I am so delighted by Nastia taking gold and the Americans going 1-2! And you know what was just as good? The medal winners all went 4 for 4 in their routines, the competition wasn't a huge splatfest and was a true competition instead of a process of eliminations like we've seen so many times in the lead up to this very day.

I have never seen Nastia perform so well. Her vault was as perfect as a 1.5Y could be. I do think it was scored a little low. I think it was because 1.) it was a 1.5Y and 2.) Yang Yilin had gone before her with a DTY and they didn't want to score a 1.5Y equal to or higher than a DTY. A friend pointed out to me that had this been 1996, Nastia's vault would have been a 9.8, easy. Probably, but that's another decade, another CoP, and an entirely different scoring system. But her vault was damn good.

Her UB wasn't as good as it was on previous nights, namely the landing, but was I nervous throughout that entire routine. I figured that the skills that she had issues with would be fine, but she would fall on her Gienger or something like that. Thankfully, she didn't.

Nastia's FX was her best ever. Crazy cowboy on her double front as usual, but she'll be no Ivana Hong on that skill, so she's got it as best as she can get it. She nearly gave away an OOB tenth, but saved herself (seriously, what has been with the Americans and the OOB line?).

Papa Liukin nearly had me going. I have never seen him so emotional. It must be crazy to see your little girl achieve something her dream and be right there next to her when she does. Their father-daughter moment was so adorable. All their tense moments, arguments in Russian, all that, for this.

Shawn, I want to give her a hug. I've never been her biggest fan and made no secret of it, but one tends to show their true colors when missing out on something huge as an Olympic gold (like that Swedish wrestler's temper tantrum) and she has been so gracious and sweet in the face of her own disappointment. I can't blame her. She's spent the past year hearing everybody say that she's got the gold, it's hers 100%, yes siree Bob, she's got the gold (especially after it came out that she had an Amanar). People in her town building creepy statues of her out of butter and bronze. Walking into local and national chain grocery stores and seeing herself as a life-size cardboard cutout and seeing herself on local and national products like Coca-Cola and Hyvee-brand ice cream sandwiches. She's 16. She probably bought into her own hype a little bit and probably did not expect to not only lose the gold, but by such a large margin (.6).

My hypothesis is that because Shawn was being so well gifted at domestic meets and hit a purple patch when she became senior (most of her direct competition was either out with injury or just coming back from injury) that they were well content to keep things as they were and and kind of lapse on the things that needed working on, namely her leaps and jumps, instead choosing to upgrade and hope that high A-scores would offset her flaws. Many armchair judges said that she would get slammed on those very things come Beijing. She did and it cost her dearly. I didn't think that the margin would be so wide between her and Nastia, but there you go. Plus, Shawn got very lucky in regards to her vault because given how long the judges pondered over that and even had Nellie Kim over there, I seriously thought they were going to downgrade that vault.

Either way, Shawn has a lot to be proud of. She's well-accomplished for a gymnast who only became an elite in 2005. Qualified elite in 2005, triple World Champion in 2007, double silver Olympic medalist (so far) in 2008. I'm not sneezing at that.

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Spoilers, if you weren't a numbnut and stayed up all hours of the night, scrambling over the Internet trying to catch live feeds on CCTV-5 and elsewhere trying to watch live. BTW, NBC, you fail. Instead of wasting the energy shutting down the few decent live feeds there were, maybe you should have realized that amongst the casual fans you want the ratings from, there are a grand many hardcore fans that are counted in those ratings. So you had a couple of options: 1.) show qualifications live or 2.) have a live feed like you did for podium training. Quit being greedy bitches and actually appeal to the fans. I can guarantee it would work better for you in the long run; in any case, I'm sure there would be less profanity-laden e-mails in your inbox.

Anyway.

My thoughts, in bullet form (I would be more coherent, but I just found out that Issac Hayes died and now I'm all discombobulated again):

• He Kexin falling on UB was a little unexpected and her nearly missing out on qualifying for UB finals could have been one of the biggest upsets of this Olympics.

• Deng Linlin almost booted Jiang Yuyuan's AA spot. Also surprising.
  

• Alicia Sacramone missed out on qualifying for FX EFs. Devastating, but when one thinks about it, the writing was on the wall all year. Her floor has been regressing since Stuttgart and I will go out on a limb and say that's where she peaked. I love A-Sac, mostly because she's not your robotic sound bite gymnast in interviews ("It's such an honor!" "I just want to go out and hit my routines!" and so on), but she hasn't really hit a floor routine all year.

• In that vein, Nastia Liukin ended qualifying for FX finals, as well as the expected BB and UB EFs! WTF, yo?

• Chellsie Memmel did not qualify for UB EFs. She fell on her Tkatchev, thus taking her out of contention. That pisses me off. She is only doing one event, much to her fans' chagrin, and she fails to hit that one event so she could at least go for an individual title. Wasn't UB her specialty or something?

• Sam Peszek kind of confirmed my suspicions that she would become the dead weight of the US team, despite her being one of the guarantees (I will never understand how she got into that golden position). Not only has she regressed (her FX has downgraded and she's barely hitting that and Sloan has surpassed Sam on vault), but she sustained an ankle injury and did not compete on FX or VT, that is, THE EVENTS SHE WAS PUT ON THE TEAM FOR. And it's now past the point of no return, so we can't put in Lothrop, who would probably be the best alternate for this position, given that she's pretty good on VT and FX.

• Sloan, however, is rocking the casbah. Her UB was off, but hot damn did she bring in the scores on every other event, even BB, and everybody was saying that would be her lowest score. Go Bridget!

• Shawn, unsurprisingly, hit every set. Her nerves from podium training have seemingly dissipated and she went out there like she owned the joint. But, her flexibility skills have also regressed, and that's really saying something in her case because her splits and leaps were rudimentary at best in the first place. It seemed like they were improving last year, but looking at the pictures from TQs, she's is really cheating the hell out of them:

SJBBTQ.jpg

There are a couple more, but you get the point.

• Japan made Team Finals!!!!! すごい！　おめでとうございます！　私は、日本がうれしい！ (Yeah, my Japanese is a little rusty, but the main point is I'm so happy for them!). Koko Tsurumi qualified for AA, however Mayu Kuroda did not qualify for UB finals, which is a shame because she's rather good on them, even if she doesn't have a 7.0+ A score.
  

• Australia also made TFs, but not without an implosion from their stars, Dasha Joura and Lauren Mitchell. Dasha failed to qualify for the AA or any EFs, and we're all heartbroken along with her. Apparently, she crunched her ankle (hot damn, what is with this Olympics and ankle injuries???) in training and continued to compete on it for the sake of her country. Somebody predicted that not only did she not qualify for any individual rounds, but this Olympics would probably be the last we see of Joura. I really hope not. Are we going to lose everybody with a modicum of originality in this sport?

• Great Britain failed to make TFs (Japan just squeaked by them). Beth Tweddle, however, proved she's hardcore by saving her awesome combo after hitting her feet on the low bar. That was crazy.

• Romania was looking rough. I'm going to go out on another limb and say that the two consecutive Olympic team champions will find themselves not on the podium at all. Russia could easily surpass them. Romania is barely a team; it's Nistor, Izbasa, and friends. Though frankly, it's difficult to watch both Russia and Romania while they're rebuilding. There was no infrastructure left in place after everybody and their mom retired so now they have to start from square one.
  

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Chellsie, while not of the pretty gymnastics, will provide the security that one cannot necessarily count on with Nastia or even Shawn (while consistent, was one of the two who fell in TFs at Worlds).

Bridget, yay! She's really taken herself from being the alternate of the group to making herself worthy of the team spot. Good on her!

I am so stoked to see Corrie as alternate! She was not expecting to get as far as even Trials, so you know she was probably happier than the named team members themselves when she was named as alternate. I'm a little disappointed we didn't get an Amanar from her, but I hope we'll see more of her next quad and I'm sure she'll bring it out then. Better to stay safe than to bring out all the guns for a small chance.

Shayla, what rotten luck that was. But she was already so broken that she was a liability in the first place. Better to have happened then than at prelims or TFs when it's too late to bring in an alternate. Here's to hoping she can keep her chin up and heal properly and rock NCAA.

Mattie developed a stress fracture, taking her out of the running. I wonder if TPTB will take a good hard look and continue to think that having Nationals, Trials, and the selection camp so crunched together (and very close to the O-Games, mind you) is a good idea. The girls don't know when is a good time to peak; they have to look good for TPTB so they can be picked for the team, but not show up for the Games exhausted and past form.

Jana, also another tragedy. If she had hit her UB sets, she probably would have been on the team, no problem. Instead, she fell on the same skill both days and everybody, including herself, lost confidence.

Ivana got lucky with alternate status. For a while, people were thinking that she would be left off the team altogether. Frankly, I think that since A.) the Fong-Hong relationship isn't exactly working out, B.) she doesn't want to continue with her family being split apart (father is in CA and mother and siblings in Missouri with her), and C.) she already has such good technique and basics that she should make one more gym hop and give AOGC a try. I think she'd be happier being back with her family. And since she's expressed an interest in Stanford, well, it's there in CA as well.

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e-7f04294f_11b31e660b9_-7c9d.jpg

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08trials617

Did Vox eat my Nationals Day One post? I swear I made one. Oh well.

Anyway. The Trials have come and gone and to nobody's surprise, Shawn and Nastia locked up the two guaranteed spots. If you were surprised, either you only just started watching gymnastics or I need to start drawing you pictures with crayons.

The 12 girls going on to the selection camp are:
    Shawn Johnson
    Nastia Liukin
    Alicia Sacramone
    Samantha Peszek
    Bridget Sloan
    Ivana Hong
    Jana Bieger
    Shayla Worley
    Mattie Larson
    Corrie Lothrop
    Chelsea Davis
    Chellsie Memmel

The only actual surprise on that list is Lothrop (who is coached by USAG staple Kelli Hill). Lothrop apparently agrees because she was in tears once hearing her name called. Just getting to Trials was a major accomplishment for her. I think she's awesome and wish her a lot of luck.

Chellsie Memmel pretty much sealed her spot on the O-Team, leaving one spot left (aside from the four locks of Johnson, Liukin, Sacramone, and Peszek). Bieger seems to be everybody's current #6 despite not even being on their short list for so long and Sloan, who was the lock up until Trials, is now out. God, we go through these girls like they're fads or something.

Mattie Larson made her case for an alternate position. Larson's FX was the favorite of both evenings and her DTY, while could use some improvement on the landing, is usable. There's the added bonus in that Larson isn't putting a lot of pressure on herself to make this particular team because she knows most of the spots are all but sown up and she has every intent on going for London 2012. Whatever you all are doing to those AOGC girls, please keep it up. Shapiro and Larson are just such a treat. They're what gymnastics should be.

Ivana, Ivana, Ivana. She's pretty much out at this point. An alternate position would be her highest attainable position. Nationals didn't go so well and Trials wasn't much better, culminating in a botched BB dismount that revealed her headcasey side. A damn shame because she's in the same category as Larson: what gymnastics should be. Her double front is a thing of beauty.

Shayla Worley is broken and others have surpassed her on UB, the event that she would have been taken for. I would say that she would be alternate. Too much of a liability to put her on the team.

I don't know much about Chelsea Davis or her gymnastics, except that she is coached by former Golden Girl/World Champion/Karolyi favorite Kim Zmeskal. It's almost nepotism with Davis getting to the camp (I'm only half serious).

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Juniors:

• When Rebecca Bross broke her foot and couldn't compete at Nationals, everybody predicted that Jordyn Wieber was going to run away with the competition. After preliminaries, Wieber is...well, winning. But Samantha Shapiro is not making it easy! Shapiro was actually leading the competition with her precision, grace, and poise (and that 15.75 on BB sure didn't hurt), despite Wieber's big tricks. It wasn't until nearly the end of the competition that Wieber took the lead by .1. Day 2 will definitely be interesting between these two.

• Randi Lau had a good night; solid and with good form. She looks to be on her way to making her first National Team.

Seniors:

• Shawn is leading. Big surprise. She also received the biggest gifts of the night, what with her whip-triple being not being fully rotated, her Rudi and Amanar kind of iffy, and her splits still not where they should be for the Olympic favorite. And seriously, what the hell was she wearing? That leo was pure chaos. In fabric form. Oh, and everybody who reads this has to take a large swig of the liquor of their choice if she shows up on Day 2 with any hanzi (Chinese characters) on her leotard.
  

• Jana Bieger 2008 Nationals = Natasha Kelley 2007 Nationals in terms of scoring.
  

• Chellsie Memmel is kicking some definite booty. Her sets are still watered down, but she's making her case.

• Alicia Sacramone needs to get back into a competition state of mind. She had a nice long break, but vacation's over. I agree with those who said that she didn't quite seem herself.

• WTF happened to Priess? Why'd she drop out and retire at the 11th hour?

• Shayla is also out of Nationals and is petitioning to Trials. Since Priess is out, her status is back up (it was slipping dangerously out of reach because her only ticket was UB), but being constantly broken and leaving camps and comps early is not making it better.
  

• Mattie Larson is still not consistent enough to warrant a spot on the team, but she'll be at Trials. And her gymnastics is as lovely as her AOGC clubmate Shapiro.

• Ivana Hong is a huge disappointment. The double front on FX is impressive and I definitely had my doubts about her getting it around, but her bars are abysmal and her best events are more than covered already by the O-Team locks. Plus, the DTY, the one thing that could have won TPTB over was majorly flawed. She'll get to Trials and probably the selection camp, but alternate will likely be the highest attainable position she'll get. Hopefully Day 2 is better. Her gymnastics is still pretty, though.
  

• Nastia, Nastia, Nastia. We understood the meltdown at Nats last year. You're supposed to be healthy and better this year. WTF is with the UB dismount? That shizz is just fugly. The FX isn't improving. In fact, it almost seems to be regressing. And methinks you need a new BB mount or to speed the one you have up because you're dangerously close to going overtime and you're not holding the scale long enough.

• It's starting to look more and more that ScAm was a fluke for Samantha Peszek. She was shaky, to say the least, here. Given the rumor that Janssen-Fritsen equipment (that is, what will be used in Beijing) was disguised to look like AAI equipment (that is, who USAG (and Nastia Liukin) has deals with) and that Peszek has issues with anything but AAI equipment, plus the fact that Peszek always had consistency issues, I'm not surprised. But no matter. She's on the team, barring injury or her performances on the level of FUBAR.

• Darlene Hill has quite a few injuries and is backing off in order to prevent some of them from getting worse. She scratched bars and only got a 12.75 on BB after two falls. This does not help her case, as endearing as she is.

• Bridget Sloan competed only two events, BB and UB, and put up a 15.2 and 15.75, respectively. Word on the street that she's probably on the team, barring further injury or meltdown. These scores, especially the UB, would cement her spot.
  

• While I realize China kind of backed the U.S. against the wall with their overscoring at their Internal Test Event and Nationals, I wish the U.S. was scoring more fairly and closer to what the girls would score internationally. Overscoring the stars and busting the balls ovaries of the unliked does no favors.
  

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2008 Pacific Rim: Nastia Liukin (UB)

Ksenia Semoynova

Ksenia Semyonova 2008 Europeans Event Finals - Uneven Bars

He Kexin

He Kexin : 2008 Cottbus EF UB

Beth Tweddle

Beth Tweddle : 2008 Europeans TF UB

One of these ladies will not be on the podium. This is a final I am so looking forward to.


*Note: I tried to find the latest videos of each girl, not necessarily the best. Obviously, Liukin, Semenova, and Tweddle are the top three in the world, having medaled at World Championships, and He is certainly showing herself to be a force to be reckoned with.*


Aren't you all lucky? When it's days or even weeks between posts, it's only been a couple of hours! I'm feeling posty today.

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Sorry, I would do a more comprehensive post, but too many days in a row at work + a nasty back injury = me being tired and lazy:

• Darlene Hill kicks a little butt, wins FX, and begins making her case to Marta et. al for Beijing.
• Erica Lynn Danko, a half-Japanese half-American from Japan wins silver on vault, beaten by Rebecca Bross. Bross and Danko were the only junior vault finalists to do DTYs.
• Speaking of Bross, she proves that she's a tough little cookie. After taking a nasty spill on her head on the UB and opting to not to continue, she comes back big time to win on floor and tie for gold on BB.
• Danko's teammate, Shizuka Tozawa, ties for silver on FX.
  
• Samantha Shapiro didn't have as good a night as she did for TF. While she did win gold on UB (kind of helped by Bross' 6.025), she stumbled on the other events. Here's to hoping her consistency is remedied in the next quad.
• Peng Peng Lee landed her Bhardwaj in UB finals and won silver and surprisingly did not qualify to BB finals.
• Nastia Liukin messed up on UB in finals, including falling on her Geinger and takes silver behind teammate Jana Beiger. Liukin does come back to win gold on BB, but doesn't medal on FX. Who really expected her to, anyway?
• Jana Beiger finally starts her comeback trail and takes home gold on UB and bronze on BB. Her feet and toes still haven't figured out the pointed position yet.
• Some generous scoring, especially for Liukin's FX, but who is surprised by that?

Yeah, I think I got it all. I know I promised videos, but the videos aren't the best (and many are completely unlabeled, so I don't know who's performing), plus some of the really good performances ones aren't even up yet.

I'll start on the Euros soon. Finally have a few days off coming up.

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Not that I'm upset, just saying it's not a surprise. Results from International Gymnast's Quick Hits and pictures from Gettyimages (obviously).

Team USA cheering on Bross.jpg

Team
1. USA 245.275
2. Canada 233.475
3. China 233.075
4. Australia 232.675
5. Russia 230.250
6. Japan 224.925
7. Mexico 214.325
8. Chinese Taipei 191.400 (poor Taiwan. They were putting up scores on UB that resembled the old code)

Liukin on BB.jpg

Senior All-Around
1. Nastia Liukin USA 62.850
2. Jana Bieger USA 59.925
3. Dasha Joura AUS 59.200
4. Ashleigh Brennan AUS 59.025
5. Qiushuang Huang CHN 58.850
6. Kristina Vaculik CAN 58.425
7. Mengsi Tian CHN 58.025
*. Lauren Mitchell AUS 57.950
*. Xin Zhang CHN 57.025
8. Alyona Zmeu Russia 56.575
9. Ericka Garcia MEX 56.000
10. Chinami Otaki JPN 55.325
11. Marisela Cantu MEX 55.175
12. Nanaho Hidaka JPN 54.475
13. Jessica Gil Ortiz COL 53.550
14. Nathalia Sanchez COL 53.200
15. Hiu Ying Angel Wong HKG 52.625
16. Jia Hui Tay SIN 51.975
17. Heem Wei Lim SIN 51.275
18. Noor Hasleen F. Hasnan MAS 49.275
*. Xi Hui Tay SIN 48.650
19. Nim Yan Choi HKG 46.850
20. Chun Min Chen TPE 46.725

Shapiro on BB.jpg

*couldn't find one of Bross yet, so here's a picture of who I hoped would win*

Junior All-Around
1. Rebecca Bross USA 61.050
2. Samantha Shapiro USA 60.100
3. Viktoria Komova RUS 57.600
4. Charlotte Mackie CAN 57.575
5. Peng-Peng Lee CAN 57.375
6. Wenli Guan CHN 56.925
*. Brittany Rogers CAN 56.875
7. Jie Cui CHN 56.750
*. Rebecca Clark USA 56.725
8. Shizuka Tozawa JPN 56.225
9. Erica Lynn Danko JPN 56.050
10. Britt Greeley AUS 55.700
11. Emily Little AUS 55.675
*. Akiho Sato JPN 54.875
12. Nailiya Mustafina RUS 54.375
*. Violetta Malikova RUS 54.275
13. Karla Salazar MEX 53.200
14. Britt Reusche-Lari PER 50.350
15. Yu Chun Chen TPE 50.050
16. Paula Martinez MEX 49.650
17. Yu Ju Lo TPE 47.350
*. Chen Hsuan Wu TPE 46.975
*. Daniela Espinosa MEX 46.400
18. Wei Zhang CHN 42.825
19. Frances Audrey Munoz PHI 41.300
20. Ka Man Leung Hong Kong CHN 38.475

* Two athletes per country may qualify for all-around rankings

Hill on FX.jpg

Darlene Hill tweaked her shoulder, so she did not compete BB or UB, unfortunately. This doesn't help her already long shot at the O-Team. She did put up good scores on VT and FX, though (14.9 and 15.125, respectively).

Samantha Shapiro (pictured above) did quite well for herself last night. She put up the second-highest score on UB for USA (15.225), had a 15.8 on BB (witnesses say it was a gorgeous routine), and was just solid all night. I've watched some of her previous competitions and she's just impressive. She needs new floor music because Blues for Klook isn't quite working (literally. Her music cut out on her last night. To her major credit, she kept going and the audience clapped along. She was the very last competitor of the night and received the biggest cheers). New favorite junior, y/y?

Peng Peng Lee (CAN) didn't have such a good night. She had gone OOB on almost all of her tumbling passes on FX, had a scary crash on the LB attempting a Bhardwaj(!)(pak salto full), and fell and wobbled on her BB set. I'm going to say points for her for being the first gymnast I've seen this quad attempting the Bhardwaj (or rather heard. There are no videos yet). I do wish her coaches would slow her down. We're all more than aware this kid is capable of incredible difficulty, but she's not eligible for the Olympics until 2012 or a Worlds until next year. I think the best thing to do for her is start teaching her consistency, work on the little stuff in her routines, and refine the skills she already has. Clean her up a little and she'll have a World beam medal in the bag. Let's not burn her out and cause a career-ending injury before then, please. This little American wants to see her on a World stage, kthx.

Rebecca Bross is on her own little winning streak. Looks like she'll be the new "It Girl" come the next quad. Only to be replaced by Wieber in 2011 and start being called "old" and "washed up" and "crippled" if she's been out with injury. I'm going to be really pissed if that's how it'll play out. I don't like predictability like that.

Videos next post.

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vogue.jpg

This is definitely a lovely photo, with exception to Alicia's butt being front and center and Shawn not following suit and having her face being quietly elegant and looking out to the horizon like the other three. It's okay to not smile for everything, dear. But other than that, I really like this photo and am glad that this was in a publication other than a sports-related one and one as widely read and highly regarded as Vogue.

The small article on the other hand, blech. It was poorly written for many reasons, grammar, voice, and purple prose being the least of them (so. Many. Commas). Here, read for yourself (since my scanner didn't want to do its job, I had to type this up myself):

Miles down a dirt road through deep woods somewhere outside Huntsville, Texas,is the 2000-acre Karolyi Camp, command central for the United States women's gymnastics team. Its remoteness is no coincidence. NO VISITORS OR PARENTS ARE ALLOWED ON PREMISES DURING CAMP PROGRAM, warns a sign posted on the gym building across from a cluster of "Goldilocks"-style cabins for athletes and staff.

Here national team coordinator Martha Karolyi, a Romanian who, with her husband, Bela, famously trained Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton, gathers gymnasts and their coaches every few weeks to review and refine their skills. "They bring us out here, almost in the middle of nowhere, to have us clearly focus," explains Olympic hopeful Alicia Sacramone, 20. Right now, that focus is especially critical: After beating the Chinese to win the gold medal in last September's World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, the American team is riding high. Expectations for this summer are intense, to say the least. "Once we hit 2008, it was really nerve-racking to me," says Nastia Liukin, eighteen, the daughter of two world-class Russian gymnasts who emigrated to the U.S. in 1992 and settled near Dallas. "It's starting to get really scary-and really exciting."
   
A decade ago, U.S. gymnastics was in the doldrums. At the 1999 Worlds, the country came away without a single medal, which is when the Karolyis stepped in, introducing European-style team-based training to competitors who had previously worked alone with their coaches and barely knew, let alone liked, one another. That's all very well in the quest for individual medals but a disaster for teamwork. Now, says Shawn Johnson, just sixteen and the darling of the sport since she swept awards at virtually everything she entered last year, "we're still competitors, but we're teammates, and we're pushing one another to get to the top." At the victorious 2007 Worlds, you could see Sacramone, the self-appointed den mother of the group, rallying the team on to a collective win.

That they have become close friends is in no doubt. As they arrive at the camp, they greet one another with hugs and girl talk, comparing nail tips and discussing movies they have seen. During training in the vast, hangar-like gym, hung with inspiring national flags and club banners, they gather round to encourage Chellsie Memmel, nineteen, All-Around Champion at the 2005 Worlds who recently returned to competitive form after shoulder and ankle injuries, when she falls from the uneven bars. She tries again, to cries of, "There you go!" and "Attagirl!"
   
The atmosphere in the gym alternates between apparently casual pauses and intense spurts of activity. Prince and Teena Marie play on the sound system as the gymnasts wrap and chalk their hands before springing into action, marked by the squeak of feet on mats, the crunch of trampoline springs, and the wumph of vaults.Witnessing their practice is like watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as runs and jumps turn into multiple flips and somersaults. Any doubt as to the seriousness of the proceedings is dispelled as the girls, in descending height order from Liukin's five feet three to Johnson's four feet nine, line up in front of Karolyi like privates on parade to receive her verdict.
   
The four members of the team featured here are each, needless to say, extraordinarily talented, and each is surprisingly individualistic in style. Johnson most clearly fits the image of a gymnast: Tiny, compact, and astonishingly powerful, she moves like a miniature wrestler propelled by her muscles. (Her parents knew something was up when she started walking at nine months.) Liukin, by contrast, is all grace, a willowy sylph who high-kicks like Sylvie Guillem and bends like a string of spaghetti on her favored apparatus of beam and bars. Sacramone is a pistol, highly charismatic on the mat and vault, and Memmel turns into a superheroine in performance, executing near-perfect routines on every piece of equipment. Two, Liukin and Memmel, are trained by their fathers-Liukin's is a two-time Olympic gold medalist; Memmel's was a collegiate gymnast who now owns a gym in New Berlin, Wisconsin-and the other two are from non-sporting families.
   
Their discipline extends to everything they eat-since they are constantly lifting their own body weight, any extra pounds are unwelcome-as well as never missing a workout. "All your decisions are pretty much based on, Is this going to affect me at the gym tomorrow?" says Memmel. But despite the rigor of their training, these young women are refreshingly normal. They cope with nerves at competitions by picturing themselves at their local gyms or zoning out with their iPods. "I play Justin Timberlake," says Sacramone. "We're getting married. He just doesn't know it yet."
   
Rather than being tutored, each of them went to high school, and Johnson still attends hers in West Des Moines, Iowa. Sacramone, a Massachusetts native is currently taking a semester off from Brown, where she's a sophomore studying sociology. Liukin and Memmel are working to fit college degrees around their schedules. They like Gossip Girl and Dance War. "The biggest misconception about gymnasts is that we don't have lives and that we're in the gym 24/7," says Sacramone. "Sure, we're in the gym a lot" -around six hours a day, six days a week- "but I still have time to have a social life and a boyfriend."
  
 With the heavy toll it takes on the body, a gymnasts' professional life is typically short. Since they must be at least sixteen in the year of an Olympics in order to qualify, and they may well retire in their early 20s, for these young women, 2008 may be their one shot at the ultimate international glory. They don't like to think about this, citing the Russian gymnast Oxana Rakhmatulina, still competing at 31. But they also have plans for the future. Sacramone would like to be a fashion designer (she loves Dior and Vuitton); Liukin would like to do more acting (she played a gymnast in 2006's Stick It). Meanwhile, Beijing is the elephant in the room: something they are ever-conscious of but don't like to discuss, preferring to focus on each challenge as it arises (there are some three major competitions to go before the Olympics). "When you're out there, you're not thinking about the big picture," says Liukin. "You just have to live in the moment and enjoy it." - EVE MACSWEENEY

"Oxana Rakhmatulina?" You mean the Kazakh pro-basketball player (that is, NOT A GYMNAST) who represents Russia internationally? Oy. How did she get "Rakhmatulina" from "Chusovitina?" I'm not an expert on Eastern European languages by any means, but geez.

The point of having the four girls in Vogue was to "celebrate" different body types while also cheering on Team USA on the lead up to the Olympics. In the sixth paragraph, note how Shawn was mentioned as having the perfect body type for a gymnast and Nastia was "willowy." Now look again. See how nothing was actually mentioned about Alicia and Chellsie's body types, instead going about how they're charismatic or how good their gymnastics are. Pfft. In all the attempts to straighten out the general public about gymnasts and gymnastics, they couldn't work on the body thing a little better? Not all gymnasts are going to have a Kim Zmeskal or Svetlana Khorkina body type.

It's always a "close, but no cigar" when anybody other than gymnastics-oriented publications write stories about gymnastics. I truly want this sport to gain more positive attention or at least gain back the attention it had in the 1980s, especially when these girls are figuratively (and sometimes literally) breaking their backs for this sport for little payoff, but then we get drivel like this. Where are the Dasha Jouras of the sports journalism world?

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