In a sport where athletes can burn out before they're old enough to drive and elastic-jointed 16-year olds defy gravity, Annia Hatch, 26, and Mohini Bhardwaj, 25, are late in coming to the Olympic party.
"I think about, ‘Oh, my gosh! Can I actually compete again?" says U.S. gymnast Hatch.
"I don't feel like I'm older than them at all," says teammate Bhardwaj.
What they have in common is that they were both retired champions, both nursing injuries and both had a restless itch to give it one last shot.
Hatch is Cuban by birth — a prodigy nurtured by Fidel Castro's sports machine. Seven times a Cuban national champion, heartbreakingly, she was not sent by her country to the Atlanta games in 1996. Watching it on TV was torture.
"It was sad just to sit down and look and just think I could have been there," says Hatch.
Annia retired from the sport, emigrated to the United States in 1997 and married an American coach with whom she runs a Connecticut gym. Two years ago she started a comeback that nearly ended when she blew out her knee during a major competition. Therapy and hard work got her back on track to a slot on the U.S. Olympic team as a relative old lady.
"I think that's what makes me keep going… show them that gymnastics doesn't finish after 17," says Hatch.
Bhardwaj, meanwhile, was on her own, scraping by and waitressing at a sports bar in Venice Beach, California, after a dazzling gymnastics career at U.C.L.A.
"I didn't know what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. And I still had this goal and this thing kind of nagging me in the back of my mind," she says.
Like Hatch, Bhardwaj went back to the gym and on to elite competitions, including one that resulted in a dislocated elbow. She recovered, made the U.S. team, and was elected captain.
"It may be that, as they've matured, they have been able to develop more power than they had at a younger age," says Dr. Lisa Krivickas of the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston.
The success of the two has made it a sport not just for teens. Their veteran's steadiness helped lead the U.S. team to silver Tuesday night.
Now each gymnast has another shot — Hatch on the vault, Bhardwaj on floor exercise. The golden-agers are going for their own gold.
Note: . Bhardwaj placed sixth in the floor exercise.
