MIFFED DANTZSCHER DOES HER PART PALMDALE GYMNAST SHINES, THEN RIPS KAROLYI.

Byline: Paul Oberjuerge Staff Writer

SYDNEY, Australia - Jamie Dantzscher nailed the final three routines of her elite gymnastics career. Then she hammered gymnastics icon Bela Karolyi.

``Bela gets way too much credit,'' Dantzscher said late Tuesday after helping the U.S. women to a solid, and surprising, fourth-place finish in the Sydney Olympics team competition. ``Basically, he takes the credit when we do good and blames everyone else when we do bad.''

Karolyi has been national team coordinator since November, called in to revive U.S. fortunes after a shaky, sixth-place performance in the 1999 world championships.

The fourth-place finish here, where the Americans had a shot at a medal until nearly the final routine, should have been a feel-good event in women's gymnastics. Instead, it turned into a vent-on-Bela session, led by the outspoken Dantzscher.

She said Karolyi usurped the authority of individual coaches and installed a standardized training regimen that did not suit all athletes. She said the Romanian emigre treated people badly.

``He has so much control, entirely too much control over the U.S. team,'' said Dantzscher, a native of Palmdale who now trains in San Dimas. `I think the individual coaches should have more control, because they know best what we need. . . . It's really sad, because he knows so much about the sport of gymnastics, but he doesn't know how to treat people.''

Dantzscher was angered Sunday when she did not learn until moments before competition began that she would be competing in only two events, on Karolyi's orders - the vault and floor exercise. She conceded she wanted to be in all four events so she could attempt to qualify for the all-around competition.

Instead, 15-year-old Tasha Schwikert competed in two events because, Dantzscher said, Karolyi ``decided to play favorites.''

Dantzscher said ``a majority'' of women on the team were unhappy with Karolyi, who is known for developing Nadia Comaneci and leading the 1996 U.S. team to a team gold at Atlanta. ``I'm not the only one,'' she said. ``I'm just not afraid to speak my mind.''

Minutes earlier, Karolyi, watching from a seat in the media area, expressed satisfaction at getting the U.S. women ``united as a team, looking like a team and working like a team.''

Romania won the gold medal. Russia was second and China third. The U.S., led by Amy Chow and Elise Ray, missed a bronze medal by 1.75 points. Dantzscher was the No. 3 U.S. scorer despite competing in only three of the four disciplines.

Dantzscher's personal coach, Steve Rybacki, said crediting Karolyi with the near-medal performance would be inaccurate.

``There are many people involved in the success of these athletes, you can't pinpoint one person and say you're the hero, you're the savior,'' Rybacki said. ``It doesn't work that way.

``If something goes fantastic, it's because of the six, seven years of hard work the athletes and coaches put in.''

Rybacki said there were ``communication problems'' between Karolyi and the coaches. ``We wish there had been more (communication),'' Rybacki said.

Other gymnasts expressed at least mild unhappiness with the come-or-else camps Karolyi held in Houston during the past nine months.

``This is America,'' Kristin Maloney said. ``We should be able to train where we want, whether it's Pennsylvania or Texas. We really wanted (a medal), and we went after it really hard.

``That came from us, from deep down inside. It didn't come from anybody else, and I speak for every gymnast.''

Said Chow: ``I think we all would prefer to train with our own coaches.''

Karolyi conceded the past nine months were ``a very, very hard period''

``It wasn't easy dealing with the fact that it is a team still divided into so many splinters, with so many different ways to coach. It was hard on me.''

American gymnasts might have to get used to Karolyi, for good or ill. Robert Colarossi, president of USA Gymnastics, said Tuesday he hopes to keep Karolyi in his current position and plans to negotiate a deal after the Sydney Games.

Karolyi, whose English is at times quirky, said it was difficult not to be on the floor during the competition.

``Never have I sat on my butt so long, for a whole competition, which is now bleeding,'' he said.

Rybacki doubted Karolyi on the floor would have made a difference.

``If he had connected with all the girls, maybe it would have helped,'' Rybacki said. ``But there were some girls he never connected with during this entire process.''

Dominique Dawes, a veteran of the 1996 team, said Dantzscher ``has balls'' for criticizing Karolyi, but she also noted, ``We definitely moved up since the worlds in 1999. We were sixth there and now we're fourth, and that is definite improvement. More than most people expected.''

She said Karolyi ``has proved himself since 1976 with a multitude of gymnasts.''

John Dantzscher, Jamie's father, was one of a dozen friends and relatives attending Tuesday's competition wearing ``Team Dantzscher'' jackets.

``I'll tell you one thing,'' John Dantzscher said, ``Jamie Dantzscher's thoughts are not just Jamie Dantzscher's thoughts. Coaches feel that way. Gymnasts. Parents. He also asked ``what gymnast has he trained up from when she was a little kid, except for Comaneci?''

Jamie Dantzscher, 18, plans to go on tour with the 2000 team and then she will begin college at UCLA - where she will compete but not with the kind of high-intensity training she put in the past 11 years.

She said she was pleased to finish with three solid performances Tuesday, in the vault (9.424), the bars (9.700) and the floor exercise (9.712).

``I went out there and did my best and I'm going to be happy with this the rest of my life,'' she said. ``It was worth it.''

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ABOUT BELA

David Hyde, South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

It's hard to like him or his sport too much. He is petty. He is self- serving. He can be as childish as the children he coaches in a sport that abuses girls' minds, bodies and sometimes their full souls.

But here's the question: Why have him around at all if he's not going to have control? He isn't a halfway type. If you open the door to Karolyi, he doesn't just get to come in. He gets the keys to the house. That's his strong personality.

Linda Robertson, Miami Herald:

He produces champions. His merciless, abusive methods are lamentable. His results are not.

So it made no sense for USA Gymnastics to handcuff him to his press-row seat. He should have had a coaching floor pass.

It made no sense to give him a little bit of control. You don't ask Luciano Pavarotti to sing backup.

It made no sense for gymnasts and coaches to complain about his criticisms of the team and his domineering personality. Either accept Karolyi for what he is or find somebody else to do the job.

Love him or despise him, Karolyi is a winner.

Jamie Dantzcher, Canyon Country gymnast:

I have two sisters coming up and they're going to be good, and, I mean, I'll be damned if I let them go through this. It's not worth it. It's worth it to be at the Olympics, to be an Olympian, to be able to compete. But how they made me feel as a person . . . it's not worth it.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo: (1 -- color) DANTZCHER

(1 -- color) KAROLYI

Box: WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ABOUT BELA (see text)