For Rising Star, Mother Really Is A Role Model

GNAT, WHO ALSO IS HER COACH AND SERVED AS JUDGE IN THE U.S. CLASSIC.

GYMNAST JEANA RICE, who won gold and silver medals at the U.S. Classic, has the unique experience of having her mother, Joan Moore Gnat, serve as her coach and judge. -----------------------------------------------------------------

She stood just a few feet away from Kerri Strug's painfully famous vault landing as a helper at the Atlanta Summer Olympics. She also performed with Strug and the Olympic gymnastics team in October as its U.S. tour swung through Atlanta.

Awed? Not 15-year-old Jeana Rice. She trained with Strug in Orlando, Fla.

Furthermore, she sat across the dinner table her entire life from a U.S. Olympic gymnast - her mother.

Joan Moore Gnat represented the U.S. at the Munich Games in 1972 - back, she said, "When nobody worried about the American gymnasts (and judges asked) how beautiful can you look? and how much can you point your toes?"

A quarter-century later, Gnat is watching her oldest daughter step across the threshold into world-class competitive gymnastics. She watched Rice win the gold medal in floor exercise and silver in balance beam in yesterday's U.S. Classic event finals at Edmundson Pavilion from an unusual spot - the judges' table.

Gnat and husband Ray, a former All-American at Louisiana State, coach Rice and other hopefuls at their new gym in Longwood, Fla. But the dynamics change when Joan fulfills her USA Gymnastics commitment.

"She has to play three different roles. I like it a lot better when she coaches," Rice said. "But she's really fair. They throw out the high and low scores and average the two middle ones, so it doesn't matter."

USA Gymnastics official Kathy Kelly said Joan was willing to remove herself from judging her daughter's performances, but the sanctioning body vouched for her objectivity.

Still, the balance between mom and coach can be tricky.

"To her, mom was mom, and it took awhile to find that difference: Is she being mom or coach? That's very difficult for us both to know the ground rules," Joan said. "On a difficult day - a day when she doesn't have the energy or the drive to do the routine - she wants me to be mom in the gym. She'll whine and say `I'll do it tomorrow.' "

Some days mom overrules coach - and Ray Gnat is forced to exercise patience.

Joan said: "With him being stepdad, that's double trouble.".

"I get the rolling eyes and the attitude," he said with a laugh. "I'd rather take it in stride with her. It's more important to keep her healthy and happy in the gym. I don't want to push her over the edge."

Joan said Ray's job is tougher.

"It's easier for him to be the coach and draw the hard line," she said. "But it's harder at home to stop being teacher and try to work on the dad relationship. But they get along well. Their relationship is growing."

So are Rice's credentials.

"This was one her most successful competitions of the elite division," Ray said of Rice's weekend performance. "We hope it'll springboard her into the USA Championships and she'll make the national team."

Yesterday's round was the final tuneup for the Aug. 14-17 national meet in Denver. It will determine the 20-member U.S. team, seven of whom will be chosen for the Olympic team.

The Gnats' hunch is Rice has a good chance to make the national team but odds of her becoming one of the lucky seven are long.

"But this weekend has really sparked her interest," Joan said. "She realizes she has more potential than she ever gave herself credit for.

"She always had a lot of natural talent. I hope she has never put that kind of pressure on herself to do what her mom did. I want her always to be her own person. And if that's not her goal, at least I hope it's to be the best she can be at whatever she chooses to do."

That's Joan the mom talking. Joan the coach can work on it. But Joan the judge will have to wait and see.

Vault - Ashley Postell (Capital, Va.) 9.150; Uneven Bars - Cory Fritzinger (Gymstrada) 9.100; Balance Beam - Jeannette Antolin (Scats) 8.975; Floor Exercise - Jeana Rice (Ace Gymnastics) 8.750.