THE 1987 PAN AMERICAN GAMES : Gymnastics : Daggett Sticks Neck Out for His Country, Another Gold Medal

INDIANAPOLIS —  Tim Daggett was struggling with his series of back tosses on the parallel bar. They were short and shorter, and finally, he had to pause for a split second while he pushed himself back up into a full handstand.

He completed the routine, but as he joined his teammates to wait for his scores, he told them, “I had no strength.”

The fact is, he is nowhere near full strength after the neck injury he suffered in falling from the horizontal bar in practice Feb. 17. He ruptured a disk in his neck, spent 10 days in the hospital in traction and another two weeks in a collar, and still feels the effect of the nerve damage.

It’s not pain so much as a failure to communicate between his brain and his muscles. He has scary little lapses when his muscles fail him.

So why is he competing in the Pan American Games when so many doctors and coaches had told him to wait until the World Championships?

Well, it seems he has a thing about little American flags.

Waving them is becoming a habit with him. He liked it so much at the Olympics in 1984 when he and his fellow Americans won the team gold medal in gymnastics that he decided to go for it again.

Thursday night, the United States gymnastics team did it again, beating a strong Cuban team for the team gold medal. The U.S. broke the Pan Am record by five points with a total of 577.050 points. Cuba won the silver with 574.100 and Brazil took the bronze with 550.800.

Casimiro Suarez, 25, of Cuba, said that he did not think the judging was fair.

“We were perfect in our routines,” he said. But there were no 10s on this night for anyone. He thought that the judges favored the North American teams over the South American teams. He added, “I believe we were better. But that’s the sport.”

Daggett responded that he has performed all over the world, and the judging is never the same. He said the Americans have felt slighted in places like the Soviet Union and Caracas.

The scores said that the U.S. had another gold medal. And Daggett was happy to be part of it.

“From an individual standpoint, I probably shouldn’t be here,” said Daggett, who graduated from UCLA in 1986. “I had to definitely remind myself of why I am here, and I did that when I put the uniform on this afternoon and looked at this little flag. This one is not for myself. It’s for America and USA gymnastics and my teammates.”

Daggett competed well for his team, and all of his scores were needed because he wasn’t the only one not at full strength.

As Scott Johnson, the only other U.S. gymnast who also was on the Olympic gold medal team, pointed out: “Kevin Davis competed with a badly sprained ankle and Charlie Lakes has a bad hip injury. Three days ago he was on crutches, but he stuck that last dismount.”

Daggett said, “It was all team tonight. We had a lot of obstacles and problems to overcome. What you saw was six guys who really wanted something very badly.”

Davis, who sprained his ankle doing a warmup vault, had to take minimal score of .05 in floor exercise when he made a token appearence on the mat, and a 0.0 in vaulting when he appeared on the runway but could not even make an attempt.

Davis was able to get a 9.75 on the pommel horse, a 9.65 on the parallel bars, a 9.45 on the high bar.

Lakes struggled on the pommel horse and the parallel bars, but when he stuck his dismount, he scored a 9.8 on the high bar.

Daggett struggled with his first performance, getting a 9.35 for his floor exercise and he managed only a 9.45 on the parallel bars, but he had scores of 9.85 on both pommel horse and high bar.

It was a good team effort in that they took turns with their high points and low points, always ending up with five solid scores in every round.

In compulsory competition the night before, two of Daggett’s scores were the low scores dropped from the team totals, including an 8.850 on the still rings when his left arm buckled on him. After two nights of competition, Johnson led the individual standings with 117.300 points. Felix Aguilera of Cuba was second with 116.00 and Suarez third with 115.500. Brian Ginsberg of the U.S. was fourth with 114.750 and Daggett fifth with 114.700.

Men’s all-around competition is Saturday and individual competition is Sunday.