Cheng Fei, one of the few legal contestants from the Chinese team, went first.  She stumbled on the beam and nearly fell, but managed to maintain her balance.  Her dismount had a step, but overall, her performance was strong and had a high difficulty at 6.800.  Her total score after the beam was 15.950.
Li Shanshan [...]

To start, in the draw, Alicia had drawn the short straw and had to go first.  We are not sure how the drawing is done, but it did seem awfully coincidental that Shawn Johnson also drew the short straw in her event.  Going first is always a disadvantage, and both Americans drew the short straw [...]

Nastia Liukin was preparing for her first event, checking her gloves and focusing on the vault. Nastia was born in Moscow and brings Russian excellence to the US Gymnastics squad. Suddenly, she broke into the run towards the vault and burst off the board into a perfect jump sticking the landing with perfection. [...]

America was about to compete against the Chinese “Women’s” Gymnastics Team.  After a brilliant vault, Deng Linlin of China returned to the sidelines to be greeted and congratulated by her teammates.
The American team was nearby, and what was absolutely apparent was that the American team all looked 16.  Most of the Chinese team barely came [...]

A huge surprise and disappointment for the US women’s gymnastics team, Samantha Peszek from McCordsville, Indiana had to sit out the qualification round of the floor exercise due to an ankle injury. This placed the US team at a huge disadvantage. Only four would be able to perform, meaning every performance would count. [...]