Couch Gymnast sat down with a bunch of Team USA’s top athletes during the pre-podium training interview session, and even got to spend a little time hearing team coordinator Martha Karolyi’s impressions on some of these ladies! Here are some of our favorites…

Nastia Liukin on a specialist’s chances at making a five-member team:

“Specialists can’t just do a mediocre bar routine because anybody can do that and they also have two other events. Why risk a gymnast with just two events if she’s not able to shine and be above the bar?”

Nastia Liukin on wanting to ensure a successful comeback:

“We called Classics a rehearsal, but Nationals are still part of the lead-up [to Trials]. It’s about peaking at the right time.”

Nastia Liukin on personal expectations and goals for Nationals:

“I definitely have goals in terms of scores I want to hit. I want to get all of my connections and full difficulty on beam this time, and at the same time, I’m also striving for the 9.0 to 9.5 execution. I guess I’d want the same on bars…a 9.0 would be good for execution. It’s very hard to tell because I haven’t competed it in awhile, so I don’t know how it’s all gonna go down…[laughs] but it’s kind of like riding a bike and I hope it will come back! Really, I’m just hoping to do the same thing I’ve been doing in training.”

Nastia Liukin on her vastly different 2008 and 2012 Olympic selection experiences:

“My experience going into the Olympics in 2008 was a little bit different because at the time, I was at the peak of my career. I wouldn’t say anybody was guaranteed a spot, but I was a lot more confident going into the Olympic Trials knowing that the top two in the All Around would automatically make the team and I felt pretty confident that I could achieve a top two spot. Of course, now going into this one it’s about peaking at the right time but at the same time being good enough and having the start values and execution scores high enough to be considered for one of those five spots, especially as an event specialist where I have to really just show that my scores are above everyone else’s in order to be considered.”

Nastia Liukin on coming back to compete for the first time in three years:

“Being back at Classics felt like the old days. At first I was really nervous and a little out of place, but as soon as I walked into the arena and got up on the beam, even for warm-ups, I felt confident again. I felt a little like the old Nastia, which was a good start.”

Nastia Liukin on life after gymnastics:

“I will be going on the Kellogg’s tour after the Olympic process and hopefully moving to New York to go to NYU [to study Sports Management]. I’m very excited. For the first time I finally feel like I have something waiting for me after gymnastics. After Beijing I think I was a little lost and not sure what I wanted to do and now I feel like I’m in a place where I’m just happy in my life and with what I’m doing and with the goals I’m trying to achieve.”

Bridget Sloan on just enjoying the ride:

“Any team that USA Gymnastics has to pick is always difficult because we could fill probably three or four teams with our National Team. Including juniors. USA is such a strong team and it’s always going to be difficult to make any team, but whether you make it or not, it’s an exciting ride. The memories that you form and the journey that you take, it’s just incredible.”

Bridget Sloan on the importance of hindsight in finding her strengths:

“Having the experience of being on the Olympic team before and now trying again…I do remember some of the things I did in 2008 that I’m going to try to do here. The focus that I had was never to be first in the All Around; it was always to hit four-for-four, clean routines. That’s always what I shoot for. It worked in 2008, it worked in 2009 and in 2010, so I’m just going to keep that attitude in 2012 and hopefully I’ll be in one of those five spots.”

Bridget Sloan on what motivates her when she feels like giving up:

“I think every athlete has been through days where you’re just like, what am I doing!? You’re in the gym, looking around, and you’re just like, you know, ankle tape, shoulder ice, like, WHAT am I going to do?! Those are the days you have to dig deep and find that spark within yourself. A lightbulb clicks when I, like, see that Olympic flag in my gym and I’m like, THAT’S why I’m here. That’s why I’m trying again. Being here [at Nationals] makes you even more motivated. I’m one of those people that [is motivated] when I get in the groove of training with other athletes here…training with Jordyn, training with Aly…and especially Alicia. She’s been one of the biggest mentors to me. She probably doesn’t even know it, but she is an incredible athlete to look up to. Being here and seeing everybody train brings all of that energy and competitiveness back and you’re just like, LET’S DO THIS.”

Bridget Sloan on tearing her foot open in podium training before the 2011 Pan Am Games:

“I did rip my foot open pretty well! I was doing a handspring layout to two feet on beam and I just hit the beam wrong and my two toes, they just split open! We were in Mexico at that time. There was a lot of blood. People said it looked like a death, like it looked like a crime scene. I just added a little excitement to everybody’s day. I’ve always been one of those kids that has a little something wrong and I can always deal with ‘a little something.’ But dealing with eleven stitches in your foot and having to do floor? It’s really challenging. I did bars also and thought that was going to be the worst, and then I got to floor and I was like, okay, floor takes the cake on this one! But I got through it. It wasn’t a great meet for me, but I helped Team USA win gold. When you’re in my position as team captain? That was my goal. I knew I wasn’t going to do the All Around, and I knew I had a chance to make floor finals, but at the same time I wanted to help my team. That’s exactly what I did, and I was actually really happy with my competition.”

Bridget Sloan on why missing Classics won’t affect her performance at Nationals:

“I don’t feel like missing Classics was a disadvantage at all. I always think that being a competitor in gymnastics, you don’t need those extra meets to help build confidence. I am very confident in myself and in my routines. A lot of people probably did think, ‘Oh, she’s out of Classics, what does this mean for Nationals?!’ and in my mind, I was thinking more time for me to train at home, more time for me to get these routines under my belt. Obviously [the experience of] being in front of a crowd helps but here I’m doing all four events, I’m feeling great, and that’s all that matters.”

Bridget Sloan on going with the flow:

“My vault is undecided right now. I’m not really one to have a set plan. I like to go with the flow, so we’ll see what I end up doing. Right now it’ll either be a full or a double depending on how my body feels. This is obviously a huge competition, but having Trials only two weeks away, I really need to watch what I do here and make sure I’m feeling fantastic after this meet so I feel fantastic going into Trials.”

Anna Li on forgetting the pressure and enjoying the experience:

“Coming into Nationals, I just want to have fun, to relax, and just do gymnastics. My routines are easy for me and I know I can hit them whenever I want, so that’s my mentality. There’s been a lot of training here, so it doesn’t feel different from any other year. It just feels routine now. Yeah, it is an Olympic year, but just focusing on the meet right now, on the two days of competition, that’s what’s important.”

Anna Li on training elite after an NCAA career:

“I did elite before NCAA so when I finished at UCLA, I already knew what it took to train at the elite level again. But it still was a big adjustment because in college, you have a whole team behind you and you’re working together with a group of fifteen girls and it’s a lot of fun, while in elite it’s more individual. I try to remember back to college when it was fun and just about gymnastics. I do miss the team atmosphere a lot, but they’re two totally different experiences. I feel like I already had the best experience in 2010 when UCLA won NCAAs and also being part of the World team was an awesome experience in the elite world.”

Anna Li on what she’d like Martha Karolyi to notice:

“I feel like Martha and the Selection Committee saw me as a sort of team leader at Worlds when I was part of a team with a lot of younger girls, but as for here at Nationals, the only thing I want to prove is consistency. We’ve had two days of training, I’ve been pretty consistent throughout, so I just want to continue to show that.”

Alicia Sacramone on tearing her Achilles at World Championships podium training:

“I had Achilles pain leading up to the injury in Japan and that morning, I just knew something felt off. Beam went well, I was still in some pain but I thought, well, whatever. I moved to floor and was doing the second tumbling pass in my routine and I heard this snap…it sounded like plywood. I landed flat back on the floor and I was like, I think I just broke the floor?! [Liang] Chow was over in the corner looking at me, and he was like, ‘Don’t stand up…’ and I was like, oh no. I kind of knew it was going to happen. I was grateful that nothing more got hurt from falling and tearing it like that, but it was a bitter moment, for sure.”

Alicia Sacramone on her quick progression from injury to training:

“Honestly, the Olympics didn’t even cross my mind. I was just like, oh my gosh, this is horrible timing. I’m going to have to go all the way back home with this Achilles; that flight is going to be MISERABLE! But, you know, I cried for like, twenty minutes, got it out of my system, and was like, all right. Brady [Quinn, Sacramone's boyfriend] called, he got my surgery set up, got rehab set up for me…it was hard for me being in Japan with the time difference, everybody was asleep, so trying to set it all up was hard but Brady just took the reins and got it underway. I flew back two days later, had surgery three days later, and was rehabbing four days after it happened. Five months later, I was back in the gym. My doctor didn’t even know. Brady went to see him and he was like, oh, Alicia should be good to go in a couple of weeks, and Brady was like, um, she’s doing everything already…I really worked my butt off to get back. It was not easy, I was not a happy camper most of the time, but it was a really fast recovery.”

Alicia Sacramone on the benefits of being an older gymnast:

“Everyone thinks there’s a certain age limit for gymnastics. I’ve been very lucky to be able to compete for sixteen years now. Going through my third Olympic cycle, it’s been tough, but I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten better. Even just learning how to face the small fires after workouts every day, like taking care of yourself, having to ice, to rest, to take care of your body, which is your instrument. It’s hard, but it’s not impossible.”

Alicia Sacramone on taking time off from training:

“I personally do well when I take time off. Even if I take three to four days off some weeks…the transition is hard for some girls, but I train better afterwards. As you get older, you’re not learning anything else. You’ve been doing these skills for so many years, so just giving your body time to recover, that’s what I need. Taking two years off after Beijing, for me, was awesome.”

Alicia Sacramone on why making this team will be tough:

“The difficulty in making this team has nothing to do with competing against sixteen-year-olds. It has nothing to do with their age. They all do great gymnastics and it’s an honor to compete with them. It’s hard because it’s a five member team. They eliminated a spot and that can play out in many different ways. It’s about finding the perfect five that can complement each other’s flaws and make it work as a unit.”

Alicia Sacramone on the state of her floor routine:

“On floor, I can do all of my tumbling passes, I can do the dance, I can do timers…but I haven’t put anything together. We’re gonna try to push for Trials and see what happens. If I can do it, that’d be great…three events is better than two. But we obviously want my health to be the number one priority, so we’ll see how my body feels.”

Alicia Sacramone justifying a spot for herself on the team:

“I have a lot of experience under my belt. I’ve been to one Olympic Games, I know what it’s like, I can be a good competitor, and I worked really hard to get past this injury, to get where I am today, and to give the Olympics one more shot.”

Alicia Sacramone on trying to make her first Olympic team in 2004:

“I was a hot mess when I was sixteen. I was all over the place. I couldn’t compete for the life of me, I was just lost. I still had to do bars, so that in itself was terrible, and I was terrified. I mean, I didn’t know any better, I didn’t know what to expect, and I’ve definitely come light years since then.”

Alicia Sacramone on nerves:

“I’m not really nervous. I just kind of try to take everything in stride. I think I’ll be nervous to compete since I haven’t competed since Worlds pretty much? Where I didn’t even get to compete, so last year’s Nationals? I’ll be nervous just because I have a new leg, I want to see if it’s fully functional, but competition wise? Eh.”

Kyla Ross on what she wants Martha to see:

“I’m definitely working towards the Olympic team, which is my big goal. I really want to contribute in the All Around, but I think my strengths are vault, bars, and beam, so that’s what I want to show Martha here. It’s the same Visa Championships as every other year, but with the Olympics coming up it’s obviously more of a big deal. All I want to do is go out and have a solid meet. I’ve been training routines as usual with maybe a little more emphasis on cleaning them up, so hopefully that consistency will help me have a good meet.”

Sabrina Vega on why she’s such a great dancer:

“I’ve never taken a dance class in my life! It comes naturally, I guess…from the Hispanic background!”

Sabrina Vega on her hopes at Nationals:

“Worlds were amazing. It’s awesome to have a World Championships under your belt before the Olympic Games. It’s kind of similar…big arena, so many teams, so it definitely helped with my confidence going into this year. This is my fourth Nationals, so it kind of feels normal because I’m so used to it, but because it’s an Olympic year, there’s a lot more tension in here. I do want to make the team, qualify to Trials and all of that, but my main focus is to just have fun, be relaxed and confident, and do what I know and love.”

Martha Karolyi on Nastia Liukin:

“We are expecting her to be able to compete a bar routine. Then for the Trials, we will expect one step up…say, a very good bar routine. I don’t want to specify a start value. I would just really like to see her be able to compete a bar routine and then a beam routine that is even more precise than it was at the Classic. At the beginning of the year, I wasn’t sure if there was the possibility for her to come back because she didn’t attend the training camps. We set certain requirements for the training camps…we wanted them to verify at least two routines and she let me know through email that she wasn’t up to the requirements and had to decline. I wasn’t sure it would be possible. But I can tell you I was pleasantly surprised from what I saw at the Classic because her competitiveness stayed the same. You can usually tell, because beam is the most nerve-wracking event. So I was pleased with that, and I also saw her training on bars, and I thought, ‘well, it might be a possibility.’ I’m still at this stage…I’m not sure.”

Martha Karolyi on Gabby Douglas:

“I hope she will have a good competition. We saw her training really well, and certainly our expectations right now are that they start to show that they consistently hit routines. As we think about her start values and the scores she could get, they are very high, absolutely. So now we want to see that she handles these situations and that she’s able to perform those routines and that she is successful, and then her confidence level will get bigger and bigger. That’s what we want. We want all of these girls on the team to be very confident and very sure [of themselves] and feeling secure that they’re able to perform what they’ve prepared for.”

Martha Karolyi on McKayla Maroney:

“We need her to do more than one event. Certainly vault is a big help for our team, but I would like to see her doing a strong floor routine. If she would make the team, we would expect her to contribute to the score on that particular event. We would also like to see the other two events, bars and beam, to be done with a little bit higher confidence than she did at the Classic.”

Martha Karolyi on Bridget Sloan:

“I really saw almost nothing of her training…just one auxiliary training today, when people weren’t doing much. But she looked fit to me. In training today I will see how she is able to connect the routines. She is one of the gymnast who has a good start value and very good technique on bars. She scored very well internationally before, but that was before. I would like to see that she is well-enough prepared so in two more weeks at the Olympic Trials she’ll really be performing at the highest level.”

Photo by Nadia Boyce