LOCAL HOPEFULS SEE STRUGGLE OF U.S. GYMNASTS.

Byline: Donna Huffaker Staff Writer

VAN NUYS - One day after the U.S. men's gymnastics team fell hard and the women's team started on shaky footing, the buzz around the exercise mats at local gyms remained optimistic.

At Gymnastics Olympica USA in Van Nuys, where young athletes train for national as well as statewide and city competitions, the overall attitude of the tumbling teens is ``enjoy the sport'' or it will be a long, arduous journey - as proved by the pained expressions of the American team televised from Sydney, Australia.

``Your gymnastics doesn't get any better unless you're having fun,'' said 18-year-old Vanessa Atler, who has trained at the gym for years and won national competitions over the last 14 years.

The American gymnasts, she said, ``don't look like they're having any fun.''

The Americans had little to smile about after the men's team finished fourth in the preliminaries and fifth in the finals. The men's team got off to a bad start on its first event, the floor exercise, putting it in a deep hole from which the athletes could not recover.

The women's team finished sixth in the prelims, with coach Bela Karolyi benching Jamie Dantzscher in two of her four events, saying she was inconsistent. Dantzscher scored an 8.987 on her floor exercise, during which she stumbled after appearing to over-rotate her first tumbling run.

Dantzscher's sister, Jennifer, is a coach at Gymnastics Olympica who took time off to accompany her sibling to Sydney.

A chipped bone in Atler's foot knocked her out of the running to make the Olympic team, the former national champion said. Eight months before the Olympic trials, Atler had surgery on her foot, an injury suffered during a tumbling pass at a competition in France.

Atler will perform with members of the Olympic team when they tour the country in October, she said, adding she has not made up her mind whether she will pursue a berth on the Olympic team for the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece.

Gymnast Alexandra Lozano has 2008 seared into her brain. The 10-year-old won't be old enough for the next Olympics, but by 2008 she'll be 18, and she has focused her attention on winning the gold.

``It'd be cool to have everyone watching me on TV and get a medal and stuff,'' the lean, muscle-etched Simi Valley fifth-grader said.

Lozano, whose mother, Whitney, won statewide gymnast competitions in her native Virginia, practices every day of the week except Sunday and Tuesday for up to four hours at a time. Steering clear of junk food and hamburgers has never been a problem for the youth, Whitney Lozano said, adding her daughter doesn't like red meat and never did finish a chocolate candy bar.

Food certainly can be a detriment to athletes - whether too much or not enough, said gymnastics coach Frtiz Reiter.

Speaking about the bulkier look of the U.S. women's team, Reiter said, ``Just look at them. The Romanians, the Chinese, the Spanish athletes are much leaner.''

Even with a little extra weight, joints break down, he said.

``Anything that isn't muscle has to be schlepped,'' he said.

Athletes' discipline is challenged more during puberty, he said. Physical control of a competitor's body fat is not an unhealthy thing, he said.

Atler said she still eats pizza - but only a slice or two. Everything in moderation, she said, noting she spends most of her time training but makes that a necessity six days a week, morning and evening when she's gearing up for a big meet.

Gymnast Erika Harinshi, 15, of Calabasas spends every day at the gym except Sunday.

The 11th-grader has tumbling in her blood, she said, pointing out her aunt and uncle in Japan are connected to the competitive gymnastics world. Harinshi herself has won state and city competitions and has been flipping around on mats and beams for the last 12 years.

She doesn't aspire as much to make the Olympic team as she does to earn a scholarship to college.

``When I watch it on TV, I'm inspired to want to work hard. When you accomplish something, it feel so good,'' she said. ``But for me, it's more about enjoying what I'm doing - doing gymnastics to do gymnastics, not to try to make it to the Olympics.''

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(color) Young gymnasts listen Monday to coach Karine Muradyan at Gymnastics Olympica USA, where athletes train for national, state and city contests.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer