Johnson, Liukin Lock Up Spots for Beijing
June 22, 2008
“It was scary to see and feel your dreams coming true,” said an emotional Johnson. “It was scary to think of everything of I’ve accomplished, and scary to think of everything I have left that I want to accomplish. It’s scary to think that my country picked me to represent the whole nation at the Olympic Games. That’s scary.”
While Johnson had another near-perfect night, Liukin struggled on bars—she was off balance in between her Healy and Ono-1/2, then landed in front support after a Pak salto—beam (break on switch ring) and floor (out of bounds on 1-1/2, punch Rudi), but still managed to maintain her second-place position.
“Today was a little bit rough all around,” Liukin admitted. “I don’t know if it was the way I wanted, but the end result I’m really happy with. It’s like I’m living in a dream, standing up there and being named to the Olympic team, confetti coming down. It feels like I’m gonna wake up and it will just be a dream. It’s weird that it’s real.”
National Team Coordinator Martha Karolyi, for one, isn’t worried about Liukin, despite her errors. “Nastia is a world-class gymnast,” she said, “even with the little mistakes she had today.”
Alicia Sacramone also continued to show her dominance on the events that count: vault and floor, winning the former and even throwing a Yurchenko-double second effort, just to show she can.
She was also the recipient of the biggest compliment of the night from Karolyi, who said she “can’t imagine” a team without Sacramone. “The team would definitely not be the same team without Alicia Sacramone,” Karolyi said.
“Nice!” Sacramone responded when told of Karolyi’s comment. “That makes me feel great. That’s a big confidence boost.”
Also receiving a boost—on the eve of her birthday—was Chellsie Memmel, who turns 20 tomorrow. She didn’t break into the top two, but she still had an outstanding evening, topping the standings on bars with a 16.4 and finishing second overall on bars, beam and floor in the Trials’ standings.
Memmel ended the night with a flourish on floor, sticking every landing and earning a standing ovation from the 12,000-plus crowd—a cheer led by Karolyi.
“It was awesome,” Memmel said of the ovation. “You don’t get too many of those, and to get it on floor at the Olympic Trials—it was a really great birthday present.
“It was a great two days, a great Trials,” Memmel added. “I do feel like I’m back.”
Not having such a happy birthday was Bridget Sloan, who had been sitting pretty before tonight’s competition. Sloan, who turns 16 tomorrow, had major misses on all three of her events; she stumbled forward on her bars dismount, fell off beam on a punch front and fell out of bounds on a piked full-in.
“I’m not quite sure what happened, but I was so thrilled and thankful that I was picked to go on,” Sloan said. “I was a little worried.”
Now that she’s got a second chance, Sloan plans to make the most of it. “I definitely understand that tonight was a knock in the head,” she said. “Everybody has a bad meet. Today was just an off day. In gymnastics, anything can happen, and I’d rather I got it out here instead of, like, at the Olympic Games. I’ll go to Selection Camp, where I’m going to do all four events, and I’ll do better.”
Karolyi singled out fourth-place Samantha Peszek as the one who has impressed her most throughout the Trials process so far. “One who has been very nice and extremely consistent is Samantha Peszek,” Karolyi said. “She has showed me she is one person we can count on.”
Perhaps having the opposite effect was Ivana Hong, who started strong with an outstanding bar set, only to fall badly one event later on her beam dismount—an error that couldn’t help her cause, especially with Karolyi and the Selection Committee watching her every move.
Hong, considered to be “on the bubble,” is still scrambling to revamp her bars routine, after international judges devalued her bars set at last year’s Worlds.
“We’ve tried to create a routine that is best suited to her hitting it to the maximum, every time,” Hong’s coach Al Fong explained. “But we’re way behind. It’s a new routine and it’s still a work in progress. We had to start all over after Worlds last year, and she’s competing against girls who have been perfecting their routines for four years, or more. And she’s got to be just as consistent as they are.”
Hong, who said it was “really exciting” to hit that bars routine, explained that she just had too much power on her beam dismount; she called the fall “a lesson learned.”
“It’s just another thing that tells you you’ve gotta work,” Hong said. “I think I’ve proven myself really well and I’m really excited to be in this race, on this journey.”
Joining Hong, Memmel, Peszek, Sacramone and Sloan in keeping their Olympic dreams alive by moving on to the July Selection Camp are: Jana Bieger, Chelsea Davis, Mattie Larson, Corrie Lothrop and Shayla Worley.
Those ten girls will fight for the four remaining spots and three alternate positions—only two alternates will travel to Beijing—at the final trials this July in Texas.
And if Karolyi had her way, even Johnson and Liukin would still be battling for Beijing berths. “If it was up to me, I would [name] nobody tonight,” she said with a laugh, before acknowledging the strong positions of Memmel, Sacramone and Peszek.
“Theoretically, no,” said Karolyi with a throaty laugh when asked if those three athletes were locks for the team. “Practically, that’s what it is. You never know, for sure, what is happening, so I can’t really say that, but if it would be today that we [would] decide, I’d have those, and we’d just discuss the sixth spot. But I want to see the situation in three weeks. I hope it will be the same, but you never know.
“I think it will be an extremely talented Olympic team,” Karolyi said. “That I can guarantee.”
