PHOENIX — It wasn’t even an official competition day when the young women who would soon be known to the world as the Magnificent Seven walked into the Georgia Dome.
As they set down their bags, the crowd at the Georgia Dome erupted into cheers of “U-S-A! U-S-A!”
“Our practice day. Not even competition. … And it got louder and louder and louder,” Jaycie Phelps recalled. “That was just kind of a warm-up to what was coming over the next week of competitions.”
Added Dominique Moceanu: “Even the Russians complained about it because we were too loud. The fans were too loud cheering for the USA. I mean, that's a good problem to have.”
The Mag Seven — Moceanu, Phelps, Amanda Borden, Amy Chow, Dominique Dawes, Shannon Miller and Kerri Strug — and the 1996
U.S. men’s team were honored at the U.S. gymnastics championships here this weekend. As much as it was a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Mag Seven’s win in Atlanta, the first Olympic gold medal by a U.S. women’s team, it also was a chance to look forward to LA28, the first Summer Games in the United States since 1996.
And to provide some words of wisdom for the women and men who will soon be following in their footsteps.
“Be able to control your emotions,” said Blaine Wilson, a three-time Olympian whose first Games was Atlanta. “It’s going to be super exciting … but yeah, control your emotions and enjoy it. Take the time to look around. Stay in your lane but take the time to look around because it'll energize you a lot.”
Pressure of Olympics is supersized at a home Games
The Olympics are the pinnacle of many athletes’ careers, the dream that’s fueled them since they were children. But they also come with outsized pressure.
Because they only occur every four years, many athletes get one shot at the Olympics. The entire world is watching. Their future livelihoods, to say nothing of their past bills, often hinge on their success. A gold medal can be life changing. Same for a disappointing performance.
A home Olympics is that times a million.
“These are conversations we're (already) having with our high-performance teams today to ensure that through upcoming domestic and international opportunities, we are introducing different techniques and skills that allow them to be prepared once that moment arrives,” said Kyle Albrecht, the president and CEO of USA Gymnastics.
“Because we do understand the elevated eyeballs, awareness, scrutiny that's going to come with the home games.”
Athletes today have far more distractions than there were in 1996. The Mag Seven were told to avoid reading newspapers and not watch TV, recalled Borden, the team captain. That idea seems quaint now, when the entire world is as close as an athlete’s pocket or bag.
Social media allows athletes to tell their stories in ways the Mag Seven never could. But it also allows distractions and the haters to intrude in a way the 1996 team never imagined.
“Not looking at social media,” Miller said when asked what advice she’d give LA28 hopefuls.
“Stay off of it. Stay off of it,” Chow added.
Byproducts of Olympic success can't be motivation
It will be easy for athletes to be swayed by the attention in the lead up to the Los Angeles Games, whether that’s in the form of commercial opportunities or the general hype around the Olympics. But all that is fleeting, the Mag Seven said.
Commercial deals and internet fame aren’t what got you into the sport. Don’t let that be what keeps you from realizing the dreams that did.
“Thirty years later, not one of us talks about an endorsement or what someone said about us,” Miller said. “But we remember the experiences. We remember the things that we did together. That's what you take with you, that people still come up to you today and they know exactly where they were, what they were doing and who they were with while they were watching us.”
The Mag Seven isn’t iconic because they got a cool nickname or were on a Wheaties box or did a post-Olympic tour. Those things, along with the fame and the riches that came, were a byproduct of the work they’d put in before Atlanta.
Focus on that, they said, and everything else will fall in line.
“You have to understand that it will be probably the biggest moment of your life and there's going to be pressure that you don't even anticipate will be there, whether it's because you put it on yourself or you feel the enormity of the weight of the country and the expectations,” Moceanu said.
“You have to be able to handle that pressure,” she said. “What you do in these months, weeks and years leading up to it is train your mind. Train your mind to be able to handle that pressure. Train your body to be able to do those routines at any time so that you can function when it's time to have the highest stakes.
“Now, not everybody can rise in that pressure,” Moceanu said. “It's a very, very small group that can handle it because it's a very, very unique skill to have. … That's the pressure of the Olympics. So train your mind, train your bodies, be able to do it under any circumstance, because that is what it's going to take to be able to hit at home.”
The Mag Seven's win in Atlanta changed their lives in ways large and small. Though they are spread across the country, they remain close, bonded by an experience few others can understand. Three decades later, they are eager to watch another group of athletes feel what they did.
Making it to the Olympics is incredible. Competing at a home Olympics is extraordinary.
"I wouldn't change it for anything, being able to be on home turf," Phelps said. "LA28 is going to be fun."
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Legendary 'Magnificent Seven' has advice for LA28 hopefuls | Opinion
