matters, he performed his vault, a simple handspring, poorly and received a 9.000. "I have no strength in my left arm," said a dejected Daggett. "I came down hard on it and it completely buckled. It was a disaster." The disaster put Daggett in an eighth place tie with Jesus Rivera, of Cuba, at the end of compulsories. Suarez went out and manhandled the equipment as he is used to doing. His large frame, five-feet, II-inches, makes him one of the biggest gymnasts in the world. "Any athlete can do anything if he trains properly," said the veteran competitor . "My height poses no problems." One problem it does pose is during his pommel horse routine. Because of his long lines, it becomes hard for him to keep himself together and due to this the tenths add up making it his weakest event. That theory held true in the compulsory session as he received a 9.30 for his generally sloppy routine. Going into the team finals, the United States, with a strong team effort, held a comfortable lead of 289.900 to 288.050 over Cuba. Brazil was a distant third (276.350), followed by Mexico (273.900).
Team Finals For the team title, it seemed all the Americans had to do was show up. They showed up but somewhere in between something went wrong. Lakes fell in his room at the Village and bruised his tailbone to the point he was on crutches and questionable. Ginsberg's ankle was ailing him.
Tim Daggett's shoulder posed some problems during his rings routine but he didn't let it hinder him during his high bar set which propelled him to a
third place all-around medal. Daggett was complaining of feeling sluggish which would later be diagnosed as the infant stages of mononucleosis, and to top matters off, Davis severly sprained his ankle warming up. So, the once comfortable lead looked very vulnerable. But in stepped pride. "As soon as I put my jersey with the American flag on this morning, I realized that's what it is all about," said Johnson. "I was very proud of this team." Daggett added, "You just have to go and do your stuff when you're called upon." There was plenty to be proud of that day in the Hoosier Dome. Johnson was superb in his performance, scoring 9.700 or better on every event. Davis, although severely hobbled with his sprained ankle keeping him out of two events
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(floor and vault), helped the effort with a 9.750 on pommel horse and a 9.650 on parallel bars. When the chalk cleared, the United States had accomplished goal one-a gold medal in the team competition. In doing so they shattered the old Pan American Games team score by over five points, amassing 577.050 points to Cuba's 574.100. Brazil, with a very consistent performance throughout the team finals, slipped in for the bronze with a score of 550.800. "It was all team tonight," said Daggett. "We had a lot of problems to overcome. What you saw tonight was six guys who wanted something very badly and who were going to work through anything to get it." Afterwards, in Suarez's opinion, the United States did not deserve to win. "Our team, collectively, didn't fail on
any apparatus. I believe the judges were partial to the North Americans. We tried to be better than the Americans and I believe we competed a lot better than they did, but the points of the judges were very low for the Cubans," he said with a smile adding, "That is sports. We look forward to competing in the World Championships. We think we'll have a better chance."
All-Around Finals As he had throughout the competition, Johnson's dominance flourished during the allaround finals. By this time, that was almost a given. The incredible story, from the men's program point of view, came from the gutsy performance of Daggett. "We all expected Scott to win," said Abie Grossfeld, men's head coach. "Tim getting the bronze