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 2000 Olympics: Wilson cleans up act for shot at all-around gymnastics title
Thursday, September 14, 2000 By Lori Shontz, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
SYDNEY -- It all started six years ago with The Tick, which is Blaine Wilson's favorite cartoon character. Wilson had just moved to Colorado Springs to continue his gymnastics training at the Olympic Training Center, and feeling a bit restless, he decided he needed a tattoo.
What better than The Tick? Wilson drew his own sketch of the cartoon -- the tattoo artist had never heard of it -- and added a tiny Ohio State insignia in The Tick's left hand. The tattoo artist replicated the sketch on the inside of Wilson's left ankle.
The Tick led to more tattoos. The Eye of Ra, the Egyptian sun god, on his chest. A half moon, half sun on his back, along with a tribal sign. Then came the piercings -- both ears, his tongue, his eyebrow.
By the time he was done, Wilson looked more like a street tough than an elite gymnast. He didn't care. In fact, he thought that was a good thing. A bad-boy image? Cool.
"Oh, he and [U.S. Olympic Coach] Pete Kormann have worked that to the hilt," said Wilson's father, Bill. "They made it up, they worked on it together to get people to pay attention to gymnastics."
Which may be a catchy way to promote a man competing in one of the few sports in which female athletes receive almost all the attention and adulation. But by the time these Olympic Games are over, such grandstanding may not be necessary.
Wilson, 26, has won the past five national championships, a feat matched only by George Wheeler, who won five consecutive titles starting in 1937. He finished fourth at the world championships last year, missing a medal by only .001 point, which is, Wilson said, "like moving your toe on a dismount." Some are already calling him America's best-ever male gymnast.
It's the 'Spring Olympics' in upside-down world
Failing to win a world medal, however, bothered Wilson So, as he looked for every possible edge, he began cleaning up his image. Sold his motorcycle. Pulled out the piercings. Made sure his tattoos were covered by his uniform.
Now Wilson finds himself in a situation unprecedented in American men's gymnastics. The United States has never won a gold medal in the men's all-around -- hasn't won any medal in the event, in fact, since Peter Vidmar's silver in 1984, when the Eastern Bloc countries boycotted -- but Wilson is one of the favorites to win the gold.
That's based on his recent performances -- including a dominant one at the Olympic trials -- and just possibly a bit on his more conformist look.
"I know most of the judges -- they're from the other generation," Kormann said. "Gymnastics actually started as part of the military. They're used to seeing people marching, standing at attention, all their haircuts the same, not having their shirts off."
Whether the removal of the piercings and covering of the tattoos has made a difference makes no difference to Bill Wilson, who is just glad his son is cleaning up his act. "I kept my mouth shut because I've found the easier way to get kids to do something is not to say anything about it."
Wilson's gymnastics career began when he was an energetic 4-year-old whose parents signed him up for a recreation class "to see if he would sleep at night," Bill Wilson said. When the teacher said young Blaine showed ability, his parents put him in a six-week class, which Blaine tried to quit after three weeks.
Bill Wilson told his son he had to at least stay until the end. And then the class started working on the trampoline, and Blaine was hooked.
He loved the sport so much that when there weren't enough boys in his high school in Columbus, Ohio, to field a gymnastics team, he recruited a hockey player to fill the mandatory third spot, and the team went on to win the state championship. He then competed at hometown Ohio State, winning two all-around NCAA titles for the Buckeyes and helping them to an NCAA team title, too.
Wilson did not, as some have thought, spend his hours away from the gym as a member of a street gang.
"What gang he was in growing up, I don't know," Bill Wilson said. "He hung around with a bunch of kids at the Catholic high school that my wife and I went to -- a lot of our friends' kids went to the same school, 15 or 20 of them are all good friends."
He laughed. "That's the gang. Those Catholic boys are scary. They're trouble."
Still, Wilson does have that rebel spirit. He got his tongue re-pierced recently, and he's leaving the stud there. "Unless I stick my tongue out, you can't see that," he said.
And Wilson does not, under any circumstances, want to turn into the gymnastics darling of the Sydney Olympics. He drawled, "I wanna be the dawg."
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