Gymnastics: One-man team scores 10 with fans

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

The kid from Onewhero was flabbergasted - even among the glittering stars of world gymnastics, he got the loudest cheers.

David Phillips ended second to last in the men's qualifying round - his Olympic campaign over in two hours - but whenever he stepped up to the bar or mat, the 15,000 fans would erupt into applause and cheers of "Go New Zealand!" and "C'mon, David!" All because he was a Kiwi.

Phillips' fear before he left for Sydney was that he would fall off everything, and the roar of the crowd would be for everyone else but him.

"I couldn't believe it - it was so cool," said the 22-year-old, whose road to the big time started in a hall in Onewhero, a little farming district south of Auckland.

"When I walked out and heard people cheering for me, it was like, 'Flip, I've made it.' It was one of the best moments I've ever had.

"When I finished high bar and vault everyone yelled. You can tell the difference between a polite cheer and an enthusiastic yell."

His support was rivalled only by the air-punching, high-fiving men of the US, who had brought along their own cheer team.

World and Olympic champions who had to share the limelight with Phillips in the Superdome included stars such as Russian Alexei Nemov, the six-time Olympic medallist, who could win seven golds.

The sober-faced Nemov, voted this year as one of the "50 Most Beautiful Guys in the World," dominated the qualifying session with his precise and elegant routines.

He was the only gymnast of 98 who made seven out of eight finals, missing only the rings.

Nemov and his Russian team topped qualifying for the teams event and are a good bet to defend their Olympic title.

But Phillips did not have a team. As the lone Kiwi male, he moved around the apparatus in a hotch-potch collection of lone gymnasts from Georgia, Kazakhstan and North Korea.

"It's a bizarre feeling when you don't have a team in the team's event, when you don't have anyone to feed off the fever," Phillips said.

"The USA are a perfect example of how important a team is. They went from strength to strength, especially on the vault, as each guy landed his routine.

"But I had my own little team with the other three guys - we'd trained together every day."

Problem was, none of them spoke the same language. They got by on "hello," "good one," lots of smiles and pats on the back.

Phillips tried to ignore the big names of gymnastics as he chalked his hands before each routine.

"I was totally awestruck when I went to the world champs last year. I remember thinking, 'Oh my goodness, I suck'," he said.

"Now I realise they are people too. I know I'm out there to do as good as I can - it's not like I have to do another guy's routines."

Phillips fell only once during his competition - losing his balance on the pommel horse and scoring a disappointing 6.725.

But he was proud of his performance on the rings and the vault, where he finally scored a 9.

He ended up 52nd of the 53 gymnasts who completed all six apparatus. But he took some solace in finishing a point ahead of team buddy Kil-Su Pae, of North Korea, who, despite his weakness in all other apparatus, made the final eight of the pommel horse.

Phillips was relieved when it was all over and he had been a crowd favourite. His reward was a huge meal of burgers and fries when he got back to the village.

"Some of the other New Zealand athletes had been watching me on TV. When I got back, they said 'Wow, I had no idea you could actually DO gymnastics. It was so funny'."