Sloan in the spotlight at Sears Centre
After hanging out with Oprah, seeing the White House and hobnobbing with Peyton Manning, it's no surprise Bridget Sloan's return to the gym was a little rough.
Nothing like an invitation to the American Cup to get a gymnast back on track.
The American Cup, which takes place today at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, is one of the most prestigious international meets, with past winners including Olympic champions Nadia Comaneci, Mary Lou Retton and Nastia Liukin.
Win it, and Sloan becomes one to watch this season - and beyond.
"I like getting back into routine shape. I feel like '09 worlds will be a whole lot easier because I'll have routines since February," Sloan said. "That's relatively early, but hopefully early will help to my advantage in the later competitions."
Fellow Olympians Rebecca Downie of Britain and Koko Tsurumi of Japan also will compete. And all eyes will be on Jordyn Wieber, the reigning U.S. junior champ. Wieber won't be eligible for the world championships until 2011, so this is an early opportunity to show her off in front of international judges.
"It's a major step for me to becoming a senior. It's kind of like a debut meet for me," Wieber said. "I'm just trying to put myself out there and get more experience in competitions."
The men's field, meanwhile, is stacked with five Olympians, including all-around bronze medalist Benoit Caranobe of France and Joey Hagerty, part of the bronze-medal U.S. squad. World silver medalist Fabian Hambuechen of Germany is back, and reigning national champion David Sender is competing in his first major meet since spraining his ankle at Olympic trials.
Sloan went to the Beijing Games as the youngest and least heralded member of the U.S. team. She only turned 16 in June - Alicia Sacramone and Chellsie Memmel were both 20 - and not only did she not have any medals from the world championships, she'd never even been on a world or Pan American Games team. Sloan was the alternate on the squad that won the gold at the 2007 world championships.
But she made quite an impression in Beijing, emerging as a rock-solid competitor after teammate Samantha Peszek sprained her ankle right before the preliminaries. All four of her scores counted in prelims, and she had the 11th-best overall score.
She only competed on vault in the team finals, but she was solid. The Americans wound up with the silver behind China.