Three reigning champions to lead US world gymnastics squad

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2006

INDIANAPOLIS, United States (AFP) — Reigning world champions Chellsie Memmel, Nastia Liukin and Alicia Sacramone lead the US women's gymnastics team announced for this month's World Championships in Denmark. Defending world all-around champion Memmel, 18, was second on uneven bars and balance beam at last year's worlds.

Moscow-born US citizen Liukin, 16, is the reigning uneven bars and balance beam world champion and was the 2005 world all-around and floor exercise runner-up. Liukin's parents, coaches Valeri and Anna Liukin, have enjoyed great success as well. Her mother was a 1987 rhythmic gymnastics world champion while her father won four medals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, two of them gold. Sacramone, 18, is the reigning floor exercise world champion. Other US gymnastics...