BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS : Scherbo Leads CIS Sweep; U.S. Fizzles : Men’s gymnastics: He scores 59.025 points to win the gold. Keswick leads Americans by finishing 19th.

BARCELONA —  There is a rock ‘n’ roll gymnast from Minsk who likes fast cars, loud music and dancing in discos.

And since a pocketful of rubles can’t pay for a tankful of gas, he is even willing to take his high-flying act on the road for the dollar or the deutschemark.

Meet Vitaly Scherbo, the men’s all-around gymnastics champion at the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Friday night, Scherbo got his gold with an aerial display that was as spectacular as it was historic. He scored 59.025 points and led a medal sweep by gymnasts of the Commonwealth of Independent States’ soon-to-vanish Unified Team.

For the first time in his career, Scherbo represented not a state headquartered at the Kremlin in Moscow, but a republic, Belarus. When the red and white Belarus flag rose, and the republic’s anthem was played, Scherbo stood at rapt attention.

But despite his obvious joy at hearing the anthem, the moment was laced with sadness.

“What a pity it is that we won’t be training together,” Scherbo said. “When we train together, it’s like a wreath that hangs together. If you tear a piece off the wreath, you tear the whole thing down.”

Grigory Misiutin of Ukraine won the silver, a full point behind Scherbo. Valeri Belenki of Azerbaijan won the bronze.

Misiutin and Belenki also stood at attention as their flags--blue and yellow for Ukraine; blue, green and red with a crescent for Azerbaijan--were hoisted to the ceiling.

And what about the Americans?

The U.S. Now Boys were last seen falling face-first into the mat.

Two days after absorbing six knockdowns and sliding to sixth place in the team competition, the Americans were once again tumbling from bars and rings. One U.S. gymnast, John Roethlisberger of the University of Minnesota, tripped and stumbled to an 8.400 in the floor exercise.

Scott Keswick of UCLA was 19th, Roethlisberger 34th and Chris Waller, of UCLA 35th out of 36 gymnasts.

In Sunday night’s individual apparatus finals, Waller on pommel horse, Trent Dimas of Albuquerque, N.M., on horizontal bars, and Jair Lynch of Washington and Stanford University on parallel bars will compete for the U.S.

“We have to pick up the pieces,” U.S. Coach Francis Allen said.

Not the former Soviets. They are breaking apart but in Barcelona, they are providing one last array of medal-winning performances for old-time’s sake.

Scherbo, 20, the son of acrobats, is the last in the line of gymnasts produced by the Soviet sports machine. He entered the sport as a 7-year-old “because I was so small,” and eventually made his way to the country’s main training camp in Moscow.

According to Allen, Scherbo, and others like him, endured a rigorous training program.

“What you have here is the communist Russian machine at its peak--you know, taking the kids from their parents and beating them to death to make them tougher,” Allen said. “We’re talking about two totally different systems, theirs and ours.”

Despite a recent lack of food and funding, the system was able to produce one last batch of champions.

“This is as good a group as I’ve ever seen,” Allen said.

With a brace wrapped around his right knee, Scherbo performed nearly flawless routines. His lowest score was a 9.775 on the horizontal bar, and his highest was a 9.875, which he scored on both the floor exercise and the pommel horse.

“Once you’re in the finals, you’re like an automaton,” he said.

Away from the gym, though, Scherbo is hardly a machine. Married last December, he still enjoys racing his Soviet-made Lada and playing loud Western music.

“Well, it’s not exactly accurate to say I’m a fan of fast cars,” he said. “I love cars. I love driving cars. But I don’t want to get in accidents. As for dancing, I will if I’m in a very good mood. I love nature, too. I love pitching tents. I love fishing. And I love rest.”

That may be a lot of love for one person, but Scherbo is also a realist. With the sports system of the former Soviet Union collapsing, he’s ready to head to Europe to earn cash performing and coaching for sports clubs.

“I believe our medals will have an importance on our future in the contracts that might be offered us by foreign countries,” he said.

Gymnastics Medalists

* MEN’S INDIVIDUAL ALL-AROUND

Gold: Vitaly Scherbo (CIS)

Silver: Grigory Misiutin (CIS)

Bronze: Valeri Belenki (CIS)