Gym Shorts

Fate works in quirky ways. Five years ago, Soviet Dmitri Bilozerchev, just 16, won the all-around title at the world gymnastics championships in Budapest with an astounding 59.85 points out of 60. The youngest male champion in the history of the sport, he performed routines of exquisite difficulty with a mature, polished technique, though his prime was still years away. "At music schools, they say of such children that they have the absolute sense of pitch," says his coach, Aleksandr Aleksandrov. "With Dmitri, he has the absolute sense of the art of gymnastics."

But Bilozerchev's natural gifts were nearly destroyed one night in October 1985, when he drove his father's car off a road outside Moscow after celebrating his engagement to Svetlana Serkeli with too much champagne. The bones in his left leg shattered into 40 pieces, and amputation was seriously considered.

Doctors saved the leg by implanting a steel bar from Bilozerchev's knee down ! to his heel. Two months later, Dr. Sergei Mironov, who treats virtually all top athletes and performers in Moscow, inserted an external fixator to realign the bones. The contraption consisted of metal rings used to support pins that screwed the bone fragments together. When he tried to train, Bilozerchev favored his left leg so badly that he damaged the tissue in his right ankle. In December 1986 he underwent surgery to correct that problem.

Against all expectations, he returned to international competition and won his second world title in Rotterdam last October with what he termed a "poor performance." Today the sensitive superstar still harbors some bitterness toward certain teammates, officials and even his parents. "Many condemned me for my irresponsibility," he says. "It was my wife Svetlana who gave me encouragement to continue."

Many consider Bilozerchev beatable, especially at the hands of his teammates. Yet the burden he carries will be greater than theirs. Says Coach Aleksandrov: "It was Dima's charge to raise the sport to the next level. If he is remembered for only medals, it will be a failure."