U.S. Able To Tumble Forward
American Gymnasts Advance To Team Final Despite Spills
Nastia Liukin lands on her back, but still earned the highest U.S. score on the uneven bars.
(By Jed Jacobsohn -- Getty Images)
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Monday, August 11, 2008
BEIJING, Aug. 10 -- As the reigning world champions, the U.S. women were expected to sail into the Olympics gymnastics team final without drama.
But Sunday's qualifying session was rife with it -- starting when Samantha Peszek sprained her ankle during warmups before the squad was scheduled to march onto the floor at National Indoor Stadium.
The hobbled Peszek, scheduled to compete in all four disciplines, could manage only one, joining the similarly sidelined Chellsie Memmel, who sprained an ankle last weekend.
And the last-minute shuffling of the lineup sent jitters through the team. Alicia Sacramone stepped out of bounds during her floor routine. Memmel fell midway through her uneven bars routine, and Nastia Liukin concluded hers by landing flat on her back.
The team's only rock was its tiniest member, Shawn Johnson, who at 4 feet 9 delivered high marks on floor, vault and beam. She also was first overall, scoring 62.725 points to advance to Friday's individual all-around final as the favorite for gold.
But Sunday's qualification was about culling eight medal-worthy teams from a field of 12.
And China, which wants desperately to win its first Olympic team title after a disastrous showing at the 2004 Athens Games, led all, scoring 248.275 points with a breathtaking display of acrobatics that was undercut by occasional bouts of nerves.
A different Chinese gymnast delivered the team's high marks on each of the four apparatus -- a strong statement of the team's versatility and depth.
The Americans, competing with only four able bodies, finished second (246.800).
Russia was third (244.400), followed by Romania (238.425) and Australia (235.450). France, Brazil and Japan rounded out the qualifiers.
Those scores will be erased on Wednesday, and the eight nations will compete from scratch.
It was Johnson, fittingly, who found the silver lining in Sunday's rough outing.
