Two months ago, Carly Patterson reluctantly admitted she wanted fame.
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“I’m hoping to be the next big gymnastics star,” she said at the U.S. championships, then blushed. “I’m not sure how to say that.”
She’s certainly a celebrity now. Thursday night Patterson became the first American woman to win an Olympic all-around championship since Mary Lou Retton in 1984.
Apparently, her status hasn’t sunk in yet. Patterson, 16, of Allen, Texas, talked Friday about athletes she has met in the Olympic Village, and tennis star Andy Roddick topped her list.
“It’s cool because I see him in magazines,” Patterson said.
Even though she had a rising pile of interview requests, a photographer following her and the “Today” show waiting for an appearance, she dismissed the possibility that her popularity could soon rival Roddick’s.
“He’s all famous and stuff,” she said.
Has Roddick been on the cover of a Wheaties box? Patterson soon will be at a grocery store near you. She has sponsorship deals with Visa and McDonald’s, and endorsements are sure to come.
Patterson is shy, soft-spoken and honest. She has been enjoying the attention and said she wants “lots of endorsements.”
“I like to be noticed,” she said. “I don’t know how to put it.
“Mary Lou got a ton of endorsements after winning a gold. I want to do that too. I’ll be a spokesperson for everyone.”
Most important, she has become an ambassador for her sport in the U.S.
“It comes along with being Olympic champion,” she said.
She has two medals and will contend for another in Monday’s balance beam final. She won her first medal, a silver, in Tuesday’s team finals.
Her success is traced to 10 years of training, including five years in Baton Rouge, La. In Louisiana, she said, “We thought we had the best gym out there.”
But when her father took a job transfer to the Dallas area, Patterson went searching for a new gym. She was stunned and humbled by the talent of some Texas gymnasts.
Bela Karolyi, famous for coaching 1976 champ Nadia Comaneci and Retton, has set the bar for gymnastics in Texas and the country over the last two decades from his gyms in the Lone Star State. Karolyi is semiretired, but his ranch is host to camps and the USA Gymnastics training center.
Patterson signed with Evgeny Marchenko, a five-time world sports acrobat champion from the former Soviet Union who trained some of the best gymnasts in Texas.
“In Louisiana she didn’t see great gymnasts to compare herself to,” Marchenko said. “When she came to Texas, the mecca of gymnastics, she realized she had a long way to go.”
Her road to the Olympics included many bumps and bruises, including two stress fractures last year. She is uncertain whether she will pursue the 2008 Games in Beijing. Retton retired soon after the ’84 Olympics.
“We cannot be better,” Marchenko said. “She can be satisfied. She’s already achieved the biggest dream of her life.”
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