She’s Best in U.S. : Karolyi Might Not Like It, but Shannon Miller Won Trials, Beating World Champion Zmeskal

OKLAHOMA CITY —  In a gym about five miles north of Grandy’s restaurant--where you can get all the livers and gizzards you can eat for $2.99--Shannon Miller is practicing.

Her hair frizzed, her face sweaty, she steps to a door in a building the size of a bus depot and tries to catch a breeze. It’s 90 degrees outside, 95 inside and the humidity is off the scale.

It’s nearly 8 o’clock on what for most others is a lazy summer night in June. But for Miller, it is less than a month until the start of the Olympic gymnastics competition in Barcelona.

The music starts again, the sounds of Gypsy violins filling the room.

Miller steps to the mat and resumes practicing her floor exercise routine. Her coach calls this process refining : “Look up so the judge can see your face, Shannon. The judge in this corner can’t see your face. . . . Try it again. Once again.

“Yes, that’s it!”

These are the words Miller has labored six years to hear. Now, she hears them often. In the mind of her coach, Miller is no longer a close second to world champion Kim Zmeskal, but has passed her.

But it is the international judging community that Miller cares about, and it knows--although it might be as confused as the rest of us--that Miller beat Zmeskal at the U.S. Olympic trials. There was controversy at the trials over the confusing way the scores were tabulated. And there were scoring discrepancies.

But the fact remains that the format of the trials--with scores carried over from a previous qualifying meet--became more of a tournament, and Miller won, if only by 0.140 points, not even a wobble on the beam. She won in her own country. Now, the Olympic judges have to take notice.

“The win will help me going into the Olympics with the international judges and in how I am placed in the order to compete,” Miller said.

Miller is going to the Olympics as the No. 1 American, ahead of the world champion.

Yes, that’s it! Those are the words Miller’s coach at Dynamo Gymnastics, Steve Nunno, believed he could one day say to her.

Although both were Americans, living in the same town, in fact, Nunno met Miller in the former Soviet Union. They both happened to be at a gymnastics clinic in Moscow.

Miller, who was 9 then, cried a lot, frustrated because she couldn’t get the skills right. She was taking gymnastics at a recreation-type program in Edmond, Okla. He was coaching at another gym there. About two weeks after the trip ended, she and her parents showed up at Nunno’s door and she has never left.

Now, she is at a much bigger door, and it is wide open. She has a chance to bring home the gold medal. Nunno could be the first gymnastics coach since the celebrated Bela Karolyi to emerge in the limelight. There’s a lot of prestige on the line; a lot of money on the line.

Time to hire an agent.

Miller’s fan mail has doubled to about six letters daily since she won the trials, and she answers all of it personally. Some fans don’t know her address, so they just write, “Shannon Miller, Edmond, Okla.,” and she gets it.

“They will write and ask me about my brother or my sister, or how to do a certain skill,” said Miller, who is 4 feet 7 and weighs 71 pounds. “It is kind of weird that they are asking me these questions.”

One letter writer asked Miller, who turned 15 in March, for advice on a problem with a boyfriend.

“Shannon said to me, ‘Mom, how would I know?’ ” Claudia Miller said. “So, Shannon wrote her back and said that she didn’t have any experience in that area, but when she does get a boyfriend, she will write to her for advice.”

One letter came to Miller addressed to the University of Central Oklahoma, where her father, Ron, is a professor of physics.

“Ron uses examples of Shannon’s gymnastics in his class,” said Claudia, who is a bank vice president. “He loves to use the reverse Hecht on bars, which is a move where Shannon swings down, releases and goes back over the bar and catches it. He shows a video of her missing the bar, and the students have to calculate the force with which she hits the ground.

“When they are finished the students often ask, ‘Is your daughter still alive?’ Then, Ron says, as a matter of fact . . . and whips out a video of her catching it.”

But that was life before the trials, before things got crazy for the Millers. Since then, Nunno’s phone has been ringing off the hook with interview requests and his gym has been visited by reporters and photographers from every major paper and network in the country.

“All of a sudden people are saying Shannon has really become a good gymnast, like it just happened,” said Peggy Liddock, Nunno’s assistant. “Shannon has always been this good, but she has had to pay her dues. She has won every international meet she has competed in the last couple of years except for one (she was sixth at the 1991 World Championships).

“But if you are willing to pay your dues, and finish second to someone until your time comes, then you have a chance. You are only as good as your last meet, and so right now Shannon is No. 1.”

The Millers have long had agents contacting them about representing Shannon, but they were never interested before. Now they say they might need one.

“It’s not from an aggressive standpoint, to see how much we can get, but because the Karolyis of the world have one,” Claudia said. “For instance, NBC wanted Shannon and Kim on together, and it was all set, then they cordially uninvited us.

“When my husband asked why, NBC told him they didn’t have time to have Shannon on, but my husband told them he didn’t believe them. Then NBC said, ‘Mr. Karolyi wants to be on and we have an agreement with him.’

“And we know that Karolyi has an agency working for them.”

Miller says she sees her father being affected the most by the fuss, and her mother agrees.

“I think Ron is stressed and doesn’t know it,” Claudia said. “Shannon told me, ‘Mom, get Dad under control.’ Ron just wants to protect her, that’s all. The phone starts ringing at 6 in the morning and doesn’t stop until 11 at night, and, after a while you say, ‘Leave me alone.’ ”

There are calls from radio stations, television stations and promoters of every Fourth of July parade in Oklahoma. People call because they want to know where Miller will be appearing to sign autographs, or to help the Millers raise money to go to Barcelona. So far, the Millers have raised about $10,000, half of what the trip will cost.

Miller’s older sister, Tessa, 17, coaches for Nunno at his gym in Edmond and then picks Miller up after her morning practice in Oklahoma City and drives her around to fund-raisers and appearances. Then Miller returns to the gym for her evening practice. Miller’s younger brother, Troy, 11, also helps. But Shannon doesn’t seem stressed. She says she feels no pressure from the Zmeskal-Miller controversy.

“I really didn’t pay any attention to it at the trials,” she said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with my performance. I’m just trying to focus and do my best.”

Miller doesn’t say much during interviews, and, when she does talk she can barely be heard. But at home she rules the roost.

With her family and friends, Miller is talkative and funny. She is a straight-A student at Summit Middle School, where she will be a sophomore next year.

So, why is she is so quiet with reporters?

“I don’t want to get caught saying the wrong thing,” Miller said.

At home, Shannon and her mother have resorted to interview practice sessions.

Said Claudia: “She comes up with incredible answers and I will say, ‘Shannon, why don’t you answer this way with the press?’ And she will say, ‘Mother, what if it hurts somebody’s feelings?’ ”

At competitions, it is standard to see Miller and Nunno standing alone, whereas Zmeskal is flanked by at least two of her teammates from Karolyi’s gym, which produces most of the elite U.S. gymnasts. Miller is Nunno’s only star, although he says he has a group of young stars in training.

But Miller says she doesn’t mind being alone with Nunno.

“I get more attention this way,” she said.

She says she is friends with many of the other gymnasts, Zmeskal among them, and has grown close to Dominique Dawes of Silver Spring, Md., also 15 and on the Olympic team.

After one meet, Miller and Dawes decided to skip the banquet.

Dawes said to Miller: “Let’s go back to the room and have some fun.”

But Miller said Dawes’ idea of fun was conditioning--stretching and pushups. After that, they watched television and counted how many times they could jump from one bed to another.

“They are just kids,” Claudia Miller said.

For years, Nunno has been admired for his ability to get along well with Karolyi and the U.S. Gymnastics Federation by keeping a low profile and saying the right things. Nunno worked for Karolyi in 1983 at Karolyi’s gym in Houston, shortly after Karolyi had defected from Romania.

But it wasn’t until this year’s Olympic trials that Nunno finally stepped out of Karolyi’s shadow, talking candidly with reporters about his student’s victory over Zmeskal and saying that Karolyi should lift his glass to him.

Karolyi barely lifted his hand to shake Nunno’s.

“Bela and I have never had a problem, and we won’t have a problem in Barcelona,” said Nunno, who was chosen, along with Karolyi’s wife, Martha, as an assistant Olympic coach. “But I had to stand up for Shannon because I had a couple of people saying it wasn’t a win. It was clearly a win.”

Here’s where the confusion was:

Scores from the U.S. Championships carried over to the trials and counted 30% of the final score. Miller, who said she had fully recovered from a dislocated elbow but was not adequately prepared to perform her optional routines, competed in only the compulsory exercise portion of the U.S. Championships then withdrew, so she had no scores to carry over.

The scores given by the judges at the U.S. Championships were lower than those given at the trials, where the judges were more generous. That put Zmeskal at a disadvantage because Miller’s trials scores counted 100%.

Karolyi was furious. Nunno was elated.

“I was more happy when Shannon finished in first place because there was no other gymnast that deserved it more,” Nunno said. “Two months ago she was lying in the hospital with a dislocated elbow and she said, ‘Am I going to be ready for the trials?’ And I said, ‘We are going to win the trials.’ She didn’t make a liar out of me.

“I didn’t feel it was Shannon’s time to win before now. But she won every meet in Europe this past year, and I knew she was ready. They love her in Europe. She has a European look--lean, agile and a very graceful dancer, but still very daring and technically precise. The Europeans have been coming up to me the past two years and saying that I have the best kid, how come I am not in first place? And I’ve said, ‘In good time.’ ”

Nunno says his style of coaching is similar to Karolyi’s, but he doesn’t think he is demeaning to his students, a criticism often heard about Karolyi. Nunno yells a lot, too, but calls his coaching philosophy firm but fair.

“Sometimes I will see Steve just lay into Shannon during practice and when we get in the car I will say to her, ‘Shannon, what is his problem?’ ” Claudia Miller said. “And Shannon will say, ‘Well, Mom, I was doing it all wrong and he had to straighten me out.’

“His yelling at her doesn’t bother her, unless he starts to get personal. Every once in a while he will think she is not trying hard enough and tell her that she is obviously not an elite, and kick her out of the gym. Many times I have come to pick her up, though not many times this year, and she has been waiting for me outside the gym on the couch, because he has kicked her out, and that hurts her feelings.

“Then, just when you think you can’t stand him, he will do something really nice. Like after the trials, Peggy (Liddock, the assistant coach) and Steve had a gold necklace made with the five Olympic rings. Shannon was so excited. The only time she doesn’t wear it is in the gym.”

Nunno has the gym glassed off from the lobby so the parents can see what’s going on without interfering with his coaching. Sometimes it’s hard on Claudia, who got involved with gymnastics when her daughter did and is a judge.

“We have had our run-ins,” Claudia said. “But we usually find a point of compromise.”

Her daughter also has a mind of her own, she said.

“One time Steve wanted Shannon to do a move that was a vaulting preparation, and she wouldn’t do it,” Claudia said. “She told me that the last time she did it, it screwed up her vault so bad that she wasn’t going to take a chance.”

Out of the gym she went.

During competition, Nunno gets right in front of Miller before her turn and talks continuously. Miller seldom smiles during a meet, instead looking intense throughout the waiting period and her routines. “Steve gets right in her face, and I don’t think she even knows what he is saying,” Claudia said. “I don’t think he even expects her to hear what he says, just his voice.”

Whatever Nunno does, Miller says it works.

“I never even considered going to another gym,” she said. “It never even crossed my mind.”

When the Olympic trials were over, Nunno said, he walked up to Karolyi and congratulatedhim.

“Bela said, ‘Congratulations to you, but this system is not going to work,’ ” Nunno said. “I think his mind was stewing, he was still baffled from the loss. I think he was thinking about how he could retaliate. And, also, I don’t think he believed that we had the best team (Miller and Nunno) out there.

“But Bela’s entitled to his opinion. It’s a free country. That’s why he’s here in America, right?

“It was an outright win.”

If only barely.