09. August 2005
Indianapolis / USA
Artistic Gymnastics
2005 Visa Championships boasts strong women’s field
us.gymnastics:--- — The Visa Championships 2005, USA Gymnastics’ national championships for men’s and women’s artistic and rhythmic gymnastics and also the national team trials for acrobatic gymnastics will held from August 10 to 13 at the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. It is the first major competition in preparation for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.....
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2005 U.S. Classic champion Nastia Liukin of Plano, Texas, 2005 U.S. Classic silver-medalist Jana Bieger of Coconut Creek, Fla., 2004 World Cup Finals uneven bars champion Chellsie Memmel of West Allis, Wis., and 2004 World Cup Final vault champion Alicia Sacramone of Winchester, Mass., headline the women’s field for the 2005 Visa Championships2005.
In addition to Memmel and Sacramone, other senior national team members in the field are:
Annie DiLuzio of Folsom, Calif., the 2005 World Cup vault silver medalist; Kelly Fee of St. Charles, Ill., the 2004 U.S. Classic floor exercise bronze medalist; Brittney Magee of Arlington, Texas, who at the 2005 North American International Tri-Meet competed on the gold-medal-winning team, as well as earned a silver in the uneven bars; Marcia Newby of Virginia Beach, Va., 2004 U.S. Classic all-around silver medalist; Sarah Shire of Sweet Springs, Mo., the 2004 DTB World Cup vault silver medalist; and Melanie Sinclair of Orlando, Fla., the 2005 American Cup vault silver medalist.
Artistic gymnastics takes place at Conseco Fieldhouse, with rhythmic gymnastics and acrobatic gymnastics slated for the Indiana Convention Center.
Nastasia Liukin, the 2003-04 junior national all-around champion, won the all-around at the 2005 U.S. Classic on July 23, becoming the first American to perform a quad twist in the floor exercise during competition.
Nastasia Liukin
In addition to her back-to-back junior national all-around titles, Liukin was the junior national champion on the uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise in 2003-04.
She competes for the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy and is coached by her father, Valeri, who won four medals for the Soviet Union at the 1988 Olympic Games.
Liukin, who has been on the junior national team for three years, is competing at the senior elite level for the first time this year.
Jana Bieger - daughter of the former German Olympian Andrea Bieger (1976) - who competes for Boca Twisters, is also in her first year at the senior level.
At the U.S. Classic, she also placed second on the uneven bars and third on the balance beam. Earlier this year, she competed in dual meets with Great Britain and Switzerland, where the team won the gold medal at both and she placed second and third, respectively, in the all-around. As a junior, Jana was first in vault and third all-around at last year’s Visa Championships. Bieger, a member of the junior national team for two years, is coached by her mother, Andrea.
Chellsie Memmel won the uneven bars at the 2004 World Cup Final and was an alternate on the 2004 Olympic Team. At the 2003 World Championships, Memmel was the co-champion in the uneven bars and a member of the team that won the gold medal. Earlier that year, she won the all-around gold medal at the Pan American Games. Memmel, a member of the national team for six years, trains at M&M Gymnastics and is coached by her father, Andrew.
Alicia Sacramone, who has been on the senior national team for two years, placed third in the all-around at the 2005 U.S. Classic. She won the gold medal in the vault and floor exercise at the 2005 World Cup in Ghent and won the vault at the 2005 American Cup and 2005 World Cup in Paris. In 2004, she took first in the vault at the World Cup Finals and the Pacific Alliance. Sacramone is coached by Mihai and Sylvia Brestyan at Brestyan's American Gymnastics in Ashland, Mass.
