Grabbing back on

Samantha Peszek might be more famous for what she didn't do at the 2008 Beijing Olympics than what she did.

Minutes before the women's gymnastics team preliminary round, Peszek was warming up in the back gym of Beijing's National Indoor Stadium when she heard a pop in her ankle.

"I wasn't even worried about myself or my ankle or anything," Peszek said. "I was just worried about my team."

Team USA was already shorthanded from an injury to Chellsie Memmel, and now would have to tweak its lineups at the last minute. Peszek, who was expected to compete in all four events, scored a respectable 14.800 in the uneven bars, but that was the beginning and end of her Olympics experience.

After the last-minute lineup changes, Team USA overcame early jitters and qualified second for the team finals. Three days later at the team finals, a gutsy performance from Team USA wasn't enough to hold off the strong Chinese team in front of their prideful fans. Team USA ended up with the silver.

Now, 11 months later, any sour memories from the Beijing Olympics are seemingly distant history for the 17-year-old gymnast. Her voice is filled with confidence and excitement as she talks about her busy summer and the future of her gymnastics career.

This year, she has already recovered from her ankle injury and a subsequent knee surgery and has verbally committed to compete at UCLA starting in 2010. She also is preparing for the CoverGirl Classic, her first competition since the Olympics, set for July 24 to 26 in Des Moines, Iowa, and for the 2009 Visa Championships, August 12 to 15 in Dallas.

"I can't wait to go and see how far I've come since the Games," Peszek said. "I feel like I am going to come back at Visa Championships and do really well hopefully, and just kind of prove what I didn't get to in Beijing."

Among those expecting big things from Peszek at the Visa Championships is Olympic teammate and good friend Bridget Sloan. And nobody has seen Peszek more in the past few months. After the 2008 Olympics, Peszek's longtime coach Peter Zhao retired and she moved across town to Sharp's Gymnastics Academy, where Sloan trains.

"She has always been a competitive athlete and she has that drive in her, so it wasn't hard for her to come back after that injury," Sloan said.

It's not common that two Olympic-caliber gymnasts get to train at the same gym, and the former Olympians are taking advantage of the opportunity.

"I've never trained with someone at my level before and neither has she," Peszek said. "So it's been a really good switch and we really push each other, which is a great thing for both of us."

Sloan agreed.

"We have different strengths and we push each other positively," she said.

For teenage athletes who dedicate much of their lives to training, having a partner with the same dedication helps keep the girls motivated during long days in the gym.

"If I were in conditioning before practice, if she does an extra routine maybe I will too," Peszek said. "It's really good because you're doing routines at the same time and we travel together and we go to the same meets so it's really good to have someone that knows exactly what you're going through."

Neither Peszek nor Sloan, 17, have ruled out competing toward the 2012 Olympics in London, but neither are actively thinking about it just yet either. The world championships in October will be held at the 2012 Olympic venue in London, so Peszek and Sloan could get a firsthand glimpse of the Games.

"I've thought about it, but it's a long time away," Peszek said. "So I'm just playing it by ear and seeing what happens this year before making any long-term commitments like that."

For now, Peszek is just trying to enjoy life as she enters her senior year of high school. For as much as she enjoyed competing in the Olympics and appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Peszek enjoys being with her longtime classmates in Indianapolis just as much.

"I try to go to as many high school functions as I can," she said. "Baseball, football games; I'm really into the whole high school scene."

After one more year at Cathedral High School, Peszek plans to head west to Los Angeles where she will compete for the UCLA Bruins and study either communications or optometry. Of course, she says she will be open to any opportunities in Hollywood-her Olympic teammate Shawn Johnson recently won ABC's "Dancing With The Stars''-but that's not the reason she picked UCLA.

"I've always loved L.A. life and I took my unofficial (visit), so I saw everything and just fell in love with the whole area and the coach and all the girls," she said. "It just kind of had the whole package for me, with school and the academics being very good as well."

Sloan, who will be a junior, hasn't decided whether she will follow Peszek and go to college or take a professional route. But she is confident that her new training partner made a good choice.

"She definitely has her head on straight with school and everything," Sloan said. "She went to UCLA because of gymnastics but also because it's right for her. She has all of her priorities right."

The two gymnasts have one more year of training together at Sharp's, but they don't expect to drift apart. With Facebook and Twitter helping out, the girls on the 2008 Olympic team say they are still in contact almost daily.

"I'm kind of sad that she's going to college now because we have gotten really close," Sloan said. "But I'll just have to go to L.A. and meet her now!"

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc. Chrös McDougall is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.