Sacramone shows perfect form and grit in comeback bid
March 22 (Reuters) - At first glance Alicia Sacramone, America's most decorated gymnast, looks a picture of perfection posing with her back arched and muscles taut in ESPN Magazine's Body Issue.
There are no noticeable flaws in the revealing black-
The captain of the U.S. women's gymnastics team that was expected to strike gold in China instead returned home with silver after Sacramone fumbled her mount
and-white photo but, in a sport where there are no longer perfect 10s, look closely and the scars are there from four years ago when Sacramone was exposed in a much more personal way at the Beijing Olympics.
The captain of the U.S. women's gymnastics team that was expected to strike gold in China instead returned home with silver after Sacramone fumbled her mount onto the balance beam and botched her floor routine.
Nearly four years on the mistakes cannot be airbrushed away but the chance to wash over those unpleasant images with a happy ending to her Olympic story was enough to pull Sacramone back to the gym in a bid to qualify for the 2012 London Summer Games.
"Beijing didn't go the way I planned and I would have liked to have performed a little bit better personally," Sacramone told Reuters. "After Beijing that is what stuck in my mind. I want a better Olympic finish.
"A silver medal for the team is phenomenal but as an athlete we are super competitive and we want to win." From swimmers like Australian Ian Thorpe to wrestlers such as American Rulon Gardner, the lure of Olympic gold has proven hard to resist. But the road back for gymnasts is perhaps one of the toughest and most heartbreaking of all.