Kurt Thomas still draws the crowds.
”At the meets, you should see it, the kids flock all around him,” said his coach, Lee Battaglia. ”The younger gymnasts may be a little intimidated by him, since a lot of them grew up with him as their idol.”
Indeed, Thomas acknowledges that at last July`s Nationals, where his return to competition originated, there was a competitor who wasn`t even born when Thomas made his first Olympic team in 1976. ”He was 15 years old,” says former world champion Thomas.
Thirty-six in March, Thomas now draws scrutiny whenever he competes, too. An extra look at the face, barely aged in the past decade-plus away from international competition. At the 5-foot-5-inch physique, four pounds heavier at 131 than in his heyday, but without any visible flaws. Yet there have been changes.
The body had swelled to 165 in 1988 as a result of too much partying, too little focus. It has sustained injuries requiring ankle and shoulder surgery since his comeback bid began in 1989 that worry Thomas because he was never injury-prone in the old days.
Don`t say in his prime, though, because Thomas seriously believes this may be his prime.
The pumped-up Battaglia has re-invigorated the man many in gymnastics consider the greatest American the sport has produced and convinced him he`ll be on the U.S. Olympic team that goes to Barcelona.
”My ultimate goal from the very beginning is still to make the 1992 Olympic team,” Thomas said during a break from training at Battaglia`s gymnastics facility in Lake Zurich. ”Then my ultimate, ultimate goal is to get a medal.” It`s the goal that has eluded him since the U.S. boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics and Thomas, the heavy favorite that year, decided to give up his amateur status for lucrative offers to cash in on his talents.
Since returning to full-time training 2 1/2 years ago with Battaglia, his former college teammate, Thomas` best finish was a 22nd at last summer`s Nationals. ”I haven`t done as well as I thought,” he said. But, he added,
”I haven`t performed even close to my potential.”
Thomas gets another gauge of his progress this weekend as he competes in the Windy City Classic with some of the country`s top collegiate gymnasts at the UIC Physical Education Building. Thomas won the Windy City as a junior at Indiana State in 1978, the same year he became the first American in 46 years to earn a world title (in the floor exercise). All-around NCAA champion in 1977 and `79, Thomas also won the U.S. Nationals in 1977 and `78 and world championship golds in floor and high bar in 1979, when he was named the Sullivan Award winner as the top amateur athlete in the U.S.
The Windy City is just for competition`s sake, because he already has qualified for the Feb. 8-9 winter nationals in Colorado Springs, where he needs to make the top 48 to make the Nationals in May. Then he must finish in the top 18 to be invited to the Olympic Trials. From there, the top eight are chosen for Barcelona.
Thomas and Battaglia talk in terms of ”when” and not ”if” Thomas makes it. ”I`m sure if you took a poll, the majority would say Kurt doesn`t stand a chance, but the majority don`t know Kurt Thomas,” said Battaglia. Battaglia got him to return to full-time training when he promised Thomas sponsorship-later obtained from FORM Plastics in Elk Grove Village-and success. ”I`d seen what he was doing in his shows (the Kurt Thomas Gymnastics America touring company that has been provided his primary income since retiring from competition), and I knew he still had it.”
Thomas, a Miami native, moved to Lake Zurich from Scottsdale for six-hour-a-day sessions to immerse himself in the changes the sport has undergone.
”I don`t consider this fun, but I`m not going to bail out,” Thomas said. His girlfriend of four years, Jeanine Creek, a gymnast in his company, left for a show in Las Vegas seven months ago.
”I feel like Rocky here,” he says. ”I don`t know anyone. I can`t go out and drink or party. The big excitement last weekend was sitting around the house and watching football.”
There`s also been the sniping from peers in gymnastics. ”I had to overcome caring about that in the beginning. I used to think, `Why are people badmouthing me?` In some ways, it`s more of a motivator.”
So why is he doing it? He says he has no regrets about not going for the L.A. Olympics in 1984. He doesn`t sit around thinking what might have been in Moscow, though he admits, ”When that was pulled out from under us, it destroyed everything.
”They always say, `He`s got to get that medal, he`s got to get that medal,` and I guess that`s true.”
Thomas is a quick study in Battaglia`s gym, adapting a refinement to a compulsory rings move that didn`t exist in his college days. ”That`s it-you can do it if you try,” says the relentlessly upbeat Battaglia.
The coach says Thomas still employs the two moves named for him-the 1 1/
2-twist, 1 3/4-somersault floor move known as ”the Thomas,” and the pommel horse ”Thomas Flair” that caused such a sensation in the `70s.
The `70s. Thomas appreciates the press but gets tired of ”the whole comeback and age thing,” the comparisons to Mark Spitz and Bjorn Borg, who staged somewhat pathetic returns to their sports last year.
”Everybody`s doing it for different reasons,” he said. ”I`m in better shape because, genetically, my body`s been slow to age.” Remember, said Battaglia, 22nd doesn`t sound so good until you realize Thomas was better than 48 others in his first return to competition since 1980.
”There`s not a lot of time left and there`s a lot of things I want to do yet,” Thomas said. ”What keeps me going is a desire to make this happen against all odds.”
