Word: event
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Something was amiss from the moment the American women's gymnastics team walked onto the floor Sunday afternoon for the team qualification event. Instead of five gymnasts suited up and ready to compete, only four members of the squad marched in outfitted in their leotards. The fifth athlete, Samantha Peszek, walked in wearing her warmup outfit...
...Michael Phelps can, of course. And just to prove that he wasn't going to let anyone see him sweat, the 23-year-old set a new world record too, while President Bush, his father, the First Lady and daughter Barbara cheered him on. In the Games' first swimming event, Phelps dropped nearly a second and a half off his own world record, set a month ago at the Olympic trials, and launched his quest for a history making- eight gold. Not to be outdone, Dara Torres, famed for being the oldest swimmer at the Games, showed that age doesn...
...promise he says he's extracted from his coach Bob Bowman, that he would not have to swim the 400m individual medley, a grueling two laps each of all four swimming strokes - the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle, in a meet again. It has become Phelps' signature event, but takes a lot out of him, both to train and to compete in. "I told him this was my last 400 IM, and he said, 'Well, it has to be a record then,'" Phelps said. "So in my opinion, it's the last one." Coach Bowman, however, didn't' seem...
...through minutes before the event was due to start, Peszek tweaked her ankle on a tumbling run on the floor exercise. "On the take off, she initiated twisting a little early," says Martha Karolyi, national team coordinator. "It wasn't a fall or anything. But it gave us a tiny disturbance at the last minute - we had to reorganize things, and readdress." It was the women squad's second injury in as many weeks - the first came just days before the Games, when Chellsie Memmel, a contender for the all-around title and a critical part of the U.S. women...
...qualification round for the team finals, each six member team can ask five gymnasts to compete on each event - floor, bars, beam and vault. The lowest score is omitted, and the top eight teams with the highest scores compete in the team finals. The U.S. women are the defending world champions, and are expected to battle with China and defending Olympic team champs Romania for the coveted team gold medal, which the Americans last won in the 1996 Atlanta Games with the Magnificent Seven. But without Peszek, all four of the girls' scores had to count, and thus there...