By Alan Abrahamson
BEIJING – The goal, Bela Karolyi was saying Sunday morning, before the afternoon session at which the U.S. women gymnasts took to National Indoor Stadium for team qualifications, was to not finish first.
The better to lower expectations.
Mission, um, accomplished.
The U.S. team limped Sunday through a mistake- and injury-marred performance, doing plenty to qualify for team finals Tuesday – and an anticipated match-up with the Chinese team – but leaving ample room for improvement.
Most of it, apparently, mental.
“We like to have a lot of drama as a team, apparently,” said Alicia Sacramone the floor and vault specialist whose pep talk before the final event at last year’s world championships, the floor, rallied the U.S. women to the team gold.
Chellsie Memmel fell Sunday off the uneven bars.
In her bars routine, Nastia Liukin landed not on her feet but on her backside.
This after Samantha Peszek, in her very last warm-up tumbling pass before competition got underway Sunday, twisted her ankle. She would perform Sunday only on bars – meaning the U.S. women put forth only four athletes, not five, in three of the four events.
