WORLD-CLASS COACH AWAITS GYMNASTICS EVENT HERE

Gymnastics, Bela Karolyi says, "is a beautiful, challenging sport."

Karolyi ought to know. He's coached Mary Lou Retton and Nadia Comaneci, and he'll be in Indianapolis in September to coach Kim Zmeskal in the World Gymnastics Championships _ the final qualifying competition for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

The Romanian-born Karolyi also was in Indianapolis last month to help promote the championships, which will be held Sept. 6-15 at the Hoosier Dome.

"Gymnastics is one of the greatest sports," Karolyi told Children's Express. "When there is not anything else involved _ there is not a ball, there is not a bicycle, there is not a car _ there isn't anything else you can blame (but) yourself. That's it."

Gymnasts from 48 countries will participate in the championships, which include team competition and individual events.

ABC Sports will broadcast portions of the event live in prime time _ a first for gymnastics.

Indianapolis was chosen for the competition over Barcelona, Athens, Paris and Beijing. This competition takes place every two years _ but it's only been held in the United States one other time since 1903.

Mike Jacki, executive director of the U.S. Gymnastics Federation and president of the local organizing committee for the World Championships, said the most important part of the event is the people and the backing from the community.

"I think the greatest thing about this event is the fact that this is really a kids' event," Jacki said. "In this meet, you're going to have people that are your size _ and these are going to be athletes from all over the world. They're going to be normal kids or teen-agers, and they're world-class athletes.

"And I think that's the nicest thing about our sport. Because as hard as they train and as great as they are as athletes, they're still children. And children are our greatest resource."