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Miller Lands Gold; Lynch Earns Silver

ATLANTA, July 29—Americans missed the chance Sunday night for medals in the individual apparatus competition, but tonight heroes new and old stepped in to fill the void with glittering gold, silver and bronze.

Jair Lynch of Washington, D.C., became the first African-American male ever to win an Olympic medal in gymnastics as he nailed a perfect dismount on the parallel bars to take silver behind the Ukraine's Rustam Sharipov. Dominique Dawes of Silver Spring pulled down a bronze medal as Kerri Strug's last-minute replacement and veteran Shannon Miller won gold.

Strug, who damaged her ankle during the U.S. gold-medal team event performance last week, hobbled out to a warm ovation before the competition began and advised the full house she was unable to compete because of her injuries.

In her place Dawes proved a potent competitor, bringing a roar from the crowd as she took the bronze in her final performance in floor exercises behind gold medalist Lilia Podkopayeva of Ukraine and silver medalist Simona Amanar of Romania. Lynch's performance came on the heels of a gold-medal balance beam routine by Miller, America's most decorated gymnast, who took her first individual Olympic gold in her final Olympic appearance.

Lynch had much to overcome as a half-dollar-sized callous split on his right hand during warmups and he and his coaches battled feverishly to stem the bleeding before he took his turn as last of eight contenders.

"My hand ripped to pieces," said Lynch, who was sixth in parallel bars in 1992 at Barcelona, just a tenth of a point out of the medals. "I was cutting away with a straight razor to get the skin off" while his rivals performed.

But he said a shout of joy from bronze medalist Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus as he dismounted got Lynch's mind straight. "I heard him scream and that incited me to go up there and forget the pain."

Lynch thought he might have the gold and dropped the floor in a combination of joy and disappointment when his score came up 12/100ths of a point short of gold medalist Sharipov's.

Lynch, son of a University of Maryland professor and a World Bank economist who raised him in the Shepherd Park section of Northwest Washington, is a graduate of Sidwell Friends School and Stanford University. He said the medal is important in his quest to encourage more young black Americans to get into gymnastics. And he said he's looking forward to a trip back to Washington "to visit the White House and share this medal with all my friends back home."

Miller's score of 7.862 as she nailed a difficult front-flip and then a string of back handsprings on the narrow wooden rail in the women's event gave the full house of 30,000 much to cheer, and cheer they did when her score stood up through a pair of strong Ukrainian performances to win the day.

Miller added the gold to one she took in team competition last week and to two silvers and three bronzes she won in 1992. At 19, it almost surely was her last shot at the Olympics and she went out in style with a twisting dismount that brought the roaring crowd to its feet.

Lilia Podkopayeva of the Ukraine took the silver and Gina Gogean of Romania won the bronze. Tiny Dominique Moceanu of the United States fell twice from the beam early in her routine and was out of contention.

"It feels great," said Miller. "It's a great note to end things on. It was my chance to redeem myself from yesterday's vault. It was one of the best routines I've ever done."

Alexei Nemov won his fifth medal of the Games with a gold medal performance on the vault. He had already led the Russians to gold in the team event last week, took a silver behind China's Li Xiaoshuang in all-around and won bronze on the pommel horse and floor exercises.

Silver in the vault went to Korean Yeo Hung-Chul; Belarus' Vitaly Scherbo, winner of six golds at the 1992 Games, picked up the bronze, his second of these Olympics, with two strong vaults, then also picked up a bronze in parallel bars behind Lynch.

Strug's coach, Bela Karolyi, said he knew early today Strug's torn ligaments were too bad to perform on after conferring with team doctors, but kept hope alive until the very end for his 19-year-old tumbler.

"The swelling was down, but it was still bleeding inside. You can't weld a ligament back together," said Karolyi, who said Strug "took it hard. A minute ago she broke down in tears.

"I told her, 'Hold the pride and excitement of the final moments of that courageous vault that ensured a gold medal for our team," said the coach.