© FIG Photo
BEIJING, Aug. 17, 2008 – Four U.S. gymnasts will compete in today’s individual event finals at the 2008 Olympic Games, held at the National Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China. For the women, Shawn Johnson of West Des Moines, Iowa, and Nastia Liukin of Parker, Texas, are in the floor exercise finals, and Alicia Sacramone of Winchester, Mass., is in the vault finals. For the men, Alexander Artemev of Highlands Ranch, Colo., will compete on pommel horse.
Johnson, Liukin and Sacramone won the team silver medal earlier in the Olympic Games, and Liukin and Johnson claimed the gold and silver medals, respectively, in the women’s all-around. Artemev will look to add an individual medal to his bronze medal from the team competition.
Each of these athletes has already won world medals in addition to their Olympic medals.
- Liukin leads with nine career world medals, four gold and five silver, from three World Championships.
- Sacramone has seven career world medals, two gold, three silver and two bronze, also won over three different World Championships.
- Johnson won three gold medals at the 2007 World Championships.
- In 2006, Artemev placed third on the pommel horse at the World Championships and became the first U.S. male gymnast to win a world pommel horse medal since 1979.
At the 2007 World Championships, Johnson won the floor exercise and Sacramone earned a bronze medal on vault. Artemev made the individual event finals on pommel horse, finishing sixth.
The individual event finals run from Aug. 17-19 and are held at 6 p.m. local Beijing time. Liukin is in the uneven bars finals on Aug. 18, as well as the balance beam finals on Aug. 19 along with Johnson. Liukin is on track to tie the U.S. gymnastics record of five Olympic medals at one Olympics currently held by Shannon Miller, who claimed five (two silver and three bronze) at the 1992 Olympic Games. Jonathan Horton of Houston, a member of the Olympic bronze-medal team, will compete in the men’s horizontal bar finals.