![]() The remoteness of the location is actually an advantage, at least in Karolyi’s eyes. ( PHOTOS: See TIME’s Exclusive Images from Inside Camp Karolyi) They come here for one single reason, that’s to train,” says Karolyi in her sharp, Hungarian-inflected English. It’s called training camp, and while there are bunk beds, shared cabins and bucolic surroundings deep in the woods of New Waverly, Texas - complete with lakes, boats, tennis courts and a pool - it’s nothing like the carefree summer excursions that most of us know. This is where Karolyi puts the girls to the test, once a month, for four strenuous days. This is where every gymnast with Olympic dreams earns the right to represent the U.S. This is where every girl who wants to be an elite gymnast must come, at some point in her career, to pay tithings in the form of blood, sweat and often tears, to coach Martha Karolyi. It’s a rare quiet day at the gym, a respite in between the busy days when anywhere from 20 to 30 members of the national team are tumbling, vaulting, balancing or swinging through their routines. That might be the dusty legacy of where the reigning Olympic all-around champion jumped onto the beam those could be the footprints of the country’s best gymnast on the uneven bars that might be where the world vault champion stuck a difficult landing. The resin that anchors tiny gymnasts precariously to their equipment cakes their calloused hands too and is shed in ghostly prints on the 10-cm balance beam, on the uneven bars that loom 2.4 m off the ground and even on the restroom door. Her fourth tumbling pass is one most women try to get out of the way early, a flip with a twist then another quick flip at the end, and she handled that one with no problem and another solid landing.Īt the end of finals on Saturday, national team coordinator Martha Karolyi will pick six women and an alternate to go to next month’s world championships, and while Johnson is a lock, filling out the rest of the team won’t be easy.Follow girls aren’t around, but their presence lingers everywhere: their images hang in larger-than-life posters that cover the walls - Olympic and world champions, frozen in fierce, midcompetition poses their chalky white footprints cover the mats that litter the gym floor, tracing the crazy circuits of routine after routine performed at the USA Gymnastics National Team Training Center. She opened with a double-twisting, double flip – she jumped so high, you could have driven a car underneath her during that trick – and landed perfectly. She’s only 4-foot-9, but hardly seems small on the floor exercise. The four-inch-wide strip looked like four feet when Johnson was on there. She banged them out efficiently, including one in which she did a back flip with a twist from a dead standstill. ![]() There was no taking time to gather herself for the next trick. ![]() Considered the most taxing torture test in women’s gymnastics, Johnson strutted and somersaulted her way up and down without any hesitation. Her poise showed the most on the balance beam. “Now, since it’s a year away, every day, the competition counts.” “It’s very important,” Johnson said of her solid first day. This is the first of a half-dozen big meets leading into the Beijing Olympics next year, where Johnson is poised to contend for the title of Olympic champion, first brought to America by Mary Lou Retton and brought back in 2004 by Carly Patterson. ![]()
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