The U.S. finished in first place after Sunday's qualification rounds of the Olympic women;s gymnastics competition. But you'll forgive Jordyn Wieber if she doesn't much feel like celebrating.
The reigning individual all-around world champion, Wieber won't even compete in the all-around finals in London after finishing with the third-highest score on the U.S. team, a 60.032 to Gabby Douglas's 60.265 and Aly Raisman's 60.391.
Though Wieber's score was also the fourth-highest in the entire qualifying comeptition, with only two entries allowed per country in the final, Douglas and Raisman will have the honor of chasing the all-around gold.
"It is a bit of a disappointment," Wieber said afterward, as reported by USA Today. "It has always been a dream of mine to compete in the all-around final, but I'm proud of Aly and Gabby and happy (for them). It was going to be close between the three of us and in the end, it is what it is."
Until finishing second to Douglas at the recent U.S. Olympic Trials, Wieber had lost only one all-around competition since moving up to the senior gymnastics level after Beijing, and had been considered the gold-medal favorite for months. Even after Trials, the Olympic all-around had been billed as a head-to-head competition between the now-favored Douglas and Wieber.
But Raisman outscored Wieber by .4 on the balance beam and a substantial .659 on the floor exercise to claim the U.S.'s other all-around spot--and, in fact, edge out Douglas for the top U.S. qualifying score and second overall.
Raisman's surprisingly strong performance did help the U.S. to a team score of 181.863, the No. 1 total in qualification by a fairly wie margin. Russia trails by approximately 1.4 points, with China a distant third and purported gold-medal dark horse Romania an even-more-distant fourth.
The news isn't good for Wieber. But for Team USA, the outlook has never been brighter.
