DALLAS — Shawn. Nastia. Mary Lou. And with a few more nights like Saturday, maybe we’ll know America’s newest national champion simply as Bridget.
Bridget Sloan put her name up there with the stars of American gymnastics Saturday, winning a national championship in a come-from-behind effort that was as much about her unrelenting tenacity as her surprising grace.
The 17-year-old, a member of last year’s Olympic silver-medal team, opened the meet in a hole after falling off the balance beam on her first routine Thursday, but overcame Ivana Hong and Rebecca Bross with seven straight solid routines.
Sloan finished with 117.55 points to beat Hong by 0.3 and Bross by 0.95. And while Sloan still has a lot to prove, she will certainly no longer be overlooked.
“In 2007, I was the kid nobody knew about, the up-and-comer,” Sloan said. “After the Olympics, everyone knew me and that was really cool. This year, I feel like a completely new person.”
The top three all closed the night on vault with the exact same jump — a laid-out flip with two twists — and though Bross’ and Hong’s were better, they weren’t enough to overcome the 0.55-point lead Sloan built through the floor exercise.
It was quite a startling comeback after the fall on beam netted a score of 13.95.
“I really didn’t know what I was going to do after I fell,” Sloan said. “I didn’t think about winning whatsoever.”
Before Sloan capped her comeback, defending Olympic champion Nastia Liukin reprised her beam routine from Thursday night with a better result, eliminating some wobbles and tentativeness to score a 14.7, 0.25 better than in her debut. She is rounding into shape after taking most of the year off.
Liukin and Sloan are favorites to be on the four-woman team that heads to London for the world championships in October. Liukin is seeking her 10th worlds medal to surpass Shannon Miller as the most decorated American gymnast in history.
“I’ve always loved Bridget,” Martha Karolyi said. “In 2007, she was a little timid and would get nervous. But this is a different Bridget.”
