Tacia Labatte, who aspires to be an Olympic gymnast,
practices in the Hawaii Gymnastics Academy.
Retouched by Blaine Fergerstrom

While sports-medicine specialists and educators across the country argue about the "dark side" of gymnastics, however, the sport continues to grow in Hawaii.

And island coaches defend gymnastics against criticism that it's a form of child abuse. Yes, there are risks, they acknowledge, but what sport doesn't have risks, especially at high competitive levels.

Eighteen-year-old Kerri Strug's vault to an Olympic team gold medal with an injured ankle in last week's finals fueled controversy about the sport. Then, Dominique Moceanu, 14, crashed on her head on the balance beam Monday night, but continued the exercise.

Physical and psychological dangers of gymnastics for young girls were described in last week's New England Journal of Medicine. Local gymnastics coaches offer a different view.

"How would Kerri have felt if she didn't do it? Wouldn't that have tormented her emotionally all her life?" asked Joanne Goodson, who runs Maui Gymnastics with her husband, Mark. "A sprained ankle is going to heal, but she's always going to be remembered as a hero."

Goodson said she had a long talk with her students about Strug's second vault after injuring her ankle on her first try. "They said, 'Of course, I would have vaulted.'"

Team coach James Figueira at Hawaii Gymnastics Academy said Strug "knew what she had to do and if she thought she was really hurt she wouldn't have gone."

"You don't train all those years and come down to one last thing and not go," Figueira said. "Even if she fell and broke her leg, she would have thought it was worth it ... If you've never done anything that important to you, you just can't understand."

Goodson recalled there wasn't any outcry when Greg Louganis hit his head on the diving board in the 1988 Olympics and dived again with five stitches in his head.

Goodson, state co-chairwoman of USA Gymnastics, with Pamela Zak of Honolulu, believes gymnastics is a target for criticism because it is so visible and popular - the most-watched sport at this year's Olympics.

The Goodsons opened their gym in 1984 when Mary Lou Retton made gymnastics popular. They started with 26 kids in June, and in August after the Olympics had 120, she said.

Pat Gardner, a Kokokahi Gymnastics coach and a state judging director with 20 years in the sport, estimates several thousand youths are involved in gymnastics across the state, mostly girls.

There are 11 competitive programs on Oahu, the Big Island and Maui, Gardner said. Children must be at least 7 to compete outside their own gyms. Probably only 30 to 40 children rank in the top three of 10 competitive levels, Gardner said.

Abra Slater, a coach at the academy,
consoles Tacia during practice.

The only gymnasts who get exposure are those at the highest, elite level - "maybe half of 1 percent of all the gymnasts," said Bruce Blake, Kokokahi Gymnastics' head coach.

"And any sport at that very top level is very difficult on people," he said. "I don't think it's any harder on the body than running marathons and pounding your ankles and knees and that kind of stuff. Marathon runners are known to be more anorexic than gymnasts are."

Gymnastics equipment and rules constantly are being upgraded with "huge emphasis on coaches' training and education," Blake said.

Abra Slater, 30-year gymnastics veteran who owns Hawaii Gymnastics Academy, cited advances in equipment and rules: "We used to have wooden floors; now they are 4-inch springs with ethofoam. Beams are padded and spring-loaded. Everything is designed with the athletes in mind for safety and wear and tear on bodies."

Training also includes psychological and nutritional aspects, she said.

Most kids get a lot out of gymnastics, Blake said, starting from basic training learning cartwheels and rolls so they won't get hurt if they fall. There are many success stories, Blake said, noting he's sent a lot of youths to college through his program on Fulbright scholarships. "It always been a major emphasis of what we do."

Coaches stress that safety is foremost and they will pull kids out of meets if necessary even when they want to go on.

Winning isn't worth sustaining any lifelong or debilitating injury, said Blake, with 22 years' experience.

Knowing Strug through training camps and her coaches, he said, "You couldn't have stopped her if you wanted to." That she was even on the Olympics team was "a testament to her strength and desire to stay in the sport and keep working," he said. "She was always kind of the underdog, always 'the other one.'"

Blake, who trained kids up to pre-Olympic level before coming here, said he found at that level "you have very driven kids. You have very ambitious parents. Sometimes you have very egotistical coaches. But I think the majority of what goes on is desired by the children themselves ... I don't think a lot of those kids are made to do anything they don't want to do."

As for Strug's controversial coach, Bela Karolyi, accused of pushing his athletes too far, Blake said he's seen two sides.

"He drives and drives and pushes and pushes. There are times he does things I know I would never do."

But Blake said Karolyi has changed since the Olympics four years ago and is more concerned about the children. "Most of the kids he's coached love him...

"There is no doubt that American gymnastics has excelled and largely due to Bela's involvement since he came here."

Tacia Labatte, 14, hopes someday to have the opportunity Kerri Strug had - to go for an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics despite an injury.

"You don't train all your life and just decide not to do it at the last minute," said Hawaii's best gymnast.

"I was very proud to see her do that for her country. I know if she hadn't done it, she would have had thoughts about it her whole life," said the 90-pound teen-ager. "She would have regretted it. I think she did what she thought was right."

Labatte, a Castle High School ninth-grader next year, is the state's only gymnast at the elite level - the highest in gymnastics. Now she can enter national and international competition.

Next month she's going to the Olympic Training Center for a national training camp.

Labatte trains at Hawaii Gymnastics Academy where her stepfather, Joe Rapp, is a coach. Her parents are Toni Rapp and Destinn Labatte.

Labatte ran track and took dance until she was 8, then started gymnastics as "something to do for summer." Now, it's something to do in most of her spare time. She's been working out daily this summer from 1 to 3:30 p.m. and 4 to 8 p.m. but next month can relax with workouts "just from 4 to 8."

For critics who say gymnastics is a punishing sport, she said she's "never broken anything or sprained anything ... If you concentrate, it shouldn't be that dangerous."

Gymnastics keeps participants in good condition, she said. She laughed, replying "no," when asked if she had an eating problem. She said she tries to keep her weight down but "not all the time."

She already has a room full of medals and trophies and hopes to add more when she starts competing nationally.

"It would be nice" to go to the Olympics, she said. And "it would be great" to be on a stand wearing a gold medal, listening to the "Star-Spangled Banner."