BEIJING — They came into these Olympics as world champions but appeared jittery in Sunday’s qualification round. The U.S. women’s gymnasts probably have to be much better in today’s team finals to claim the most important gold in their sport.
China was first Sunday, but its coach, Shanzhen Lu, also was less than pleased. He gave his team a 70 percent grade, primarily because Kexin He fell off the uneven bars and Yuyuan Jiang fell on her vault.
“Getting the gold medal is our target,” Lu said, “but nobody can say they have the absolute assurance that they’ll get it.”
The U.S. became unnerved moments before it took the floor when Samantha Peszek twisted her ankle on the warm-up floor and finished second. Women’s national team coordinator Martha Karolyi predicted her team would be more composed today.
“At this level everybody is so prepared physically, and the level of gymnastics is so high, but it comes down a lot of times to your nerves,” Karolyi said. “I don’t think we will see the same situation in the team finals.”
Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin of the United States were 1-2 in the all-around rankings, but China had the best score on each apparatus. Fei Cheng had the best marks in vault and floor exercises, Yilin Yang had the best score on uneven bars and Li Shanshan was best on the balance beam.
Johnson and teammate Alicia Sacramone went 2-3 in the vault. Johnson was third and Liukin fourth in floor exercises. On balance beam, Liukin, Johnson and Sacramone went 2-3-4, respectively.
Uneven bars was a problem for Team USA. Chellsie Memmel fell and Liukin toppled over on her dismount. Liukin was the silver medalist on bars last year at the world championships.
“Everyone’s going to have mistakes, but for us it was important to get them out of the way,” Liukin said. “We don’t want to have those same mistakes in finals.”
In the qualification rounds, teams put up five women on each apparatus with four scores counting. In team finals, they each put up three athletes and all scores count.
“I think we will have a very good fight with the Chinese on three-up, three-count,” Karolyi said.
The U.S. women have won the Olympic team gold medal only once, when the Magnificent Seven did it in 1996. They were second behind Romania four years ago at the Athens Games.
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
USA lineup
The women’s gymnastics team’s lineup (in competition order) for tonight’s finals:
Vault: Bridget Sloan, Shawn Johnson, Alicia Sacramone
Uneven bars: Chellsie Memmel, Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin
Balance beam: Alicia Sacramone, Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson
Floor exercise: Alicia Sacramone, Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson
