Don't be fooled by the little darlings.  lt's hard not to be, when they come parading in on tippy-toes.  194 girls from 32 countries - not a pinch of cellulite and huggy as all get out.  But if they get a chance these kids will jump right up and shoot the lights out on you.

After all, look at what happened at the Fort Worth world championships.  When the lights went back on, the mighty Soviets were wondering who shot John; the Romanians were victorious even without the services of the Incredible Shrinking Nadia; and the U.S. women ... where were the U.S. women?  Ah, yes, out shopping for a wider balance beam.  But let's go back to the beginning, so that you'll fully appreciate all the terrible things that happened.

There were the implacable Soviets, undefeated in the Olympics since 1956 and winners of all but one world title since 1954.  The Romanians looked to be a lead pipe cinch for second in the team event, with the peerless Nadia Comaneci up front.  So what if the Soviets' world champ, Elena Mukhina, had pulled up lame even before the festivities?  The veteran Nelli Kim, 22, was good for a gold and was backed by Natalia Shaposnikova and Maria Filatova.

But there were two new factors to spook the competitors.  While nobody was really looking, the U.S. women had been sidling up through the pack, emerging this year with a strong and stylish team that was our best ever.  The American women had come from dead no-where to sneak two of their number into the world's top 10 all-around contenders, and another, Marcia Frederick, had become world champion on the uneven bars in Strasbourg last year.

The other factor was the Red Chinese, with bright red pouts in their hair and impish smiles.  China withdrew from world competition in 1962 but assuredly did not abandon gymnastics; most recently, at the 1978 Asian Games in Bangkok, their women took the team title and were one, two, three in the all around.

When the Fort Worth battle commenced the first shock was Nadia, darkly glinty-eyed as ever but strangely gaunt, all hipbones and shoulderblades.  Her appearance startled her fellow competitors, but in the compulsories she began picking them off, one by one.

Calmly she banged out a 9.95 on the uneven bars and a 9.9 on the beam, winding up with 39.5 points out of a possible 40 and the lead in the individual standings.  That was without breaking out her tough stuff -- -the compulsories are merely an archaic exercise designed to show that the women know how to get their uniforms on right-side out.

Then Nadia yanked on her warmups, and not staying to watch the competition - she didn't even peek at her score - went back to Romania's tightly guarded 10th-floor hideout in Fort Worth's Black-stone Hotel, a relic that Coach Bela Karolyi, hunting around for something kind to say, described as, "Awful. Terrible.  Mediocre.  But what the hell."

Comaneci missed quite a show.  On the uneven bars China's Yanhong Ma showed everybody what hip-shoots, handstands and belly-beats are all about.  The Chinese women handle the bars like the men, using hip instead of shoulder leverage, and every time they take off from one of the bars, the thing twangs like some great musical instrument.  And they overlay their daring with pure joy; they're getting it on, and the mood flows out to all sides.  Ma turned up a 9.95 and took an extra bow to a standing, shouting ovation.  She had matched the redoubtable Nadia at her own game and had made it look like a whole lot more fun.  She had also bagged the highest score the Chinese women were to get at the meet.

Then came the Soviets-stone-face time again - and the compulsories ended with predictable team standings: the U.S.S.R. first, with 194.925, Romania next with 194.250, the U.S. women fourth, just 1.3 behind East Germany's 193.875.

Now for the casualty report.  First, an infection in Nadia's left hand acted up, and off she went to the hospital.  Other gymnasts allowed as how it wasn't her hand at all, it was really anorexia nervosa, the disease whose victims starve themselves half - and sometimes all the way - to death.  But then word came that Nadia had sat up in bed and hollered for chocolate milk, ice cream and candy, plus two steaks washed down with plenty of Pepsi.

Next, the U.S. team  lost 17-year-old Leslie Russo with a stress fracture, and, with Tracee Talavera called on account of age - at 13 she is too young - the team was down to five.  A bit dicey.  In world competition teams enter six contestants but count only the best five scores, so the U.S. had no margin for error.  Still, the judges were predisposed to look kindly on the U.S. women's efforts, as they had the men's.

Then the real turmoil began.  Nadia showed up, hand fatly bandaged, but didn't try the uneven bars.  That figured.  Next the best the U.S. women managed to produce in the floor exercises was a 47.100, which didn't figure, and East Germany bounded to a 48.200 on the beam.  So where it should have gained, the U.S. fell back another 1.1.

Came the next rotation - the U.S. to the vault, Romania to the beam and the Chinese to Shaft City.  The judges on duty in Fort Worth ought to be flat ashamed.  At every station on the circuit, to thunderous applause, the Chinese smoked everybody off.  Sihua Zheng did everything but play The Yellow Rose of Texas on the uneven bars and came down with only a 9.55 as the angry stamping and howling increased.  Yajun Liu was sensational on the beam and floor and got a 9.8 and 9.7. The spectators continued to demonstrate that, while they may not know all the subtleties of judging, they sure know a bag job when they see one.

Meanwhile, as the U.S. women did wonders on the vault, gaining slightly on East Germany with a 49.150, the really good stuff was going on at the balance beam.  Nadia sat expressionless with her bad hand cradled in her lap, and it was clear Karoly was gambling that he could kick the team home without her.  But then down went Emilia Eberle, Romania's No. 2 heavy hitter, falling off the beam, scoring a weak 8.95 - and sending Karolyi to his bench.  In the moments that followed, a gymnastic classic was born.

All sucked up and in pain so obvious it was felt in the stands, Nadia pulled off a near-perfect version of her usual routine.  One-handed.  She landed with a 9.95, which would turn out to be the highest score of the night.  More important, it would also turn out to provide the cushion of victory for what would be Romania's first world championship.

After another rotation, to the uneven bars, the U.S. was effectively out of the contest, all the women clearly suffering from what downhill ski racers call the Steel Elbow.  At that point there were only two possibilities for a U.S. bronze.  One was that every last one of the East Germans would scratch on the uneven bars.  The other was that every last one of the U.S. women would score a perfect 10 on the beam.

As Romania inched ahead of the U.S.S.R., 291.450 to 291.275, Karolyi constantly checked his math experts stashed around the arena to see if he would need to call Nadia in again.  But his other girls wowed the judges with a 49.1 on the floor, all of them performing beautifully to corny tapes, and he didn't.

Then, around the beam, it suddenly began raining U.S. gymnasts.  Down went Frederick, not once but twice.  When she came offstage, her stricken teammates turned away, as if she had something contagious.  Plop, plop.  Down came Kathy Johnson.  And Leslie Pyfer.  And splash went U.S. prestige.

When the debacle finally ended, Romania had won the team gold with 389.550 to the U.S.S.R.'s 388.925. The Bronze That Might Have Been went to East Germany.  Next in line was China, followed by the Czechs -and, finally, the U.S., in sixth place, one notch behind where it had finished in Strasbourg.  But the team did qualify for the Olympics.  By then, said Coach Linda Metheny-Mulvihill, "We've got to be a lot tougher." You betcha.

In the all-around meet following the team event, Shapashnikova pulled out with a sore muscle and Johnson begged off, pleading flu, though she didn't take to her bed.  Frederick was tapped to substitute - and fell off the beam again.  The title went to Kim, the silver to East Germany's Maxi Gnauck and the bronze to Molita Ruhn of Romania.  America's Pyfer finished 12th, Suzy Kellems 19th and Frederick 23rd.

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Co-maneci underwent surgery on her hand, but only after watching the Cowboys-Eagles game ("I didn't understand it") and holding off the doctors long enough to see herself on a telecast of the gymnastics meet.  Now that's tough.

The meet closed with the individual go-round-at best, the slam-dunk contest of gymnastics.  Romania's Dumitria Turner won the vault; Verna Cerna of Czechoslovakia won the beam, gold in the floor exercises went to Eberle and, at last, a little something for China.  Ma sneaked into first on the uneven bars, though sharing the gold with East Germany's Gnauck, who matched her score, if not her moves.

After which the gymnasts donned their souvenir cowboy hats and headed home.  The judging had been, well, pretty lopsided.  "We go according to the rules and get a 9.2," said Chinese Coach Chen Xiaozhang, "while everybody else gets a 9.9. Still, we are very glad to reach what we have reached.  If it wasn't for our warm welcome and for our new American friends, we wouldn't have attained such joy."

Way to go, Chen.  Well put.  Keep it up and you'll be murder in Moscow.  As it is now, you're headed in the right direction.  On the beam, so to speak.