Alicia Sacramone will Return to Competition in next month's CoverGirl Classic

Alicia Sacramone will Return to Competition in next month's CoverGirl Classic

Jun 9, 2010 by Anne Phillips
Alicia Sacramone will Return to Competition in next month's CoverGirl Classic

   

2008 Olympic Silver medalist Alicia Sacramone has not competed since the Beijing Olympics where she had a disappointing team finals competition and narrowly missed a medal in the vault final. She announced her retirement from gymnastics after Beijing but was later inspired to give it another shot in hopes of  recreating a new, happy ending to her career.  

Alicia returned to her gym with Coach Mihai Brestyan in September and has been quietly training since then. However, she's just announced that she plans to make her comeback next month at the 2010 CoverGirl Classic and spoke to Universalsports.com about her plans: 

"I will be at Classics and definitely shooting for VISA Championships in August. I know a lot of people are hearing mixed things about our Olympic Team, who is coming back, who is not, but I'm for sure training," Sacramone told UniversalSports.com.

"I'm a little bit nervous because it has been so long, but at the same time, competing is one of my favorite things. I'm excited, nervous, and eager to get that first competition out of the way because I feel like I'm a little bit rusty. I need to get back into the groove," Sacramone said.

"The beam was the easiest thing to get back. Vault was a little bit more difficult because I had shoulder surgery, so getting the strength back to support myself was a little bit hard. I'm working on floor, but I don't know if that's going to happen this year. Maybe next year, we'll see."

"Right now it's one year at a time. Staying healthy, staying happy, and loving my training is most important to me right now. I already went through the hardships and now it's more fun for me because I have nothing to lose."

Because she's been out of competition since 2008, Alicia will have to qualify to compete at the US Championships in August. In order to do so she needs to total a 30.00 on her 2 events, averaging a 15.00 score on both beam and vault. Qualifying scores can be attained at national elite qualifiers, the Classic, or on competition surface at a National team training camp. 

Here's a look back at Alicia's event final vaults in Beijing: 

Click here to Watch more Alicia Sacramone videos on Gymnastike

Click here to read the full article on universalsports.com, or read more on the Gymnastics Examiner