Pictures of 2008 Women’s Gymnastics Team with Silver Medals

Here are a couple of pictures of the 2008 Women’s Gymnastics Team with their Silver Medals.  Also pictured are the girls home coaches.

Kravitz: Will Peszek’s bad ankle put her on medal stand or sidelines?

By Bob Kravitz

Indianapolis Star

BEIJING – Over and over, she watched it, played the old VHS video of the 1996 “Magnificent Seven’’ Olympic gymnastics team, the one that is best remembered for Kerri Strug’s noble one-footed landing on her final vault.

“I watched it so much, the tape finally broke,’’ said Samantha Peszek, the McCordsville gymnast who was all of four years old when Strug was carried to the medal stand by then-head coach Bela Karolyi. “I can’t even tell you how often I watched it. I’d stand in front of the TV and do all the routines, even the foreign girls. I was totally obsessed.’’

For years, Peszek dreamed of a day like that one, sacrificing and fighting through all those workouts at DeVeau’s in Fishers, hoping her own movie would unfold with so much drama, ultimately yielding the storybook happy ending.

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Friends, gymnasts celebrate Peszek’s success

Richard Essex/Eyewitness News

Fishers – Supporters of Olympic gymnast Samantha Peszek watched the United States women’s gymnastics team take the world stage Sunday night.

For most of their lives, most of the girls watching the gymnastics competition at Buffalo Wild Wings in Fishers have had one goal in mind – the one the Peszek is living in Beijing.

“Sam has a lot of talent, she really does. She has a lot of natural talent and she practices a lot, but she’s definitely not obsessed with practicing,” said fellow gymnast Hanna Guzzi.

Peszek was injured during warm ups and had to sit out one of her strongest events, but nonetheless, she is in Beijing, competing in at least one event.

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Click the link below to view the video

http://www.wthr.com/global/story.asp?s=8819173#

Sam’s Teammates, families and coaches gather to watch preliminary competition!

DeVeau’s gymnasts, their families and coaches gathered tonight at Buffalo Wild Wings in Fishers to watch their teammate and friend Samantha Peszek compete in the Women’s Gymnastics Preliminary competition in Beijing!!

Watch NBC affiliate, WTHR, Channel 13 for coverage and interviews.

A bumpy prelims for the U.S. Women

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.

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U.S. women gymnasts are ready for world spotlight

Despite great expectations in Beijing, ‘we can’t think of it in the big picture’

TODAY

Having the unusual status of front-runners doesn’t faze the mainly teenage team of U.S. women gymnasts. The six young ladies going for the gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics say they are treating their moment on the world stage as just another day at the office.

“We can’t think of it in the big picture — we just have to think of it as [if] we’re going to the gym and doing our job, which we’ve all been doing for years now,” team member Alicia Sacramone told Meredith Vieira on TODAY live from Beijing. “We’ve all just got to stay calm, and if we do that, we can do great things.”

The most-watched squad at the Olympics comes into the competition as a favorite after capturing the gold at the 2007 World Championships. Still, it’s a heady experience for the athletes — each is making her maiden Olympics appearance.

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today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26069656#26069656

Women’s gymnastics promises epic battle

By David Woods

BEIJING — This women’s gymnastics contest is a clash of superpowers not seen since the demise of the Soviet Union.

In this corner, the United States, leader of the Western world and usually of the medals table. In the other corner, China, whose economy is growing to become equal to its 1.3 billion population and 3.7 million square miles.

Yet USA vs. China is hardly a conventional rivalry. Mostly, each nation wins medals in sports that the other doesn’t.

An exception is women’s gymnastics, in which the United States beat defending champion China at last year’s World Championships. Yet don’t expect any off-the-mat spats involving the Chinese during Sunday’s team qualification at the Olympic Games.

“They’ve always been a pretty respectful team. No one’s punched anyone out. Nothing violent,” McCordsville, Ind., gymnast Samantha Peszek said jokingly

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Watch “Shot at Glory” and podium training in Beijing

If you missed the special on MoJo TV last night on local Olympic gymnast, Samantha Peszek, click on the link below to view it.  (It is 30 minutes long)

http://www.mojohd.com/video/?sid=23

Also watch the USA Women’s Gymnastics Team practice on the podium in Beijing by clicking the link below

www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=gy01-bj-sd40-080708-132002

Samantha’s Level 9 & 10 Teammates from DeVeaus wish her “Good Luck”

Watch an interview with Joan DeVeau, owner of DeVeaus School of Gymnastics

Watch an interview of Joan DeVeau, owner of DeVeaus School of Gymnastics, where 2008 Olympic gymnast, Samantha Peszek trains.

http://www.jumpcut.com/view?id=AE64BBF85F4011DDBEE4000423CF385C