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Russia's Khorkina makes grand Olympic exit
2004-08-20
Russia's Svetlana Khorkina performs a routine on the asymmetric bars during the women's gymnastics individual all-around final at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 19, 2004. |
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ATHENS, Greece - The diva does not warm up before her performance. Not much, anyway. That is something that other gymnasts do, and Svetlana Khorkina will never be confused with one of those.The diva does not acknowledge defeat, either. She does not share the stage or hang around to see her opponent's final routine, if that's how she feels at the moment. The last of a kind exited the Olympics for the final time Thursday without the one thing she considered almost her birthright: a gold medal in the women's all-around. Being Khorkina, she simply ignored that little fact, instead taking a seat in the interview room afterward and promptly announcing, ``I am still the Olympic champion.'' And then she paused. Sitting next to the Russian was the real Olympic champion, a 16-year-old American sprite named Carly Patterson. She was the last competitor on the floor, and after four tumbling passes with the kind of elevation that Khorkina could manage only in her dreams, leaped all the way to the top of the medals stand. But Patterson didn't say a word. She simply sat there with her chin propped up by both hands and a bemused grin creasing her lips that seemed to say, ``Whatever.'' Like everybody else, she wanted to see how Khorkina would talk her way out of this one. ``If somebody doesn't know,'' the Russian started over, ``I was the Olympic champion in Atlanta and in Sydney. The title of Olympic champion means the title of Olympic champion.'' It's true, she won gold and silver at the last two games, but not in the all-around, the event that defines the sport. That fact didn't faze Khorkina, either. She became the most decorated gymnast of her generation by ignoring whatever displeased her and she wasn't about to stop now. She is an artist in a sport that doesn't reward artistry anymore, old in a sport that worships youth, tall and languid in a sport where pixyish and athletic are all the rage. And the diva said she is tired of fighting. ``Actually, I feel I'm capable of competing still, but I believe it's high time for me to finish. As any other woman does, I'd like to have a family. I'd like to have kids. I'd like,'' Khorkina said, ``to be loved. AP
Russia's Khorkina makes grand Olympic exit (2004-08-20)1 (11285)
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