TCG spoke with the Team USA women in the mixed zone following the first day of competition at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials. Here’s a bit of what they had to say…

“I feel good with my performance. I’m proud of myself and the other girls and think we showed consistency. There were some mistakes here and there but right now isn’t the time to be perfect. I don’t even think Sunday will be perfect, but I hope we’re a little more consistent.” – Aly Raisman on her general feelings about day one of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials

“If I could redo my floor routine, I would…I wish I didn’t step out of bounds. I’m kind of a perfectionist with that. I also wish I could have connected my front pike on beam better. But I’m only human and no one’s perfect. I have to make mistakes to learn from them. Overall I was pleased with my floor routine, though. I tried to be more expressive and I just had a lot of fun with it, which really is the most important thing.” - Aly Raisman on how she felt about her performance

“No one will be adding any more upgrades. I haven’t upgraded since just after World Championships, just because there’s really no time to get and then perfect the skills.” - Aly Raisman on upgrades

“I’m happy with tonight’s bar routine. I think I can obviously improve on it a little bit more but I’m getting a little more comfortable with competing which is really important. I’m really happy with my second part but I do think I need to improve a little more on the first part. Normally in training, my first is actually better than my second. Compared to last year, though, I feel bars is much better as a whole. Even in the gym I feel like I’m getting more consistent. At home I do about seven bar routines everyday and I’m hitting them. Mihai’s been really pushing me there, timing me in between routines to get the endurance, and I feel a lot more comfortable. I feel like the less I think about it while doing it, the better it is.” - Aly Raisman on her bars

“I was definitely bummed about falling on vault, my last event. I was hoping to finish strong. I feel like I had a pretty good competition going into vault. I had some wobbles on beam, but I thought bars and floor were really strong, but vault…that was the sad part. I think I need a better block off of the table and a better rotation. Besides vault, I think my day went pretty well. I was really happy with my bar routine and my floor was pretty good for me. I just want to come back strong on vault on Sunday.” - Kyla Ross on her performance

“Bars and beam are definitely the events I need to hit. If I make the team, they’re the events I’d be most likely to do in a team final. If I get my vault stronger, that’ll be another key event for me.” - Kyla Ross on what Martha Karolyi wants to see from her

“Before Sunday, I definitely have to work on my technique on vault, for sure. I need to improve on my block and rotation so I can come back and do it well in finals.” - Kyla Ross on what she needs to work on

“I’ve been working so hard. Hopefully coming out and being consistent on Sunday will help prove my case to Martha.” - Kyla Ross on what she thinks about her Olympic chances

“Oh my gosh, I LOVE the crowd. I walked in and shock went right through me. There were so many people and the crowd was just SO loud. I was so thrilled to have everyone there watching the meet, but especially my friends and family. I had HUGE support behind me and was so happy that all of my teammates could come, and that my family could come watch me. A lot of my family from all over the country came.” - Kyla Ross on the crowd

“Me, my coaches, and Martha all decided that I should do the 2.5 [on vault] because I was hitting it in training all week, and just today, unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as the days before.” - Kyla Ross on the decision to risk the Amanar over her safer DTY

“I think I can improve on some things for Sunday, but all in all, I showed consistency on my two events and that’s all I’m really hoping for.” - Alicia Sacramone on her day

“I think I need to continue to show consistency and try to work a little bit more on my landings on vault and work for some more connections on beam.” - Alicia Sacramone on what she hopes to fix before Sunday

“A lot of these girls, it’s their first BIG competition, and I think…it’s nerve-wracking. It was nerve-wracking for me four years ago, so I totally get where they’re coming from. I try to tell them just to have fun and calm down, but it’s easier said than done.” - Alicia Sacramone on the mistakes from some of her teammates

“We have circle time and we do a quick prayer and the older seniors, me and Nastia, just try to talk to the younger girls, like, try to calm them down, tell them to try to enjoy this as much as possible; it’s gonna fly by and if you over-stress, it’s just gonna hinder your gymnastics. You can be so much better if you’re enjoying it.” - Alicia Sacramone on the team “pow wows” right before coming out into the arena

“I get to have fun this time. In 2008 I was so stressed and focused on making the team that I didn’t enjoy the process or the crowd or having my friends and family here. I love that I get to have fun. It’s easier for me to compete this time than it was last time.” - Alicia Sacramone on how 2012 compares to 2008

“I’ve been doing gymnastics for seventeen years. I’ve had highs and lows, the good, the bad, the ugly, and I honestly have done everything in my power to get back to where I am today. If that’s not good enough, it’s all I can do. It’s not like I’ll have regrets being like, I didn’t work my hardest. I literally did everything in my power to be here and I’m just happy to be able to compete and be functioning on two legs.” – Alicia Sacramone on preparing mentally for bad news on Sunday

“For sure, I’m very proud of getting back to this level. I think a lot of people were skeptical of me coming back. An Achilles rupture is pretty hard to come back from. I lucked out with great trainers, great doctors, great post-op, and I’m allowed to be here nine months out of surgery.” - Alicia Sacramone on her progress since being injured

“I pouted and cried for twenty minutes and felt sorry for myself, but then I was like, okay, time to move on. I’m gonna go home and have surgery and just try to get back as fast as possible. I never thought [the injury] was going to be the end. I tried to keep a positive attitude throughout the whole thing, and I mean, it’s worked pretty well so far!” - Alicia Sacramone on her post-injury attitude

“I try to think of all my competitions as practice and all of my practices as competitions. It kind of helps me stay grounded and not get too anxious and hyper when I’m about to compete. Sometimes I get nervous because I think maybe something didn’t go well in a warm-up, but I just try to make it through and think of everything as practice.” - Elizabeth Price on staying calm in competitions

“My favorite moment of today was how I felt after everything was over. I was able to look back and see that today was a pretty good competition, and I can learn from the mistakes I made and see how I can do better on Sunday.” - Elizabeth Price on her best prelims moment

“I definitely think today’s performance helped push me forward in my attempt to make the team. This has been a great experience and it’s a pretty big step in my gymnastics career, being able to make it to Trials and then doing this well at Trials. It’s been great.” - Elizabeth Price on her quest to make the 2012 team

“I think that I’d like to get my score higher on bars and beam, get my connections more consistent…I think that will really help.” - Elizabeth Price on what she wants to fix for Sunday

“It is a little difficult being a first year senior, but the fact that I made it this far is a pretty big accomplishment and I think that gets my name out there enough.” – Elizabeth Price on being a first year senior

“Wow, I just found that out! I try not to think about scores too much; I don’t wanna think ‘okay, now I’m in fourth, now third.’ I just try to do the best I can and hopefully that’ll be enough to make it out, possibly on top.” - Elizabeth Price on finding out she finished in fourth place, and not focusing on scores during the competition

“I wasn’t too nervous today. Maybe it hasn’t hit me yet, but I was just happy to be here. But I do plan to come out here on Sunday and just do better.” - McKayla Maroney on Trials nerves

“I really try not to think like, my vault should be able to excuse mistakes elsewhere. I want to be known as a gymnast who can go in and if they need me, I can do all four events. I don’t use vault as like, oh I can fall on these two events. I always try to do my best on all of the other ones.” - McKayla Maroney on not relying on vault to pull her through

“I wasn’t worried about being injured or anything on floor. I just really wanted to hit that routine because vault and floor are the most important things for me to hit if I want to be on that Olympic team.” - McKayla Maroney on her floor routine

“I don’t know if I can blame [my time away due to injury] for tonight. I think it definitely could mess you up a little bit mentally because you’re not in the gym as long and you don’t have as much training under your belt. It definitely can make a difference but I can’t actually say anything bad about it because I’m just really happy that I healed and I could come back in a week from that. I’m thankful.” - McKayla Maroney on missing a week of training and how it affected her

“The last couple of weeks were stressful and intense. I was kind of worried about that because if I wasn’t able to compete, my whole dream of going to the Olympics would have been crushed. I didn’t accept it in my brain, so I didn’t even want to think that way. It was hard to even accept.” - McKayla Maroney on the injury on top of stress

“I’m pretty happy with what I did on floor and vault because those are the things I really needed to hit. But I want to come back on Sunday and do much better on bars and beam because it’s really important to be consistent on everything if you want to be considered an Olympic athlete, you know? It’s really important to have all four just in case they needed me on anything. I really want to be able to provide them with that.” - McKayla Maroney on how she felt about her competition as a whole

“I don’t know if my bars and beam falls motivated me on floor. I think I wanted to hit that routine either way because I just came back from a concussion and I didn’t have the greatest routine at Visas either, the first day. I was hoping to hit a good one at Visas on Sunday, but that didn’t happen! But it needed to happen today. I definitely had motivation just overall.” - McKayla Maroney on why she thinks she hit such a strong floor routine

“I’ve been practicing [my full twisting DLO] for quite awhile now. I started at the beginning of this year trying to put it in my routine and gradually started doing it full time.” - Jordyn Wieber on her extra bit of bars difficulty

“It was a good feeling to put in an upgrade for the first time and then hit it.” - Jordyn Wieber on sticking her bars dismount

“I looked for my family but I couldn’t find them! It was the first time I couldn’t find them in the crowd, but I know they were there and I could hear them cheering so that was exciting and I was glad that they could be here to watch this and share this experience with me.” - Jordyn Wieber on having her family in San Jose

“My main goal is just to always go out and compete like I train. I just try to be confident and hit four strong routines. I try to just stay relaxed and not let my nerves get to me. If I stay relaxed I can go to the next event and just focus on what I need to do.” - Jordyn Wieber on her attitude for competitions

“It was probably not the best that I had hoped for. It was a little disappointing. But just being able to be here after not competing for three years…I would have never thought in 2008 that if someone told me I’d be competing at the 2012 Olympic Trials…I would have said no way. Just to be here is a huge accomplishment for myself. But of course, that’s not the ultimate. I would have loved to do a lot better but you move on and there’s still one more day on Sunday.” - Nastia Liukin on how she was feeling after competing on Friday

“I feel like I had a good bar routine up until the dismount. That was the hardest part, because it felt like it was going so much better than I had done at the Visa Championships but I just kind of ran out of steam a little bit. It is what it is, and it’s time to move on.” - Nastia Liukin on her bar routine

“I’m pretty much like, what just happened!? Disappointment, obviously. It’s just…you don’t really know what to think at that moment. There’s not much going through your mind. It’s just like, what!? Then it’s just clear and you look around and there’s fans screaming and there’s not much to say between the athletes, the coaches, or anybody. It’s just tough. But you move on.” - Nastia Liukin on what was going through her mind as she sat her dismount

“It definitely makes it easier to have my dad here. I think I’ve always been very close with my dad and he’s always been the one to keep encouraging me to never give up, and that’s what he told me today. He told me I had to move on, and do a good beam routine.” - Nastia Liukin on having her dad as her coach during competitions

“Obviously I hope to do a better bar routine on Sunday. And a better beam routine. It was a little shaky, especially towards the end. But I think…the team’s gonna be determined on Sunday and whether or not I’m on that team, I’m just glad that I gave it a shot. I never wanted to think ‘what if?’ I know I can either walk away or continue walking, knowing that I gave it a shot.” - Nastia Liukin on what she hopes for Sunday

“My two strongest events are bars and beam. My All Around days were the best in 2008 when I won the All Around gold at the Olympics. It’s definitely tough doing all four events, so I thought it would definitely be easier on my body to just do my two strongest events. The girls right now are so strong on vault and floor, where I wasn’t necessarily be as strong as they would be and are. If there would be anywhere that I could help the team, it would have been with a good bar routine and a good beam routine.” - Nastia Liukin on her two best events and why she doesn’t do the All Around

“Life is definitely bright ahead, no matter what happens on Sunday. I’m really looking forward to what the future holds.” - Nastia Liukin on a bright future with or without London 2012

“I don’t necessarily feel that being a big name in gymnastics comes with a lot of pressure to compete. In 2008 I walked away from the Olympic Games checking many goals and dreams off of my list. This is all just extra. This isn’t, for me, anything personal. This was about hoping to help the team in any way that I could. I don’t feel the pressure of living up to those expectations because I’m four years older and not really at the peak of my career anymore. Those days are a little bit past me now. It’s just an honor to walk out on the floor and hear the thousands and thousands of people cheering for me.” - Nastia Liukin on expectations and pressure

Article by Lauren Hopkins
Photo by Gregory Bull/AP