Portfolio at NYU

Posted 03.30.03
A Judge of Character
Cancer can't dim Cross' stellar career in gymnastics

By Erik Boland

December 30, 2002 — Marilyn Cross sat in her Holbrook condominium on a spongy, powder- blue couch, and extolled her good fortune.

"I'm the luckiest girl in the world," she said, a deep, rolling cough interrupting "luckiest" and "girl."

Cross coughs a lot these days. Still, Cross started her 39th year as a local gymnastics judge and as recently as August 2001, worked the Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia. Likely, she will work as the head judge for a 27th consecutive year in the sectional state competition in the spring.

It is part of the luck Cross spoke of, which has its origins in her parents' living room of their Babylon home. As a teenager there, Cross watched the 1960 Rome Olympics on a black-and- white television. She was captivated by the grace and beauty of Russian gymnasts Larissa Latynina and Polina Asthatkva.

"I can still see them doing the floor exercise to classical music," Cross said. "It was so beautiful."

The moment spurred an interest in gymnastics that three years later took Cross to a judging class while a student at Adelphi, and eventually became a judging career that would show Cross the world: Australia, Japan, China, Switzerland, Puerto Rico, Yugoslavia, and Olympic games in Los Angeles, Barcelona and Atlanta. She has judged the Pan-American and Goodwill games, and helped award to Mary Lou Retton a perfect score of 10. That was at the 1983 American Cup at Madison Square Garden.

"I got paid to travel the world to judge the best in the world," said Cross, 61. "Imagine, marching into Madison Square Garden and being from New York . . ."

Her voice trailed off as she talked about a cross-country, globe-trotting life that coincided with a 32-year stint at North Babylon, where she taught physical education. When Cross wasn't traveling, she judged locally and officiated girls lacrosse and field hockey. Nothing slowed her down. Not even cancer.

She was diagnosed with cancer in her breasts and ovaries in 1993. Not that her lifestyle changed much. That same year, she flew to St. Petersburg, Russia, for the Goodwill Games.

"I made up my mind, I was not going to die of cancer," said Cross, who played basketball, volleyball and tennis at Babylon High School, but not gymnastics because she found participating in the competition dull.

By 1996, the cancer was in full remission and Cross judged in the Atlanta Olympics. She worked the Goodwill Games in '98, the World Gymnastics Championships in '99 and the Goodwill Games again in 2001.

But in April 2001, prior to those Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Cross felt a stabbing pain in her neck. The cancer had come back, metastasizing to her lungs, lymph nodes, sternum and skull. She made the Australia trip, anyway.

On a recent Monday evening, Cross was lucid and energetic after returning from her once-a-week chemotherapy treatments. She attributed the vigor to the steroids and other anti-inflammatory medications she takes to make the chemotherapy effectual.

"Come see me on Thursday, I'll be vertical," Cross said, patting the couch with her right hand.

The fatigue is the most difficult part of the illness for Cross, who is single and lives with her four dogs, Gabrielle, Chante, Daisy and Pollyanna Rose. A life spent in perpetual motion is now relegated to the whims of her body's response to radiation and pills. She still judges local high school meets when her body allows, arbitrating with the same commanding presence that has made her an icon on the local gymnastics scene.

"It's an honor to have her in your gym," Sewanhaka girls gymnastics coach Eileen Mallon said. "I'm in awe of her as a professional. You feel like a peon standing beside her but she never makes you feel that way."

The way Cross feels fluctuates day by day but she confides, "I've had very few good days since May."
There are no rate-of-survival numbers on a 61-year-old with cancer in four different locations.

"I was told there's no statistics on someone like me," said the 5-10 Cross, who has lost 40 pounds in the last six months but still gives the firm, hand- enveloping handshake you'd expect from someone who has spent a lifetime in athletics. "I told the doctor, 'Good, I'll set the standard on that and give hope to other people.' You don't have to stop living."

Cross is optimistic by nature. Her life has taught her that. In her mind, Cross often goes back to the moment she sat transfixed by the Russian gymnasts in her parents' living room. She remembers thinking how incredible it would be to one day see such a performance as a ticket-buying spectator. Almost 50 years later, Cross looks in the rearview mirror at a life that unfolded beyond her wildest imagination.

"So fortunate, so lucky," Cross said. "How can I complain?"

As she sees it, her odds now can't be any longer than the odds against that teenager one day seeing the world as few get to see it; and not only witnessing the Olympics in person, but judging in them. Cross has spent a lifetime beating the odds. She sees no reason she can't beat them again.

Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.


	Marilyn Cross (Newsday File Photo)