Gymnast Ilya Giorgadze hurls himself off the high bar, does two back flips in orbit, spins into a twist and lands with one tiny stutter before the final pose for the judges. He could have pushed the dismount to three flips.


But this is not the time for getting overconfident. Giorgadze, 17, is trying to make a comeback, trying to revive his gymnastic career after a hiatus forced upon him by war in his native Georgia.


At the age of 11, Giorgadze won the scholastic Soviet national gymnastic championship in the vault, beating out some 16- and 17-year-olds. Three years later he was victorious at the European junior tournament in Hungary, winning the all-around title and taking first place in five out of six individual gymnastic events. The next year he was competing against the top male gymnasts in the world.


Then war broke out in the Caucasus, and many Georgian athletes fled. But Giorgadze stayed home in Tbilisi. In a desolate gym, he and his coach, Nikolai Chanturia, struggled to keep training.


"I love gymnastics so much, I couldn't imagine doing anything else," said Giorgadze, speaking Russian with difficulty and looking for guidance to his long-time mentor.


"We had no electricity, no gas, no hot water in the gym," said the coach. "It was especially hard in the winter. I told Ilya to put on extra clothing and just work on his muscles, trying to keep them in good shape. We couldn't do any serious gymnastic work."


Coach and gymnast have been together since Ilya was 10, after Chanturia spotted him at the local youth tournament in Kutaisi. "I could see a very talented gymnast in him," Chanturia said. He invited the young prospect to live with him and his family in Tbilisi. "I have two older sons of my own, but he is part of my family," Chanturia said.


But the break-up of the Soviet Union and its support network for athletics in the republics, and then Georgia's war with neighboring Abkhazia, brought sports in the Caucasus to a standstill. Chanturia and Giorgadze left Tbilisi and came to Lake Round, some 50 kilometers north of Moscow, where the top Russian gymnasts train year-round. The training costs 100,000 rubles ($20) a day, half of which is paid by the Russian Federation. A Georgian sponsor pays the other half.


Giorgadze hopes to represent his country -- Georgia -- at the 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Though he has already made his country's Olympic team -- because he is the only top gymnast left in Georgia -- the real task is to make the field of the 36 best gymnasts in the world who will qualify for Atlanta.


The All-Stars '95, an international gymnastic competition at Moscow's Luzhniki Sports Palace last weekend, was the first test for Giorgadze and his coach. It was their first competition in two years. "Our goal was to do a clean program, not to make any serious mistakes."


As Yevgeny Shabaev of Russia, the overall leader, was finishing a spectacular high bar routine, Giorgadze was struggling somewhat on the rings. Nevertheless, he finished the day, without any major deductions, in the middle of the pack.


The coach was pleased with his pupil's performance. "We did what we wanted."


Now its back to Lake Round for more training. "I don't have any other goals, only one -- to qualify for the Olympics," said the 1.58 meter, 50 kilogram athlete, whose young face bears witness to vigorous training on the merciless gymnastic apparatus -- chipped front teeth.


Said Chanturia: "For him to make the Olympics, it's like winning the gold medal."