Thursday, August 17, 2000
Beckerman has Olympics in her sights
By Scott MacGregor
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Alyssa Beckerman is always smiling. “I love to laugh,” she says.This is what sometimes gets her in trouble on the gymnastics floor.
She is prone to giggling when she should be gritting. Artistry, not concentration, is her forte.
Which is why it is so interesting that Beckerman could not be happier or more focused as she enters the biggest meet of her life this week: the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials, which begin with women's preliminary rounds Friday at Boston's FleetCenter.
“I try to keep it contained when I'm competing, because it's hard to keep your focus,” said Beckerman, who trains at the Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy. “But for the most part, I try to just be myself. I like to show I'm human and not a robot. I used to watch gymnastics on TV, and when people got off the equipment, they looked so upset. I said, "If I ever do that, I'm going to look like I'm having fun.'”
Beckerman enters the trials in fifth place after the first phase of Olympic qualifying, last month's national championships. Though they have no lock on roster spots, the top six after Sunday's finals will be in prime position to make the six-member U.S. Olympic squad. An alternate also will be chosen.
Beckerman, 19, is proud of her performance at nationals — where she won the championship on the balance beam — but understands that without the most strict focus of her
life, her Olympic dreams could crash with one slip of the foot.
“The biggest challenge is keeping what I had at championships and upping it a notch,” she said. “If I just do what I did or better, I should be OK.”
Then she smiled again. “I'm so glad. At championships, I couldn't have asked for a better job from myself. It wouldn't have mattered what my ranking was, because I'm really happy with what I did.”
Beckerman knows she is not the first or even the sixth choice of those who will pick the Olympic team — specifically, national coordinator Bela Karolyi. But she believes if she hits her routines, they'll be hard-pressed to keep her off, even if Shannon Miller is awarded a spot despite not competing at nationals.
“I know they're going to want to put the best team out there,” Beckerman said. “I'm trying to think more of what the U.S. needs. But I feel I'd be a good contender for the U.S., and I think my scores are needed.”
That confidence is something Beckerman has developed since coming to the Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy three years ago. She was a good technical gymnast back home in Long Branch, N.J., but didn't believe she could be an Olympian.
When her mom enrolled her in Mary Lee Tracy's gym in Fairfield in 1998, Beckerman figured she would have a fun summer, then move on to college at UCLA. “When I first got here, I didn't expect to be a contender for anything,” Beckerman said.
But then Beckerman went to the 1998 national championships and was fifth after the first day. Though she blew her concentration and fell to eighth in the final standings, the experience helped her realize her potential.
Tracy realized it as well. An assistant Olympic coach in 1996 who produced gold medalists Amanda Borden and Jaycie Phelps, Tracy made Beckerman say out loud that she wanted to go the Olympics.
“That's a big step,” Beckerman said. “She said, "You have to admit to yourself you're going to do it.' It took Mary Lee telling me I could do it. It means a lot coming from a person of that caliber. You can have the greatest technical skills in the world, but if you don't believe in what you're doing, it's hard to be confident.”
Tracy seems constantly to be working with Beckerman on the mental aspect of being a champion, whether on the floor or in the gym's sports psychology classes.
But as the national championships and the trials grew closer, Tracy began to see Beckerman's focus narrowing. The times Tracy had to snap her back to work became fewer and farther between.
“She's had a whole new level of focus that I've never seen before,” Tracy said. “It's been a lot easier for her to bring out her best. I think that's why we saw so many good things from her at championships, because she narrowed her focus. When I narrowed it a little more, she got to a better place. Instead of telling her "Come on, let's go,' I could work on technical things, a toe, a finger.”
Beckerman's mental mistakes at the nationals three years ago are an illustration of how far she has come. Both then and this year, she was fifth after the first day of competition. But in '98, she was so freaked out by being in contention — she had hoped to finish around 15th — that she fell three times the final day.
This year, after winning the beam championship, she held her ground, perhaps performing even more confidently the next day.
“This time I wasn't wishing,” she said, “I was expecting.”
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