Gymnastics

It is Nastia Liukin's show this year. After sharing headlines and expectations with U.S. teammate Shawn Johnson before and during the Beijing Olympics in 2008, it is Olympic all-around gold medalist Liukin who is hogging the gymnastics spotlight this season. While Johnson, who won the silver all-around medal, has been off winning "Dancing With the Stars," Liukin has gone back to the gym. She will compete this week at the U.S. gymnastics national championships in Dallas on uneven bars and balance beam with the goal of earning a spot at the world championships in London in October.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- Shawn Johnson got a red Range Rover from her agent, which comes in handy when a blizzard sweeps through her hometown as it did on a January day when Johnson and her parents, Doug and Teri, and her coach, Liang Chow, welcomed visitors to the home of America's next gymnastics star. The color Johnson is working for now isn't red, though. It's gold. Johnson, 16, will begin her 2008 competitive season today at the Tyson's American Cup at Madison Square Garden.

The voice on the phone was familiar, if a bit weak. It's been a tough year, John Wooden said, reluctantly, because he doesn't like to make a fuss. He was in his Encino condominium, and had just been asked about the flu he'd fought off in January and the bone-breaking tumble he'd taken soon after. "It's been a bit hard, but I'm getting better," he assured. "Now, if Val's team performs to their abilities this week, that would put a smile on my face."

HOUSTON -- Jonathan Horton, an Olympic medal contender himself, says he is eagerly awaiting one matchup more than any other at the 2008 Beijing Games. "If they're both at their best it will be really cool to see Yang Wei and Paul Hamm go against each other," Horton said at the Visa National Championships men's gymnastics competition, which continues today. But there will be no Paul Hamm here today.

BOSTON -- Mattie Larson is trying to break into an all-star lineup, and perhaps because of that she is easily able to deliver the most forthright criticism of her gymnastics from USA team coordinator Martha Karolyi. "She says I have to be more confident in my face and be more expressive and just, you know, project better," Larson said last weekend after her practice session at All Olympia Gymnastics Center in Los Angeles. As the daughter of two actors, she sees the irony.

BOSTON -- After Chellsie Memmel did a watered-down vault with only one twist as her first event, then took an arena-rattling face plant on a fall during her uneven bars warmup, it seemed as if her Olympic plans had been drawn on a fairy tale map full of wishes instead of reality. Yet no more than an hour later, Memmel, from West Allis, Wis.

Chellsie Memmel, who turns 20 next month, is close friends with Alicia Sacramone, 20, who has fought through her own injury problems over the years. Sacramone winked at Memmel at the end of Thursday's routines. Memmel winked back. It was a knowing exchange between two aching veterans who have spent four years trying to keep a small piece of territory from the little hands and feet of the younger, fresher gymnasts who are always on the way. "I'm so happy for Chellsie," Sacramone said.

BOSTON -- The chase is on. Shawn Johnson held on to her U.S. national championships all-around title Saturday by pounding out eight solid routines over two nights, but Nastia Liukin closed fast and with flash. And the two Americans did nothing to discourage the sense that they are co-favorites to win the Olympic all-around gold medal in August. Johnson, 16, of West Des Moines, Iowa, earned her win with resolute performances on every apparatus and cemented it with her athletic floor routine.

PHILADELPHIA -- Shawn Johnson rumbles across the floor exercise mat like a sparkling bowling ball gaining speed and power until she reaches the corner and throws herself into a sonic boom of flips, twists and a forceful landing. She offers a smile and swings her shiny ponytail. Across the way, Nastia Liukin uncoils her legs and lifts herself onto the uneven bars.

PHILADELPHIA -- Bela Karolyi can't wait. He has watched Chellsie Memmel pull closer to the best of the U.S. -- something unexpected given that she was written off by many women's gymnastics officials, including Karolyi and his wife Martha, the U.S. team coordinator, as recently as two months ago. Going into tonight, the second and final night of the U.S. Olympic trials at the Wachovia Center, 2007 world champion Shawn Johnson is first with 64.