She proceeds to mount yet what happens on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at the Gymnastics for the Beijing Olympics would become this contender's own personal Tropical Storm Fay. Alicia Sacramone will never live down the ripples from the tragic and heart-breaking event. To recap, Sacramone first lost her footing on the balance beam. In the floor exercise where she captured gold in the Olympic trials, she fell on her second tumbling pass.

As a gymnast, Alicia's performance was the type of rotten meat that hyenas (called “disgruntled spectators”) feasted on with sheer delight. They were tearing her to shreds on message boards online.” She cost us the gold” “She is the reason why we lost to China.” Funny, how these same fans do not realize the incredible hardship Olympians must go through to achieve a gold medal. These complaining fans, ones who are some of the frustrated coaches or players of America, are those who rip into their players or even their kids at home over the tiniest mistake. These are the same spineless sponges that suck up all the life out of our athletes who have made a sacrifice and the sponges complain that they could have done better. Let's not forget that these flabby armchair quarterback weasels do nothing to chase a dream yet they know they would have done better!

Certain “fans” are just as finicky as Morris the cat. First, they can love you one moment; dress up in priest's robes and dedicate their lives to the athletes (their brand of cereal, cologne, their hair products, their fish sticks, toe nail clippers, etc). Suddenly, once you allow their object of adoration to fall from grace and the judgment bolts come down! The spectators can easily forget that the Olympics are an opportunity for those who have resolved to give their life and soul to gain a medal and can be trodden by defeat. Especially in gymnastics since the event is, as stated in the Time article, “…under a new scoring system and code of points that rewards gymnasts for packing their programs with difficult skills…The once perfect 10.0 no longer exists; instead, the scores are now a combination of two numbers-the first for how difficult a gymnast's skills are, and a second for how well those skills are executed. The total can now range from 10.0 all the way to 17-something.” The standards are so high now that many will consider the gymnastics event to be likened to the grueling and punishing Iron Man Event. A variable crucible that burns away all hopes, dreams, and aspirations of the most polished gymnast.

Due to her mistakes, Alicia carries the world-crushing burden of her loss on her shoulders. She blamed herself incessantly and apologized profusely to her teammates. For her teammates, they realized that everyone has their off day but certain “fans” did not see it this way. They saw this as being an opportunity to feast on Alicia's bones and spit her out. To them, the only thing that matters is gold.

There are some other factors to scrutinize. Let's look at the chilling facts: 1) China gymnasts had amassed a mammoth lead over the U.S. (PalmBeachPost.com reported: “China won with 188.900 points, a comfortable 2.375 more than the United States.”) and no matter what the performance Alicia gave (she could have lassoed the moon and brought it to the arena), there was no denying that China would win without contest. 2) Samantha Peszek and Chellsie Memmel (The rest of Team USA) were missing from the games due to injuries and these could have been the golden keys needed make their victory possible.

The Team USA has no reason to hang their head down in shame. With the courage of King David, they valiantly fought overwhelming odds, and, in spite of some Americans' gold envy; we will be indebted to their willingness to face their Goliath. They may have “lost” in their Olympics by American's standards yet failure is not final. Alicia and the rest of the team will rise from the ashes of failure and become champions again. There is a subtle grace that they can carry like the wounded soldiers of a rigid war. So, as the smoke of the Olympics clear and the torch fades, they are indeed warriors who deserve the respect and grace due them. They fought for their Olympic glory and their dreams. Now that is truly living.

“Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” -Mary Tyler Moore

Shannon Miller

Grace, consistency, impeccable form, flawless technique and perfect landings are what characterized Miller's gymnastics. She began stamping her mark as a gymnast to reckon with at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, where she won silver in the all-around competition, narrowly missing the gold by the tiniest margin (0.012) in Olympic history; she went on to capture three more individual medals: a silver on balance beam and bronzes on uneven bars and floor exercise. Her haul of five Olympic medals (including a team bronze) set the record for the most gymnastics medals won by an American in a single non-boycotted Olympics. Following the 1992 Games, she became the only American to win two consecutive World all-around titles (1993, 1994); and has won titles on every apparatus except vault (1993 Worlds - bars and floor, 1994 Worlds - beam and 1996 Atlanta Olympics - beam), a total of six individual golds. She was also part of the Magnificent 7 that won the team gold at the 1996 Olympics. With nine World Championships and seven Olympic medals, an impressive combined total of sixteen, Miller is definitely America's most decorated gymnast, male or female.

Nastia Liukin

Liukin, the 2005 and 2006 US Senior National champion, certainly has inherited the best gymnastics genes there is, being the daughter of two ex-Soviet gymnasts, Valeri Liukin, an Olympic gold medallist and Anna Kotchneva, a World rhythmic gymnastics champion. In the 2005 World championship, she placed a controversial second in the all-around, losing the gold by a mere one one-thousandth of a point (0.001) due to rounding discrepancy. She also won World titles on uneven bars (2005) and balance beam (2005 and 2007). At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she won five medals (a gold in the all-around; silvers on team, bars and balance beam; and a bronze on floor), matching Miller's record for most medals won by an American gymnast in a single Olympic Games. Furthermore, she also tied with Miller as the American gymnast with the most World championship medals at nine. She just might overtake Miller's career medal count if she stays in gymnastics a bit longer.

Shawn Johnson

This tiny bundle of energy with a very charming personality is the 2007 and 2008 US all-around champion. In the 2007 World championships, Johnson became the fourth American to gain the World all-around title; she also won the floor event finals despite having tumbled out of bounds in her first tumbling pass. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she placed second behind teammate Nastia Liukin in the all-around, and went on to take the silver on floor and the gold on beam. Her routines are packed-full of difficulties: vault - 2 ½ twisting laid out Yurchenko; Bars - double twisting double layout dismount; beam - standing tucked with a full twist; and floor - double twisting double tuck for a first tumbling pass and whip to immediate triple full. Wow, what else can be said! Only sixteen years of age, she undoubtedly has more medals to win if she does not retire from the sport.

Kim Zmeskal

Zmeskal was the US Senior National champion for three consecutive years (1990-1992). In the 1991 World championships in Indianapolis Indiana, she became the first American to earn the all-around title. Svetlana Boginskaya who finished second behind her controversially commented that she would have won had the championship been held in Europe. However, Zmeskal proved that her 1991 win was no accident, by winning gold medals on beam and floor at the 1992 Individual Apparatus Championships in Paris France. She entered the 1992 Barcelona Olympics as one of the medal favorites, but would return home from the Games empty-handed, having fallen off the beam during the compulsories and stepping out of bounds on floor exercise in the all-around competition. A powerful tumbler, she was noted for her trademark middle tumbling pass of floor: round-off, three consecutive whip-backs (sometimes four), back-handspring into a tucked double back.

Carly Patterson

Patterson is the 2003 World silver all-around medallist and the 2004 all-around co-champion with Courtney Kupets at the US Gymnastics Championships. At the 2004 Athens Olympics, she won the all-around gold medal, becoming the first American female gymnast to win the all-around title in a non-boycotted Olympics; and also earned a silver in the balance beam event finals. She retired shortly thereafter due to the discovery of a few bulging disks in her lower back, and embarked on a singing career.

Chellsie Memmel

By winning the 2005 World all-around title, Memmel became the third American woman to become a World all-around champion after Zmeskal and Miller. She is also the 2003 World champion on bars; and the 2005 silver medallist on both bars and beam. Though she is a member of the US Olympic women's gymnastics team that won silver at the 2008 Games, she was limited to just one event, the uneven bars, having injured her ankle during a training session.

Mary Lou Retton

Retton was inspired to take up gymnastics after watching Nadia Comaneci on television, and moved to Houston, Texas from her hometown of Fairmont, West Virginia to be trained by Bela and Marta Karolyi, who also coached Comaneci. She soon made remarkable progress, placing second in the US Nationals in 1983. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, which Soviet bloc nations boycotted except for Romania, she had a close battle with Ecaterina Szabo of Romania for the all-around title. She scored perfect 10s on vault and floor to secure the gold by mere five-hundredths of a point (0.05), becoming the very first female gymnast outside of Eastern Europe to clinch the Olympic all-around title. At the same Olympics, she gained four more medals: silvers in the team competition and vault; and bronzes on floor and bars.

Dominique Dawes

Dawes, the 1994 US senior National champion best known for her difficult back-to-back middle tumbling pass on floor, is the first African American female along with teammate Betty Okino to win an Olympic gymnastics medal at the 1992 Atlanta Games (team bronze). She may not have won any world/Olympic all-around titles; but she did come close to winning three times. At the 1993 Worlds, she was leading after the third rotation, however, in her last event, she made the first vault but fell on the second attempting to do the trickier 1 ½ twisting layout Yurchenko instead of a full-twisting one; after both scores were averaged, she dropped to fourth place overall. The same thing happened at the 1994 Worlds and she dropped to fifth. She lost another chance to win the all-around at the 1996 Games, where she was leading after two rotations but sat down on her middle tumbling pass and finished seventeenth. In spite of these disappointments, she earned a few World and Olympic individual medals: silvers on bars and beam (1993 Worlds), bronzes on beam (1996 Worlds) and floor exercise (1996 Olympics). This three-time Olympian was also part of the Magnificent 7 that captured the team gold at the 1996 Games.

As follows are my top 10 greatest female gymnasts in history:

1. Svetlana Khorkina (Russia)

Having won seven Olympic medals and twenty World championship medals, this unusually tall gymnast is considered to be one of the most popular and most successful gymnasts of her generation. She is the very first gymnast to win three World all-around titles (1997, 2001 and 2003). She earned the nickname "Queen of the Bars" for her unrivaled domination on uneven bars, where she won five consecutive World titles (1995-1997, 1999, 2001) and two consecutive Olympic titles (1996, 2000). She is best known for her expressive and elegant dance, as well as for her extremely difficult and innovative routines, with unprecedented eight skills named after her in the Code of Points.

2. Larissa Latynina (USSR / Russia)

Two-time Olympic (1956, 1960) and two-time World (1958, 1962) all-around champion. She still holds the record for having won the most number of Olympic medals at eighteen (nine gold medals, five silver and four bronze). Trained in ballet, she was known for her graceful movements on floor exercise, where she won three consecutive Olympic titles (1956, 1960 and 1964).

3. Svetlana Boginskaya (USSR / Belarus)

The 1989 World all-around champion and three-time Olympic medallist, who was nicknamed the "Goddess of Gymnastics" and "Belarusian Swan" because of her stature, balletic grace, and long elegant lines that was most eminently exhibited in most of her routines, especially on floor exercise. In 1990, she swept the European Gymnastics Championships by winning the gold in every individual event.

4. Ludmilla Tourischeva (USSR / Ukraine)

The 1970 and 1974 World all-around champion. She was regarded as the epitome of the Soviet style gymnastics: grace, classiness, perfect form and flawless technique. Although she won the all-around title in the 1972 Munich Olympics, she was largely overshadowed by the unexpected fame of her compatriot Olga Korbut, whose exceptional acrobatic skills and open display of emotion, in contrast to the typical stoic expression of eastern bloc athletes, enraptured world audiences.

5. Věra Čáslavská (Czechoslovakia)

One of only two female gymnasts, along with Larissa Latynina of the USSR, to win two consecutive all-around Olympic titles (1964, 1968). She holds the record of most Olympic individual event titles than any other gymnasts, a record that still stands today. She was well known for her cheerful demeanor and extraordinary stage presence; and at the same time, she was also revered for her courage in openly voicing her opposition to communism and the Soviet invasion of her country during the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

6. Yelena Shushunova (USSR / Russia)

1985 World and 1988 Olympic all-around champion. She is best known for her powerful vaulting and difficult tumbling as well as her matchless consistency, having won medals on every apparatus including world titles on vault (1985, 1987) and floor exercise (1985).

7. Nadia Comăneci (Romania)

The media darling of the 1976 Montreal Olympics, where she became the very first gymnast at any Olympics to be awarded a perfect score of 10 and would eventually earn six more 10s, on the way to capturing the all-around, uneven bars and balance beam title. At only age 14, she was the youngest ever Olympics gymnastics all-around champion. She is credited, along with Olga Korbut, for popularizing the sport all over the world.

8. Shannon Miller (USA)

The 1993 and 1994 all-around World Champion and the 1996 Olympics balance beam gold medallist. With a total of sixteen World championship and Olympic medals, she is certainly the most decorated gymnast in American history. She is best remembered for her performance in the Individual All-around at the 1992 Olympic Games, where she missed the gold by the tiniest margin (0.012) in Olympic history.

9. Nellie Kim (USSR / Tajikistan)

The 1979 World all-around champion. She was the first woman in Olympic history to receive a perfect score of 10 on vault and floor exercise, winning the gold medal on both. She was admired not only for her feminine beauty but also for her flamboyance, gracefulness and intensity that marked her every routine.

10. Lilia Podkopayeva (Ukraine)

The first female gymnast since Ludmilla Tourischeva to simultaneously hold the European (1996), World (1995), and Olympic (1996) all-around titles. She was frequently described as the "complete package" gymnast, possessing impressive excellence in both technical skill and artistic expression with no apparent weakness in any of the four apparatus. Her routines were characterized as a combination of stylish choreography, clean execution, perfect form and exceptionally difficult skills.

There are six disciplines in Gymnastics approved and regulated by its controlling organization Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique. These are:

• Artistic gymnastics
• Rhythmic gymnastics
• Sports aerobics
• Sports acrobatics
• Trampolining
• General gymnastics
• Power Tumbling

Artistic Gymnastics

This is one of the most popular disciplines. It is divided into Men's and Women's gymnastics. It showcases various sequences of movements that exhibit strength, grace and agility.

General Gymnastics

This is also called group gymnastics because it is comprised of at least 6 to over 150 gymnasts which could be all men or all women or a mix of both. They are required to execute coordinated routines. There are no prohibitions when it comes to the age of the athletes in this sport.

Rhythmic Gymnastics

This is performed by women only. The athletes are made to execute their gymnastic routines using these five tools: ball ribbon, clubs, rope and hoop.

Sports aerobics require exercises that demands strength, agility and fitness instead of balance skills which often last 60-90 seconds.

Trampolining is comprised of four routines: individual, synchronized, double mini trampoline and power tumbling. The Olympics only accept the individual trampoline. This is done by doing consecutive ten leaps followed by a series of tumbling on air.

Training for gymnasts is rigid. Gymnasts often start training young. That is why, the parents' assistance and support throughout the training years are essential. Parents must see to it that children undergoing gymnastics training are psychologically and physically fit to perform such difficult tasks. Medical doctor should assess beforehand the child's fitness for such sports. Also, proper food nutrition should be of paramount concern for parents of gymnasts. Having all the energy foods and calcium for strong bones would be important for the gymnasts to stay physically fit. Having a trainer at home to provide extra home training would also be a good idea to prepare the child for the formal training better. Parents are also invaluable when it comes to inculcating the values of self-discipline, love of sport and to build the self-confidence of the child.