London-L.A.-London

Subscribe or Renew now to receive our2009 U.S. ChampionshipsIssue (Sep/Oct)!

Samantha Peszek has been dreaming about the Olympic Games as long as she can remember. The daughter of two athletes, Peszek picked gymnastics, her mom’s sport, as a preschooler and never looked back. She helped Team USA win World gold in 2007 and went on to earn a spot on the 2008 Olympic dream, fulfilling all of her childhood dreams.

Well, almost. While Peszek calls Beijing the “best, most amazing experience of her life,” she also didn’t quite have the Games she’d dreamt of. Injured just moments before competition began in China, Peszek was limited to a single prelim performance on bars, something the upbeat Indiana girl dismisses as, “a little disappointing, yeah.”

Peszek was also possibly a little dismayed by the revelation earlier this month that she’s competing with a torn labrum in her shoulder, an injury she’d refrained from revealing publically.

“[My shoulder] doesn’t hurt me with any skill I’m currently doing,” Peszek said last week, downplaying the significance of the tear. “My strongest events are floor, vault and beam, so if there’s one year to have an injury, it’s this year, since it’s individual worlds. I’ve been focusing on those three events for a while now, and it’s good for me because I’ve been able to put a little extra push into them to get ready for Worlds.”

Peszek’s shoulder, which will require surgical repair, will keep her from competing on bars (where the injury occurred earlier this year) at the upcoming National and, should she be selected, World Championships, but she doesn’t expect it to keep her out of the all-around forever.

“As for the surgery, I plan to get it right as my season finishes and, hopefully, that will be right after Worlds,” Peszek said. “It will be all fixed, hopefully, by the beginning of next year, so I can get training. That’s my plan anyway.”

The next part of Peszek’s plan is starting UCLA in the fall of 2010. Peszek has already verbally committed to the Bruins—she can’t formally sign until November 12—and plans to enroll on time, no matter what happens this season. But that doesn’t mean Peszek isn’t considering another Olympic run.

“Depending on how this year goes, I would love to stay Elite and go to another Olympics,” Peszek told Inside last week. “Going to an Olympics is a once in a lifetime experience and to go twice would be over the top. It was an amazing thing and I would love to prove myself to make it again but I am planning, as of right now, to go to college on time and whether I chose to do both or just pick one or the other I haven’t decided completely yet.