By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY
TLANTA -- First, Shannon Miller walked off the floor exercise and began to sob. Then, Dominique Dawes did the same.
The tears, as they so frequently do in women's gymnastics, had come with stunning swiftness. Both 19, both Olympic veterans, Miller and Dawes had opened in grand style on the uneven bars in Thursday night's individual all-around final. They had been excellent again on the balance beam.
And as they walked over to the floor with the cheers of 32,200 fans and one American president rumbling through the Georgia Dome, it appeared quite probable that the national love-in that had begun on Tuesday night with a team gold would be extended indefinitely.
But elite gymnastics is the most unforgiving of activities. Dawes might have been in first after two events. Miller might have been tied for second, but after their floor exercises, they were no longer even in medal range.
Instead, the biggest individual prize in women's gymnastics was left to be decided in the final rotation between one Ukrainian (Liliya Podkopayeva), one Russian (Dina Kochetkova), one Chinese (Mo Huilan) and three Romanians (Lavinia Milosovici, Gina Gogean and Simona Amanar).
The winner would be the Ukrainian, who also happens to be the defending world and European champion. The rest of the spoils would go to the Romanians: the sad-eyed Gogean, who took the silver medal, and Amanar and Milosovici, who shared the bronze. Amanar's bronze was the more remarkable because she had not even been in the Romanian lineup 24 hours earlier.
After finishing with the fourth-best Romanian score during the team competition, she should have been sitting on the sideline (only three gymnasts from each nation qualify for the all-around). But after insisting he would not do it, Romanian Coach Octavian Belu succumbed to temptation and replaced his third-place gymnast, Alexandra Marinescu, with Amanar, who had been brilliant in team optionals.
Podkopayeva needed no such assistance to get her gold. She won it where Miller and Dawes lost it: on the floor exercise, opening explosively with a double-front somersault with a half twist: a remarkable trick that she alone performed here and that many men find impossible to perfect.
And after her score of 9.887 -- the highest score of the night -- flashed on the screen, it was clear that only Mo, the Chinese star with the signature mole on her lip, had a chance to catch her.
Mo was the last performer of the evening, but for all her technical wizardry and beautiful lines on other events, she is not at the same level as Podkopayeva on floor exercise. She needed a 9.857 to win the gold outright, and by the time she stepped out of bounds on her final tumbling run, it was clear that she was not going to come close.
Shortly after the music stopped, Podkopayeva was locked in an embrace with her good friend Yelena Piskun, who now competes for Belarus and, like the 17-year-old Podkopayeva, is a former Soviet.
"I did feel some responsibility as the champion of the world and champion of Europe to perform well," said Podkopayeva, who is known in gymnastics circles as "Lili Pod." "I'm very happy I could finish with the floor."
Mo's score of 9.65 dropped her all the way to fifth, but that was still better than the Americans. Miller finished eighth, Dominique Moceanu ninth and Dawes a distant and demoralizing 17th.
"She can always do it when it's for the team, but she struggles when it's for herself," said Dawes' coach Kelli Hill.
Dawes arguably is the strongest optional gymnast on the American team. She has difficult tricks. She has grace. She has what gymnastics mavens refer to as "amplitude," which refers to the height of her jumps and explosiveness of her tumbling. What she lacks is composure under pressure.
In 1993 and 1994, she was in position to win all-around medals at the world championships. On both occasions, late mistakes dropped her out of contention. Thursday night, she was in strong position again, leading after two rotations and already having conquered the nerve-racking balance beam.
But the floor has been her bane this season. And Thursday night, though she landed her first tumbling pass, on her next, she finished one trick and punched off the mat into a somersault. When she landed, her feet went out from under her and she had to put both hands down to break her fall. She also stepped out of bounds. In all, her slip meant eight-tenths of a point in deductions and automatic elimination from medal contention. It also meant a score of 9.0 and streaks in her mascara.
"It was a little hard because of the same thing happening at two worlds," Dawes said later at a news conference. "I guess I was able to deal with it then. So I can deal with it now."
By the end of that sentence, she was crying again.
Moceanu, 14, who only made the all-around final because injured teammate Kerri Strug could not compete, opened with a major bobble on her first and best event: the balance beam. After a front somersault, she had to throw her right leg high in the air to keep from falling and received a 9.6. But even without that error, her scores were consistently below the eventual medalists' scores, and it is clear that the stress fracture in her right leg that cut into her training heading into the Olympics also cut into her ability to impress the judges.
"I got a gold medal no matter what," Moceanu said, referring to the team title. "Maybe I'll go for another Olympics. Who knows? I didn't have the best night tonight."
Neither did Miller, winner of five medals in 1992 but no individual golds. She took the silver in the all-around in Barcelona to Tatyana Gutsu, who like Podkopayeva is Ukrainian but unlike Podkopayeva now lives in the United States.
Miller was at her best on balance beam Thursday night, earning a 9.862. But on the floor, her tumbling lacked height, her landings lacked crispness and on her final tumbling run she stepped out of bounds, costing herself a one-tenth deduction. According to her coach, Steve Nunno, her injured wrist was bothering her again Thursday night, and when she walked off the floor, she was crying, well aware that the gold medal was gone.
"There's been a lot of emotion the last two days," she said.
The crowd booed her score of 9.475, but Miller would not finish to the sound of boos. On the next rotation, as she prepared for her second and final vault, she was fighting off tears, nostrils flaring as she prepared to sprint down the runway. But as has so often been the case, Miller found a way to stick her landing, and she received a standing ovation for her effort and all her other efforts over the years.
Perhaps if the crowd had known Podkopayeva's story, they would have stood for her, as well. She is not only the first reigning world champion to win the Olympic all-around title since 1972. She is a survivor. She was born in the city of Donetsk, the same city that produced pole vaulter Sergei Bubka. Her father walked out on their family when she was 2; her stepfather did the same a few years later.
She decided to become a gymnast at 5 when she saw a picture of a gymnast on a poster as she was riding the tram. Twelve years later, she is the one on the posters, and any little girl who watched her dreamy double front somersault with a half twist Thursday night, might be tempted to take up gymnastics herself.
