US Womens Gymnasts’ Olympic Debut

It wasn’t the start the US women’s gymnastic team would have hoped for. Just minutes before the qualifying competition began, Samatha Peszek injured her ankle, allowing her to compete just on the uneven bars and leaving the US with just four uninjured gymnasts for most of the qualifiying rounds, where teams are allowed to use five members and count the best four scores on each apparatus. (Chellsie Memmel injured her ankle last week and will compete only on the uneven bars.)

And, it seems to get worse from there. Alicia Sacramone led off the floor exercises and landed with two feet out of bounds, a .5 deduction; Memmel, usually stellar on the uneven bars, slipped off of the bar and had to be remounted, ending her dreams for an individual medal; and Nastia Liukin, who can usually be counted on for a rock-solid performance, landed on her derriere instead of her feet on her dismount from the uneven bars. Only Shawn Johnson produced solid performances in all of the events.

Even if it was sometimes difficult to watch, the US women’s combined scores were good enough to put them in second place behind the Chinese women for the team competition. Also qualifying to compete for the team medal are Australia, Russia, Romania, France, Brazil, and Japan.

The American women will also be competing in the individual events. Johnson, Liukin, and Bridget Sloan qualified for the individual all-around competition. Sacramone qualified for the vault. Liukin, Johnson, and Sacramone will compete on the balance beam, Johnson and Liukin will compete in the floor exercises, and Liukin will compete on the uneven bars, having qualified despite the fall.

The women’s gymnastic competition begins on Tuesday.