Women’s Gymnastics

By winning the world team title and a total of seven medals (four gold, two silver and one bronze) at the 2007 World Championships, Team USA is the women’s team to beat in Beijing. Not only did the Americans earn the team world title, but the USA’s Shawn Johnson also became the reigning all-around world champion, marking the first time the United States has won both the team and all-around gold medals at the same World Championships.

This is just the second time in U.S. history the Americans have won the team title and the first ever at a World Championships held outside the United States.

Johnson won the most gold medals (three) in the women’s competition: all-around, floor exercise and team. Johnson is the fourth U.S. woman to win the world all-around title. In 2008, she successfully defended her U.S. all-around title and was second at the Tyson American Cup, as well as won the all-around title at the U.S Olympic Team Trials.

Nastia Liukin picked up the USA’s fourth gold medal at the 2007 Worlds when she won her second balance beam world title. She also claimed the silver medal on the uneven bars. Liukin has a total of nine world medals to her credit, which ties the mark of nine world medals held by Shannon Miller, who has earned more world and Olympic medals than any other U.S. gymnast (16 total). Liukin also was the world champion for the balance beam and uneven bars in 2005. In 2008, she won the all-around titles at both the Tyson American Cup and the Pacific Rim Championships presented by Gillette Venus, as well as earned the U.S. title for both the uneven bars and the balance beam. She was second in the all-around at the Visa Championships.

Alicia Sacramone earned two individual medals at the 2007 World Championships, a silver in the floor exercise and a bronze in vault. She was the 2005 floor exercise world champion. She is the first U.S. woman to win vault world medals since 1989, claiming a silver (2006) and two bronze (2005, 2007). Her career world medals count is seven. At the 2008 Visa Championships, she won her fourth consecutive vault title and was second in the floor exercise.

In addition to Johnson, Liukin and Sacramone, the gold medalist world team included Ivana Hong, Samantha Peszek, Bridget Sloan and Shayla Worley.

The women’s performance at the 2007 World Championships caps off an impressive run that started at the 2005 World Championships. The U.S. women have won a total of 21 medals (eight gold, 11 silver and two bronze) at the last three World Championships (2005-07).

In 2005, Chellsie Memmel and Liukin went 1-2 in the all-around, separated by a mere .001 of a point. Among Memmel, Liukin and Sacramone, the trio claimed four world titles and a total of nine (of a possible 10) world medals in one of the most dominant performances at a World Championships.

Just one year later, the U.S. women earned the team silver medal at the World Championships. Jana Bieger led the U.S. women’s medal haul with three silver medals (team, all-around and floor exercise). Liukin and Sacramone added silver medals on uneven bars and vault, respectively, to bring the USA’s total to five.

Memmel and Bieger returned to all-around competition at the 2008 Visa Championships after missing 2007 while recovering from injuries. Memmel finished third in the all-around, with Bieger finishing sixth. Memmel also was second on the uneven bars.

Men’s Gymnastics

At the 2007 World Championships, the U.S. men were just 1.25 points shy of winning the bronze medal. That performance secured the USA a ticket to Beijing in men’s gymnastics and established them as bona fide medal contenders for 2008.

Men’s gymnastics has been in a rebuilding phase since the U.S. men’s stunning success in 2004 when they won the team silver medal at the Olympic Games. After the 2004 Olympic Games, Olympic all-around champion Paul Hamm and most of his silver-medal teammates either took time off from competitive gymnastics or retired, making the USA one of only a few countries without a former Olympian on its team at the 2007 World Championships. In just three years, the USA has built a young, but talented pool of men that staged one of the greatest comebacks in gymnastics by moving from 13th place at the 2006 Worlds to their fourth-place finish in the 2007 team competition.

In February 2008, Paul Hamm competed in his first all-around competition since the 2004 Olympic Games and won the Winter Cup Challenge. Just three weeks later, he competed in the Tyson American Cup, his first international all-around competition since Athens, and handily won the event’s title. In late March, Hamm won the all-around title at the 2008 Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships presented by Gillette Venus. Hamm was leading after the first day of the Visa Championships when he injured his right hand, but earned enough points to qualify for the senior national team and the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Gymnastics.

Four seemed to be the magic number for the men at the 2007 Worlds. Jonathan Horton finished fourth in the men’s all-around. He is just the fifth U.S. man to finish in the top four at an Olympic Games or a World Championships. Guillermo Alvarez and Kevin Tan were fourth in the floor exercise and still rings, respectively, in the individual event finals. The 2007 world team also included Alexander Artemev, David Durante, Sean Golden and Sho Nakamori (alternate). Artemev won the pommel horse bronze medal in 2006, the USA’s first pommel horse world medal since 1979, and was sixth in the pommel horse finals at the 2007 Worlds.

The members of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team are: Joseph Hagerty, who finished third in the all-around at the 2008 Visa Championships; Morgan Hamm, a member of the 2004 Olympic silver-medal team who won the 2008 U.S. floor exercise title and bronze medals in vault and the horizontal bar; Justin Spring, who won the U.S. parallel bars crown; Hamm, Horton and Tan. The replacement athletes are: Raj Bhavsar, who was the bronze medalist on vault and rings at the 2008 Visa Championships; Artemev and Durante.

Trampoline

The USA is heading to the Olympic Games in women’s trampoline for the third straight Olympiad, and for the first time, the United States qualified to send a male gymnast. The USA qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games based on performances at the 2007 World Trampoline and Tumbling Championships in Quebec City, Que.

Trampoline made its debut as an Olympic sport at the 2000 Olympic Games, and the U.S. women have not missed an Olympic Games yet. The high-flying discipline has its gymnasts soaring as high as 30 feet in the air while performing a variety of flips, twists and turns. In Beijing, 16 men and 16 women will compete in trampoline. Brittany Dircks finished 15th at the 2007 Worlds to secure one of two wild card Olympic spots for the United States. For the men, Chris Estrada placed 16th to qualify the USA for its first men’s Olympic trampoline spot.

Erin Blanchard and Estrada will represent the USA in trampoline at the 2008 Olympic Games. Blanchard briefly retired from competitive gymnastics in 2007 and returned in 2008 to earn the women’s spot.

There are four disciplines in trampoline and tumbling: individual trampoline, synchronized trampoline, tumbling and double mini-trampoline. Trampoline is included in the Olympic Games, and the other three are included in the World Games, which is an Olympic-style event for non-Olympic sports.