U.S. Gymnasts Are Rivals First, Teammates Second

SAN JOSE, Aug. 18 -- After completing a series of particularly stellar routines on the uneven bars and balance beam last week, Shawn Johnson dismounted and found about a dozen athletes lined up on the HP Pavilion floor to congratulate her. With her hands still heavily taped and covered in chalk, Johnson squeezed each of her competitors in hugs. It was, she said later, "a really great show of spirit for Team USA."

However, the girls who embraced Johnson looked more annoyed than inspired. Nastia Liukin, a 17-year-old whom Johnson, 15, has replaced as the rising star of USA gymnastics, grimaced as she bumped into Johnson with limp arms. Samantha Peszek, 15, who had fallen twice during her own routines, locked her eyes on the ceiling as she moved toward Johnson.

The hug procession -- which takes place after any athlete completes any routine -- has long been a tradition in elite women's gymnastics, but it felt particularly incongruous at the national championships. For two nights of competition, the most evenly matched group of female gymnasts in years battled viciously to establish a pecking order that might well determine who competes in the 2008 Olympics. Then, every five minutes or so, they took breaks, plastered on smiles and hugged.

"It's kind of weird or something, because it's like we're all friends but we're all going against each other," Johnson said. "It feels funny."

In her first senior national championships, Johnson drubbed the competition by performing all four routines without falling Saturday. She won the all-around gold medal by more than three points; the next four places were separated by less than two points. Johnson also won gold medals for floor routine and balance beam.

Sunday, USA Gymnastics officials will select a team of six athletes and one alternate to compete at the world championships in Stuttgart, Germany, next month, and those girls will magically become teammates. They will immediately head to Texas for a training camp and three days of bonding. Then they will board a plane for Germany, united as a favorite to win a team medal in the major precursor meet to the 2008 Olympics.

But few athletes thought about that sort of team composition this week. They were pitted against each other, battling to validate a devotion that requires at least 30 hours of training each week. Of the 17 gymnasts who competed in Saturday night's finals, none had secured a spot on the world championships team and none had been eliminated.

Two mini-generations of gymnasts met in an uncomfortable clash. Three stars once expected to lead the women in the 2008 Olympics -- Liukin, Chellsie Memmel, 19, and Alicia Sacramone, 19 -- arrived here at what should have been the beginning of their primes. They all narrowly missed competing in the 2004 Olympics, and they've won a combined 15 international medals. Yet, hampered by nagging injuries, the trio hardly looked invincible.

A group of girls two or three years younger -- Johnson, Peszek, Bridget Sloan and Ivana Hong -- often outshone their elders, and they likely will steal at least a few spots on the Olympic team. Hong, 14, trounced many of her onetime idols by nailing all four of her routines during the preliminary round and then tried to walk a precarious political tightrope afterward. When asked how it felt to beat girls three years older than her, Hong glanced across the room at Memmel and said, "You know, it really is just an honor to even be standing on the same floor as girls like her."

Said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics: "The dynamics between these athletes right now are a little unusual because every woman on that floor has a legitimate shot of making the 2008 team. We are just so deep. Making our Olympic team is one of the hardest things to do in the sport right now."

Then, afterward, they'll have a three-day training camp at Bela and Martha Karolyi's ranch in New Waverly, Tex., where they'll try to form a cohesive world championships team.

It's a strategy the United States has relied on for almost a decade. Each month, about 20 elite gymnasts and their coaches fly into Houston and make the one-hour drive to the ranch, where they work out together under Martha, the U.S. women's team coordinator, and sleep in bunk beds. USA Gymnastics instituted that routine in 1999 as a compromise between the European model that forces athletes to live and train together all the time and the old American model under which athletes trained alone, always.

So far, the training camps have worked. The United States is the only country that has won a team medal at the world championships each year since 2001, and this year's team -- no matter the ultimate mix of veterans and newcomers -- has enough talent to take gold.

"Once you get to the ranch, you don't have to worry about competing against each other," Memmel said. "We can all just kind of be friends and work together."

Memmel was asked if, at the training camp, she would offer the younger gymnasts any tips.

"Not really," Memmel said. "I mean, they're already so mature and dedicated. At this point, what can I teach them?"