USAs '09: The Disabled List

Kamerin Moore

Junior Moore, 13, who won the USA-Japan dual earlier this year, is out after June shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum. Moore, who trains with Wieber, is expected to be out of action for “four to six months,” according to coach Geddert.

Questionable or limited in Dallas …

- Rebecca Bross, the 2007 U.S. junior champ and a serious threat to take the overall title, sprained her ankle during training at the Classic. Bross’ sprain didn’t seem serious and coach Valeri Liukin is confident Bross will be able to manage the all-around at USAs, saying he was “absolutely positive” she’d be ready in time.

“She’s been doing full floor routines all week,” Liukin told Inside on Friday of Bross’ potential to perform all four. “Vault we’re waiting on till next week, just to be safe. She’s good.”

-Olympian Samantha Peszek has spent much of the past year recovering, first from the ankle she injured just minutes before competition began in China and then from a torn labrum in her shoulder which she injured “doing a Jaeger on bars” earlier this year. (Peszek told Inside she “can’t remember” when the injury actually occurred or was diagnosed.)

Peszek says the labrum tear, which she plans to have repaired after Worlds, doesn’t effect her at all on three events, but she’ll be sitting out bars in Dallas.

-2005 World Champ Chellsie Memmel is working her way back from ankle surgery in late 2008 and had originally hoped to compete on bars and beam in Dallas.

The good news is that Memmel is on the mend, but we’ll only see her on one event at USAs. “I’m healthy,” Memmel texted Inside on Friday. “I’m just going to try and do beam. No bars.”

-Olympic Champ Nastia Liukin isn’t unhealthy, but she’s also not fully back in shape and will perform only on bars and beam in Dallas. The gold medalist/glamour girl’s jam-packed schedule has kept her out of the gym almost as much as she’s been in it since she re-committed to competing earlier this year. Despite her time away from gymnastics, Liukin isn’t ruling out an all-around run at October’s Worlds.

Liukin has also agreed to undefined undefined keep an exclusive diary for Insidewith her unique insights and personal pictures from the Championships. Fans will be able to see USAs through the eyes of the Olympic Champ!

- 2008 Trials competitor Mackenzie Caquatto plans to compete at USAs, but how many events she’ll manage is uncertain, though it’s unlikely she’ll attempt the all-around. The Illinois-based gymnast fractured her knee, and strained some ligaments, in June. The injury, which did not require surgery, limited Caquatto to bars at Classic, where she only did a flyway dismount.

“We just got released two weeks ago,” coach Jiani Wu told Inside late last week. “I can’t tell what we’re going to do. We’re taking it day by day, little by little; just see how her knee feels. We don’t want to step back. We don’t have a big plan for Championships but her goals are pretty big this year. We’re still hoping to get to Worlds selection.

“She’s having a tough time right now,” Wu concluded of Caquatto, whose younger sister Bridget is in the junior session. “We had to take six weeks off [full training, and] she was really doing good before that. She was more than ready. Now she’s working really hard and trying to do whatever she can.”

Caquatto, who was part of May’s U.S. team that took on France and Germany, is set to join Florida’s NCAA team next season.

- Texas girl Alaina Johnson, who hails from Tyler, was 12^th at last year’s Olympic Trials and hopes to compete on all four at USAs, but has been struggling with shin splints all season, limiting her training time.

Johnson, who, like Caquatto and Hill’s senior Kytra Hunter, is scheduled to join Florida’s team after USAs, did just one event, bars, at last month’s Classic, but seems to be on the mend. “My shins don’t hurt,” Johnson posted on her club’s Twitter page (@texaseastgymnastics) July 31. “Yippee!”

The next day Johnson added: “I can actually walk normally today!!”