By Scott Bregman
Podium photo by Greg Long
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When Alicia Sacramone steps onto the competition floor at the 2011 Visa Championships in Saint Paul, Minn., it will be her ninth time participating in the event, a streak dating back to 2002 and only interrupted in 2009. She took a break after the 2008 Olympic Games and Sacramone announced her intent to return to competitive gymnastics at the 2009 Visa Championships. Now in her third quadrennium at the elite level, Sacramone has the experience of a seasoned veteran and a maturity that says she has been here before.

The 23-year-old, Boston native is calm, relaxed and supremely confident, often offering a laugh when she talks about her training schedule, her work with Children's Hospital Boston and her ability to a make a 'mean' chicken parmesan.

But listening to Alicia Sacramone makes one thing clear: her approach to training leading up to the London Olympics is very different than it was in the lead up to Beijing and certainly than it was in her attempt to make the 2004 Athens team. This time around, she trains only once a day, still under the watchful eye of longtime coach Mihai Brestyan at Brestyan's American Gymnastics - coming into the gym around 8:30 a.m. and leaving whenever she accomplishes her program for the day. Instead of the pounding of repetition after repetition, Sacramone now relies on how her body is feeling and what she wants to accomplish to determine her workout.

"When I was younger, Mihai had to struggle with me all the time to try to make me do [my program]," the nine-time World medalist admitted. "And now, it's a little bit easier because I'm doing gymnastics for myself."

Her relationship with Brestyan is dramatically different. Sacramone speaks of a newfound partnership.

"We can work on a really professional basis. We have mutual respect for each other now. I can talk to him and say, 'I don't think this is going to work, why don't we try doing this?' It's a lot more productive," Sacramone said.

Sacramone and Brestyan bonded over their shared experience in Beijing - the first Olympic experience for both athlete and coach. And though Sacramone's experience in Beijing may not have gone according to plan, she has come to terms with her experience at the Games.

"[Mihai and I] were both really stressing out about [the Olympics]," Sacramone reflected. "Once we made it there and we had the experience we did, we just said, 'This is what it is - it's not anything bigger in our minds than we should have made it.'"

Time has given Sacramone perspective on Beijing, and Beijing has, in turn, given Sacramone motivation. Motivation that was cemented when she became just the second American woman in history to win the World vault title at the 2010 World Championships - the third World gold of her career to go along with her team gold medal in 2007, a moment she calls her most special in gymnastics, and her individual floor exercise title in 2005. For Sacramone, her 2010 victory, which tied her at nine with fellow American greats Shannon Miller and Nastia Liukin for most career World Championships medals, gave her the final push to fully commit to the London Olympic Games.

"I was a little bit hesitant when I first started; I didn't know what the outcome of last year would be," she said. "I think it was a lot better than anyone intended," Sacramone added with a laugh.

As the uncertainty of the 2012 Olympics looms, so too does the question of what comes after Sacramone finally moves on from competitive gymnastics.

After leaving Brown University to focus fulltime on her training leading into the 2008 Olympic Games, the superstar has two years left to finish college, knows she wants to stay involved in the sport that has been her life for so long and has her eye on one day owning her own business.

"I love fashion," Sacramone said. "I want to get into that industry - I'd like to have a boutique and maybe design some of my own clothes and accessories."

No matter what path she follows after London, Sacramone has already accomplished enough to ensure gymnastics immortality.

And it seems destined that whatever Sacramone touches will turn to gold.