Great to hear that Alicia Sacramone’s comeback is, in fact, very real and that she is planning to compete at the U.S. Classic next month.  I still think it might be tough for her with Aly Raisman in her way, BUT…if she can outvault Kayla Williams and/or if Kytra Hunter is still injured, who knows, it could happen.  But she’s going to have to be just as good or BETTER on vault and beam than she was before.

Just for memory’s sake, let’s take a look at some past routines you may or may not have seen from Alicia Sacramone:

Alicia Sacramone Beam 2003 Nationals (backhandspring Arabian!)

Did you have any idea she ever did such an incredible combination – and SO WELL?  And she always had that crisp and sharp presentation that ended up making her one of the best beam workers in the world.

Alicia Sacramone Floor 2003 Massilia Cup

WOW!  Some of the best landings she EVER did on floor, and back when she actually stayed in bounds too.  That’s also one of the few times I ever saw her do a 2 ½ to front full and a triple turn…both were really good too!

Alicia Sacramone Floor 2004 Rio de Janeiro Qualification

Equally as good!

Alicia Sacramone Floor 2003 American Classic (humorous blooper…)

Normally I don’t laugh at gymnasts’ falls but that was pretty hilarious…not one of her brightest moments!

Alicia Sacramone Floor 2004 World Cup

That was unquestionably one of the best floor routines of her career!  That wasn’t my favorite music for her but it wasn’t bad either…every pass was dead on though, and explosive dance elements as well.  The more I think about it, it made NO SENSE that she ever took that triple full completely out of her floor routine.  It was one of the most impressive passes she ever had, and she always did it so easily.  It was worth the same as her Arabian douible front (an E), she landed it way better, and she always stayed in bounds on it.  It seemed like ever since she had a fluke fall on it at the 2007 nationals she never did it again…WHY?

Alicia Sacramone Beam 2007 U.S. Classic

Alicia Sacramone Beam 2007 Nationals

Definitely two of her best ever.  She’ll need to be that rock solid in order to make the team this year and be given another chance at a team finals lineup on beam…but I think she could do it.

And of course we all know Alicia can vault.  It will be really interesting to see if Alicia still has her stuff on vault…some time off of her legs was probably the thing she needed most after 2008.  She looked pretty beat up at the Olympics, and I think that’s exactly why she was having so much trouble on floor that year.  I really think that if Memmel, or possibly even Pesek, had not injured her ankle in Beijing then Alicia probably wouldn’t have been doing floor in the team finals.  Even though she had been a world gold and silver medalist on the event, she wasn’t in NEARLY the form she had once been in on floor….she went out of bounds every time she saluted and just wasn’t as crisp and powerful as she once was.  That’s why I don’t think we should blame the fall on her…it really was the overall health status of the team that lost them that gold medal…sustaining injuries just before competition in typical American fashion.  We could have used Memmel on both beam and floor and definitely could have won gold.

Perhaps Alicia WILL get to finally redeem herself from the 2008 nightmare…what an incredible story that would be.