SYDNEY – Being a member of the men’s gymnastic team is a lot like being Sean Penn during the Madonna years. You win some critical acclaim, get involved in some worthy projects and even post a surprise performance every now and then but still, everywhere you go, 24 hours a day, be it a pre-Olympic press conference, honky-tonk bar or suburban mall, everyone asks about the lady with the muscular thighs, callused palms and French-cut spandex.

Male gymnasts have dealt with that forever. Remember the men’s 1984 gold medal winning team? Of course you don’t.

Mary Lou Retton pulls a perfect 10 on her final vault to win the individual gold and it’s as if the men didn’t exist.

In 1992, Shannon Miller was the darling of the Games with her five medals and in 1996, in Atlanta, well, don’t even go there. The gold medal winning women’s team and its star, Keri Strug, she of the twisted ankle, being cradled by Bela Karoyli on the medal stand was on, what, a thousand magazine covers?

Meanwhile, name anyone on the men’s 1996 U.S. gymnastic team.

Exactly.

Well the 2000 U.S. men’s squad has had it up to here with the dominance of the women and are out to end it – even if they have to win a few medals to do so.

The point-man on this mission is Blaine Carew Wilson, the reigning bad boy of gymnastics. His sports-crazy parents named him after Blaine Nye, the former Dallas Cowboy, and Rod Carew.

Wilson, 26, never met a mold he liked. He’s a hip-hop loving, tattooed and body-pierced prince of the sport who crashed the gymnastics’ scene from Columbus, Ohio. He’s won an unprecedented five straight U.S.Championships, is an imperfect combination of John McEnroe and Eminem.

Sitting on the edge of a stage in Sydney’s Olympic Park, without the body-piercings he has proudly worn for years (the U.S. Olympic Committee thought it would be in good international taste to check Wilson’s attitude, at the door), Wilson fires both barrels.

On the women’s team grabbing the spotlight: “I’ve said it before, would you rather watch three hours of beam or three hours of crashing on the high bar?

“You’d rather watch high bar, of course you would. High bar is more exciting.

“I think men’s gymnastics is just a little bit more exciting then women’s gymnastics.”

On the Chinese team, favorite to win gold: “I don’t think we’re worse than China, whose start scores are outrageous. They have 10.0 starts on everything, but I think we are going to be up there with them. We hit more routines then they do most of the time, and more routines than most other countries do. We just didn’t have the start value and start scores.”

On press reports that he is arrogant: “Arrogant is Deion Sanders. I’m confident about what I do and how I do it.”

On his haircut being called the worst of the Olympics by Time magazine: “Yeah baby! You know what, I might have looked stupid but I made Time, so I don’t care.”

Wilson’s remarks don’t shake the team, but stir them with determination. They reflect the team’s outlook. Their hardware closet since 1984 is empty so they have nothing to lose when competition begins Saturday.

It may sound like a broken record, but the teams to beat are China and Russia. The U.S. men are hoping to improve on their fifth place finish in Atlanta.

The rest of the team, John Roethlisber, 30, identical twins Morgan and Paul Hamm, 17, Stephen McCain, 26 and Sean Townsend, 21, aren’t making any bold predictions.

Except one.

They’ll leave their heart out on the mat.

Hopefully, they feel, in exchange for a medal.