DALLAS — Nastia Liukin gave her fans a quick glimpse of what an Olympic champion looks like after she’s been off for a while, showing off a solid, but less than perfect beam routine Thursday night at the U.S. championships.
It’s a routine she can do in her sleep, filled with graceful lines, delicate leaps and beautiful pirouettes. That all was there during her 100 seconds on the beam in front of 7,523 fans in her hometown of Dallas, along with a couple of wobbles that kept it from being Olympic-type stuff.
“I was just getting the butterflies out,” she said. “I’m hoping Saturday I’ll go out there and be more calm and under control.”
She scored a 14.45, then exited stage right. Earlier, she skipped the uneven bars, on which she had earlier said she would perform.
“With bars being such a good event for me, I didn’t want to go out there if I couldn’t perform at the highest quality execution,” Liukin said. “Beam is beam. It’s one of those things where you need the repetition.”
With Liukin out of the mix for the all-around and defending national champion Shawn Johnson taking a break, 2007 junior national champion Rebecca Bross jumped into the lead after the first day, with 58.55 points, .35 points ahead of Ivana Hong. Bridget Sloan is in third.
Bross and Hong train with Liukin at World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, which also produced 2004 Olympic champion Carly Patterson.
“After the Olympics, I thought I needed a vacation,” said Valeri Liukin, who coaches his daughter and the others at WOGA. “But this is unbelievable. I love it. It’s better than a vacation.”
Also returning from a long break was 2005 world champion Chellsie Memmel, who got back on the beam and scored a 13.8. She was uncertain about returning and decided to come back with a little urging from national team coordinator Martha Karolyi.
Memmel and Liukin hugged when it was over.
“It’s kind of nice to know there’s someone out there in the same boat with you,” Memmel said.
