When practice makes perfect viewing

THE queue started in the shadow of the giant Turner building, home to CNN, and meandered all the way to the Georgia Dome almost half a mile away. It's been that way since last Tuesday, folks willing to fork out $22 each to see gymnasts practice. Not compete, just practice.

Gymnasts who had expected to tumble on the mats, balance on the beam, maybe somersault on the horse in one of the wonders of modern sports architecture in front of their coaches, judges and, possibly, a few hundred spectators, have discovered it is almost like the real thing.

They have flocked to the Dome in their droves. Women, men and children. Gymnastics may be a minority sport in Ireland with Barry McDonald the country's sole representative in Atlanta `96 but it is big business here.

Yesterday afternoon, almost 10,000 spectators watched female gymnasts from China, France, Russia, Bulgaria, Britain, Kazakstan and Uzbekistan go through their paces. They watched the likes of Xuan Liu perform to Russian Cossack music on tile floor at the same time as France's Laetitia Begue was falling from the asymmetric bars.

Some five hours after poor Madame Begue's fall from grace thankfully, not in competition the crowds had swelled to almost 30,000.

Team USA had entered the arena by then. Shannon Miller 14 year old Dominique Moceanu and Jaycie Phelps entranced the home crowds, if not the judges who selected other athletes to practice their scoring routines on.

The practice days were scheduled to help the competitors acquaint themselves with the equipment, get used to the lights. That was the theory. They have done more than that. The artistic gymnasts have also been able to get acquainted with the type of atmosphere which will prevail in the Dome (which, incidentally, will also house the Dream Team's bid for basketball glory).

Miller, who has overcome the wrist injury she sustained in the build up to Atlanta, believes those who have made the journey to the Dome for the practice sessions have got a real bargain. In some ways it is better than the competition," said Miller. You get to see a lot more routines, and there is nothing wrong with that."

She added "After the months of drudgery and fine tuning in a non-competitive situation, it is great to feel as if you are competing again".

The gymnastics competition has been part of the Olympics since the inaugural competition in Athens in 1896. Its federation is the oldest in the world, being formed in 1881 although gymnastics as a sport dates back for centuries.

The sport has produced some strange and wonderful winners. For example, at the 1904 Olympics George Eyser won two gold medals, two silvers and one bronze. The fact he also had a wooden leg didn't appear to hinder him too much!

While the practice days of the gymnastics have attracted huge crowds, one of the biggest cheers recorded was for the appearance of the young members of the Georgia exhibition team who entertained the crowd there yesterday. Still, it was a bit premature of the PA announcer to ask the crowd to "give a big hand for what have been a great Olympics."

Sure they haven't started yet.