Is diminutive Allen gymnast next big thing?
ALLEN – Carly Patterson longs to get a car when she turns 16 next year. She wants to get a suntan, too, when she can get out of the gym long enough to lounge beside her family’s new backyard pool. Patterson wouldn’t mind more time to shop at area malls or daydream in her bedroom with its green décor and big bulletin board. And she’d like the leisure to surf the Internet at her Allen home.Patterson’s similarities to a typical teen stop there. She could be next year’s athletic American idol. If she attains her goal of competing in the Athens Olympics, she might be the 2004 equivalent of ’84 Olympic champion Mary Lou Retton – a celebrity far beyond the gym. Patterson is the youngest of the six-member U.S. women’s squad bound for the World Gymnastics Championships in Anaheim, Calif., on Aug. 16-24. She made legendary Olympic coach Bela Karolyi’s list of the three most talented American female gymnasts he has ever seen, joining Retton and Vanessa Atler. Karolyi, who coached 27 Olympians, al
