We're less than a month away from the Summer Games in Beijing. The anticipation is killing me... So many curiosities are cutting diagonals across my brain.
What is going on behind the piney gates of the Karolyi ranch?
Who is allowed inside with Marta and the girls?
Will a third "true bar-worker" emerge for Team USA?
What kind of meals are the girls being fed? Where the heck is this ranch anyway?
One question about which I'm less curious is whether or not former World Champion Chellsie Memmel will make the six-gymnast American squad. True, she may have only recently healed from a long-standing shoulder injury, but the 2004 Athens alternate has proven her mettle by nailing her routines during the recent 2008 US Olympic Trials.
Most gym pundits would agree: Chellsie Memmel is a lock for the Beijing Olympic squad.
The three-routine specialist will arrive as an uneven bars medal contender at the seasoned age of 20, once considered "ancient" in elite Women's Gymnastics. However, with advancements in training methodology and innovations in injury prevention, female gymnasts are sticking around much longer than their predecessors.
Also, college gymnastics has come a long way from its initial inauguration into the NCAA. The college gymnastics circuit now hosts a slew of former Olympic medalists, a mix of former national and international team members, and an all-around group of high-caliber elite competitors.
Take, for example, the 2008 NCAA Champs: the Georgia Gymdogs. From Bottom-to-Top, it's a who's-who of US elite gymnastics. The top of the list goes to Athens Olympian Courtney Kupets who I would argue to be the top American uneven bars worker... still! If not for a crushing mid-season Achilles rupture, I would've started an internet campaign to lobby her into the Karolyi selection camp!
Aside from Kupets, there's her Olympic teammate, Courtney McCool. Then there's former National Team members Katie Heenan, Nikki Childs, Grace Taylor, Marcia Newby... on and on.
I love the lengthening life-span in women's gymnastics. I love seeing older, taller gymnasts (i.e. gymnasts with the first name, Svetlana) thriving in a sport that was once dominated by young, pixie machines (even though i love them, too).
So, I will be rooting for "roaring 20-yr old" Chellsie Memmel (and Alicia Sacramone!) and all the other women bringing down the podium, Old-school.
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