Phil Sheridan: American gymnasts come up golden

LONDON - Jordyn Wieber was Kerri Strug in reverse.

To win the first gold medal for Team USA since 1996, Wieber and her four best friends didn't need a dramatic final moment like Strug's sprained-ankle vault landing in Atlanta. Instead, Wieber started the competition off with a terrific, confidence-boosting vault and the American team never looked back.

"I watched that vault, and she took it, and I was like, 'Yesssssss!' " vault specialist McKayla Maroney said. "Then Gabby [Douglas] went and she stuck it, and I was like, 'Yessssss!' "

Wieber's tone-setting performance was all the more powerful for two reasons. Like Strug, she is injured, competing on a bruised heel for so long, her coach says it's probably a stress fracture by now.

More pressing than that, though, was Wieber's bruised heart. The defending world champion came into these Olympics as one of the athletes expected to shine brightest. And then, on Sunday, she failed to qualify for the all-around competition. Wieber had her dream shattered and then, 48 hours later, had to compete in the biggest meet of her young life.

"I was pretty disappointed," Wieber said, a fresh gold medal providing considerable comfort. "I knew I had to pull myself together for this team. Getting this gold medal was also a goal of mine, so I knew I had to pull myself together."

Competitive pixies are not wired to dwell on the negative or wallow in self-doubt. They would make terrible sports writers. No matter how she was asked Tuesday, Wieber replied by acknowledging her unhappiness but quickly shifting to the happy ending portion of the fairy tale.

But the truth was, she was crushed. Wieber finished fifth among all competitors in the qualifying meet. But Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman outscored her, and only two gymnasts from each nation are able to advance.

"She didn't have a bad day," said John Geddert, Wieber's coach. "Two of her teammates had great days."

Geddert revealed that the heel injury was affecting Wieber's ability to perform some of the crucial connecting elements in her routines. It also made landing painful. So Wieber's stellar vault and smooth landing to open Tuesday's competition was every bit as significant as Strug's dramatic, gold-clinching vault in '96.

No one had to carry Wieber off the floor, but her teammates carried her through the shock of Sunday's qualifying disappointment. Maroney was the one who cut through the fog.

"McKayla was really helpful," Wieber said. "She gave me a pep talk, and that really helped me. At first I just had to stay to myself and kind of mentally turn it around. We only had one day between prelims and finals, so I had to turn it around pretty fast. I just stayed in my own little bubble and got refocused."

The coaches had Wieber go first because of her poise and experience. It worked. She was tearing down the runway before the arena announcer was finished introducing her.

"I was ready to go at that point," Wieber said. Douglas followed by getting remarkably high in the air and landing perfectly. That brought up Maroney, who was chosen for the team over Allentown Parkette Elizabeth Price just for her vaulting prowess. She made that decision look good, posting a 16.233, by far the highest score of the day.

The United States was never seriously challenged after that. The Chinese team, which won the gold in Beijing in 2008, had disastrous balance beam and floor scores. The Russians were hanging in, but struggled on vault. When two of the Russians bombed on the floor exercise, it was over. The United States had to average a little more than 10 points each on the floor to clinch gold.

They did much better than that. Knowing the gold was in hand, the Americans watered down their routines a bit. But they delivered them with enormous energy and style.

After Aly Raisman finished the final routine, the Americans gathered by the podium. They hugged and wiped tears and hugged a little more. Then they stood in a row, watching for the final scores to be posted on the arena screen.

For drama, it wasn't quite Strug's final vault in Atlanta, but the pure joy in their faces was nearly as moving. These are teenage girls who spend countless, grueling hours working and training and hurting in pursuit of this dream. They are the elite among thousands who work and train and never quite reach this level.

They earned this. They deserved it. They seized the defining moment in all of their lives.

"We just tried to treat it like just any competition," Wieber said.

They didn't. Not really. They treated it like the Olympic Games, and they were pure gold.