Gym: Liukin looks back on surprise landing

AAP General News (Australia)
08-11-2008
Gym: Liukin looks back on surprise landing

By Kate Hairopoulos of The Dallas Morning News

BEIJING, Aug 11 MCT - The most memorable image of Nastia Liukin from her qualifying
round at the Beijing Olympics will be the Texan gymnast falling flat on her back after
her somersaulting dismount from her signature event, the uneven bars.

But it won't be the defining one.

Liukin - and the shorthanded United States, shaken by a late injury to Samantha Peszek
while warming up - certainly had their trying moments as they opened Olympic competition
at the National Indoor Stadium yesterday.

But the 18-year-old Liukin and her American teammates showed grit, pulled themselves
back up and came out OK for their spills and trials.

"After I fell, I was sitting there like 'what am I doing on the floor?"' Liukin said.

"'I'm not supposed to be here.' . . . Other than that I felt like I had a very good day."

Rival and host China topped the US in qualifying, 248.275 to 246.8. Third-place Russia
tallied 244.4.

But the nations competed in different subdivisions, not head-to-head, and the numbers
will be thrown out moving forward. The scoring in Wednesday's team final will be a different
deal as three gymnasts compete on each apparatus for each nation, with all three scores
counting.

Two Americans finished atop the all-around standings. Iowan Shawn Johnson, the reigning
world all-around champion, and Liukin were 1-2. China's Yang Yilin was third; Russia's
Ksenia Semenova fourth.

In addition to team finals, where the US will try to win Olympic team gold on foreign
soil for the first time, Liukin qualified for the all-around finals and individual finals
on balance beam, floor exercise and bars. Her routine on the bars is so hard she can sustain
the eight-tenths lost for the fall.

Johnson also qualified for the all-around and floor and beam finals. Alicia Sacramone
qualified for vault finals.

But back to the drama.

The confident US, the reigning world champions, were finishing warm-ups at the training
venue, when Peszek sprained her left ankle doing a tumbling pass.

"We all kind of freaked out," Liukin said.

Peszek, like teammate Chellsie Memmel, injured in training a week before, could compete
only on bars, doctors decided.

This left the US in a lurch. The qualifying round allows for five of a team's six gymnasts
to compete on each apparatus, with only the top four scores counting. When you've got
only four gymnasts on three of the four events, you lose any wiggle room.

"We certainly stressed that four scores count, and we still have four people," said
US national team coordinator Martha Karolyi. "'You can do it guys - and the responsibility
is on your shoulders."'

The Americans did so-so opening on floor. Liukin and Johnson hit their routines, but
Bridget Sloan and Sacramone, usually a star on floor, lost points for stepping out of
bounds.

They looked fine on vault and appeared to have pulled it together.

They paraded to the bars, where disaster awaited.

Already their weakest event, the US gave up big points to China.

Peszek, Sloan and Johnson performed well enough. But Memmel, capable of a high-scoring
routine, missed the bar after a release move.

Liukin, the big gun on bars, whirled around, all perfect lines and elegance.

Then, boom. As she landed her dismount, she sprawled backward.

Though dad/coach Valeri reassured her, Liukin was worried she wouldn't make the bars
individual finals. It did get hairier than it should have, as she was fifth overall (scoring
a 15.950; her personal best is 17.1) and only the top eight advance.

The only rotation remaining was the beam - not a good event to tackle flustered and
down a teammate - but the US showed heart.

Sloan, Sacramone, Liukin and Johnson all nailed their routines.

"We stayed really strong," Liukin said.

MCT jmt

KEYWORD: OLY08 GYM LIUKIN

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