Pin-up girl shows steel beneath silk

“I was absolutely quiet before,” Khorkina said. “I wasn’t very nervous. I was afraid once again the apparatus would be non-standard. But that was OK.”Khorkina won with a score of 9.862 with China’s Ling Jie second at 9.837 and China’s Yang Yun third at 9.787.

The 1997 Playboy pin-up girl was so traumatized by landing on her knees in a bad leap off a flawed vault in Thursday’s all-around that she dropped out of the apparatus final. Her replacement, Russia’s Elena Zamolodtchikova, won gold. “I was vaulting very badly and I didn’t want to,” Khorkina said.

“It was too soon. I need one more day for this. Then the pain will go. It would not have been good on my part if, well, it’s still a problem to me, the vaulting.”

Khorkina is the reigning world, Olympic and European champion on uneven bars. But she fell from them Tuesday to cost Russia team gold and again fell in the all-around on Thursday after first taking her bad spill on the vault.

Khorkina’s traumas here mirrored falls from the balance beam at last year’s world championships, one to cost Russia team gold and the other to drop her from the all-around lead to also-ran status. After all that, it was no wonder she was irked when gymnastics officials discovered the vault she used was 2 cm too low.

“The mistakes I made in qualifying were not as a result of my activities. I was led into it,” Khorkina said. “It’s very difficult. It hurts a lot.

It’s cruel to all the participants who had a non-standard vault. It’s quite possible to get killed if you’re not careful. Those 2 cm could decide the future of an athlete.”

The arrival of her 16-year-old sister Julia and teammates taking her on a trip to the Sydney Aquarium helped Khorkina take her mind off her woes and live up to her world-class billing on the uneven bars though. “Nothing like that has ever happened to any gymnast ever before,” she said. “My friends remained with me to help me forget about what happened. That day will remain somewhere far away, somewhere at the North Pole. Thanks to those who helped me forget about it. I went to the beautiful Aquarium. And you don’t realise how many flowers came to the Olympic village. Thanks to all my fans, my dear ones. I crossed this out of my life. It can never be forgotten, no matter how much I want.”

The International Gymnastics Federation issued an apology statement Sunday, saying it “regrets very much the error of the vault height setting. It is very unfortunate that this situation occurred during the Olympic Games and FIG regrets the duress that the situation placed on some gymnasts.”

The statement said the officials who made the error were reprimanded and new specification checks are being made on all equipment used. Khorkina was in pure delight during the medal ceremony, grinning on the platform, raising her hands and medal into the Air, blowing kisses, waving to the crowd and clutching her medal over her heart as Russia’s flag was raised. An hour after she learned she would compete, Zamolodtchikova won with 9.731 points to 9.693 for Romanian runner-up Andreea Raducan, the Olympic all-around champion, and 9.674 for third-place Ekaterina Lobazniouk of Russia.