On The EDGE

Lessons don’t come cheaply. But few are hammered home to a 15-year-old under television lights with a national championship on the line.

Holding a large lead with one event to go last Saturday in the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in Denver, Vanessa Atler fell from the uneven bars and tumbled into a first-place tie with Kristy Powell.

Despite the valiant efforts of Atler’s coaches to put a smiley face on the outcome, the aspiring Olympian from Canyon Country furrowed her brow and paused for some critical analysis.

“I wasn’t thinking about doing the routine right, I was thinking, ‘Just make the routine,’ because I knew I had a big lead,” Atler said. “I knew I could fall and still probably win.”

Playing it safe is not advised in gymnastics, where breathtaking leaps and turns are convincingly executed by aggressive athletes who are confident beyond their years.

Atler already knew that. Now, she’ll never forget.

“It was a learning experience, that’s what we live for,” said Beth Rybacki, who along with her husband, Steve, coaches Atler. “We are extremely pleased with Vanessa’s performance.”

The routine Atler attempted on the uneven bars, the “Comaneci,” was new to her. She could have attempted a more familiar routine simply to secure the championship, but instead stuck to her plan.

For that, Rybacki said, Atler should be applauded.

“The skill she fell on was the first time she tried it [in competition],” Rybacki said. “We weren’t intending for her to win. We got the icing along with the cake.”

This was the first national meet at the senior level for Atler. Although she was the 1996 junior national champion, a senior title on her first try was unexpected.

Atler, 15, is too young to join the U.S. team that will compete in the world championships Aug. 31-Sept. 7 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The top six finishers at the national meet qualified for the U.S. team, but a rule enacted this year requires gymnasts to be at least 16 by the end of the year to compete in the world championships and Olympic Games.

At least she won’t be home alone. Atler’s close friend and training partner the past six years, Jamie Dantzscher, 15, of Palmdale, finished sixth in the national meet and also would be headed to the world championships were she old enough.

Not that either girl will spend the next two weeks munching chips and sipping lemonade as they lounge by the pool. Emerging stars with strong followings must be attentive to their public.

Atler will be busy updating her home page on the World Wide Web (https:www.orst.eduperozzir/diary.htm) where fans can read her diary while listening to “I Think We’re Alone Now.”

The “Official Vanessa Atler Page,” has had more than 88,000 readers since February, a number that undoubtedly will grow now that she is a national co-champion. In addition, several unofficial “Nessa” pages created by her fans are popular.

The diary is pretty tame. A recent entry told of her nervousness leading up to the nationals. Earlier this year she detailed her work as a stunt double in a movie about gymnastics, “Little Girls in Pretty Boxes.”

Dantzscher responds to fan mail the old fashioned way--handwritten letters.

“She starts getting overwhelmed by it, but she writes back to everyone,” said Joyce Dantzscher, Jamie’s mother.

Then it’s back to training. Atler and Dantzscher spend more than 30 hours a week in the Rybackis’ Covina gym. They work out for seven hours each Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and for five hours on Mondays and Saturdays.

The commitment necessary to reach the level of “senior international elite” gymnast is staggering. Family, school and social life take a back seat to the balance beam, uneven bars, floor exercise and vault.

Atler’s brother Teddy is a Canyon High baseball player, and Dantzscher’s brother Jeremy is a Littlerock High football player. Both are serious about their sports, but their sisters put in triple the time.

The two off days are all Dantzscher spends at home with her parents and six siblings. She and another gymnast rent a house near the gym to save commuting from Palmdale.

Before the move, the Dantzschers put 5,000 miles a month on their car transporting Jamie and her 9-year-old twin sisters, Jalynne and Janelle, to the gym.

“Steve [Rybacki] says the twins are going to be better than Jamie and Vanessa,” Joyce Dantzscher said. “I laughed and said, ‘Don’t tell me that!’ ”

Atler and Dantzscher are entering their sophomore year of high school, but most of their classwork will be done through independent study. Atler will attend Canyon High only for first-period French; Dantzscher will take two classes near the gym at San Dimas High.

Despite their need to fit school around gymnastics, both girls are top students and college is a high priority. Barring injury, they will choose from a tall stack of full scholarship offers.

The rewards are great, as is the price. Atler and Dantzscher spend more time with their coaches than with their parents. The Rybackis have traveled with the girls to meets across the country and to Japan and Europe. The next meet is in Australia in December.

“We tell them when they are being rude at the dinner table, when to go to sleep and when to wake up,” Beth Rybacki said.

If they are awake when they should be sleeping, Atler and Dantzscher are probably in a hotel room giggling at one another’s jokes. Since meeting six years ago, they have become best friends.

“We are a team,” Atler said. “We want ourselves to do good but if the other doesn’t do good, we are sad. We’re like sisters.”

They got a good night’s sleep in Denver last week before the nationals. Atler and Dantzscher were up and dressed before their coaches the first day of competition, reporting to the Rybackis’ room with determination in their eyes.

“They are going to hit today!” Steve Rybacki said to his wife.

Dantzscher gave the best performance of her career, placing well in all four events. Like Atler, she tried out ambitious new routines in a high-pressure meet.

“That meet was Jamie’s coming out,” Rybacki said.

Her poise was evident after the competition as well. After completing her floor exercise, Dantzscher turned to the live TV camera and in sign language said, “Hi, Amy,” to deaf gymnast Amy Walker, who trains at the Rybackis’ gym.

Dantzscher was more nervous watching Atler step to the uneven bars for her final routine. But her friend’s fall didn’t faze her.

“I knew she had it,” Dantzscher said. “You can’t be mad just because she fell. She still won and tied for the gold. Our coaches were really proud of both of us.”

Learning from mistakes now might enable them to land on their feet--and stick--later. All the training is geared toward two international competitions: The world championships in 1999 and the Olympics in 2000.

“I think about [the Olympics] all the time,” Atler said. “I want to have a great life and my happiness isn’t about whether or not I’m in the Olympics. But it would be the perfect ending.”