituals and the way gymnasts lined up, arranged from end to end in order of height, as they received their final instructions.

But under the former regime, the idea of a federation official’s circulating among parents, asking questions about proposed changes, would have been unthinkable.

“It’s a good turn of the page,” said Sherri Hurd of Middletown, Del., the mother of 2017 world allaround champion Morgan Hurd. “There’s a lot of communication going on, and they’re learning about what we as parents might need or want to hear.

“They’re working through logistics and legalities. It won’t be done overnight, but it’s a process.”

Hurd and Tina Frazier, the mother of national team member Margzetta Frazier of Erial, N.J., last year served as chaperones for U.S. teams on overseas assignments, another change in the established order from the Karolyi years, and both watched their daughters train and perform this weekend.

“I love the fact that I have the chance to see the process,” Tina Frazier said. “In the past, you had to talk to your kids and take their word for things.

“A lot of this for me is about emotions — how are they feeling, did they have a good day.

“You want them to be at their best emotionally, so now, getting a chance to watch, we get to see the wholeness. I like it. I haven’t had that opportunity before.”

Having a selection camp somewhere other than the Karolyi Ranch “is a little different than what we’re used to,” said Morgan Hurd, who was a surprise winner at last year’s worlds after finishing sixth at the national championships.

Having parents on hand, she said, “was a little different feeling, but not too much.”

Federation officials were pleased with the Montgomery County camp and a similar event this year in Baton Rouge, La., but question marks aplenty loom for USA Gymnastics.

The women’s program is without a national team coordinator with the resignation this year of Valeri Liukin, a former Olympic gold medalist and the father of 2008 all-around Olympic gold medalist Nastia Liukin, and there has been no determination as to a future permanent training site to replace the Karolyi Ranch.

Houston bid possible

Faehn said USA Gymnastics hopes within a month to have a temporary home for four training camps this year and six to eight annually in 2019 and 2020 while it looks for a permanent location that can service all of USA Gymnastics, including the men’s team and the rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline and tumbling programs as well.

She said federation officials are in the process of sending a request for information for prospective bid cities, which likely would include Houston, that would want to host the permanent training site.

Some gymnasts, including Biles, expressed qualms about returning to the Karolyi Ranch, but Faehn said she did not believe strained feelings caused by the break from the Karolyi regime would work against a potential Houston bid for the training center, which likely would be organized by the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority.

“The goal is to find the best fit and the best opportunity for all the disciplines, and that is going to be the top priority — the best setup, an airport with a lot of direct flights, a lot of scenarios. That is the vision,” she said.