Bridget Sloan gets final spot on U.S. gymnastics team

Sloan, 16, recovered from March knee surgery with pizazz and steady improvement and earned her spot on the 2008 U.S. women's gymnastics team with a sparkling vault Saturday night and competent work on the uneven bars.

Bieger, 18, has gone from 2006 all-around world championship silver medalist to the most painful place -- an Olympic team alternate. Two nights in a row, Friday and Saturday, when her nerves needed to be steadiest, Bieger fell on the same release move on the uneven bars.

The consecutive falls probably cost Bieger a starting spot, according to national team coordinator Martha Karolyi. The U.S. team that will try to repeat its 2007 world championship and beat co-favorite China in Beijing will be:

Shawn Johnson, 16, of West Des Moines, Iowa, who is defending all-around world champion and who won both the 2008 U.S. nationals and the Olympic trials; Nastia Liukin, 18, of Parker, Texas, who has nine world championship medals; a pair of 20-year-olds, Chellsie Memmel of West Allis, Wis., who was 2005 world all-around champion, and Alicia Sacramone, of Winchester, Mass., who won a world silver floor exercise medal and bronze vault medal in 2007; and a pair of 16-year-olds, Sloan, of Pittsboro, Ind., and Samantha Peszek of Indianapolis.

Named as head coach was Liang Chow, Johnson's personal coach who was once a member of the Chinese national gymnastics team. The alternates were Bieger, 15-year-old Ivana Hong of Laguna Hills, who was a member of last year's U.S. world championship team, and 16-year-old Corrie Lothrop of Gaithersburg, Md.

"This is the strongest team we could pick," Karolyi said. "But it was hard. I was tearing up; my voice was choking out the words. This is the hardest part of the job because it's been 10 years of hard work for some girls and you're ending that dream."

Bieger's disappointment was painful to witness. She sat in a corner after her Saturday fall, staring at nothing. An hour after the team was named, Bieger's mother and coach, Andrea, cried as selection committee member and former gymnast Kristie Phillips said, "If there's anything I can do for you, just call. Please, just call." Andrea Bieger didn't say a word.

Saturday night's routines provided the final moments of suspense in a process that had started almost two months ago with two rounds of routines at the national championships in Boston and two more rounds at the Olympic trials in Philadelphia.