By Gil LeBreton
glebreton@star-telegram.com
LONDON -- In a little more than an hour Sunday, Jordyn Wieber's golden carriage turned into a pumpkin.
For most of the U.S. gymnastics world, this was the unthinkable.
Wieber is the reigning world champion. She is the two-time reigning U.S. champion.
Legendary coach Bela Karolyi called her "the stronghold... the anchor of the team."
Wieber was on the cover last week of
Sports Illustrated, with a page of pictures of her on the inside.
Mary Lou Retton. Carly Patterson. Nastia Liukin.
Heard of them?
Of all the honors that an American woman can win at an Olympics, the gold medal in the women's gymnastics all-around is the one that most completes the fairy tale.
Commercials. Wheaties boxes. A phone call from Hollywood. An invitation to
Dancing With the Stars.
The past two Olympic women's all-around gold medals have both been won by American gymnasts.
And before Sunday, many believed that Wieber was going to be the third.
"I feel bad for Jordyn," said Mihai Brestyan, who coaches Wieber's teammate -- and, as fate would have it, roommate in the Olympic Village -- Aly Raisman.
"But it's a competition, and you never know what's going to happen."
Brestyan, of all people, should know. His gymnast, half-forgotten, the third wheel of the U.S. gold medal hunt for the past two years, had just stunned the audience by moving into first place in the day's all-around qualifying.
It wasn't a meltdown. Wieber neither fell off the balance beam nor face-planted a dismount.
Rather, Raisman simply was efficient, if maybe not sensational, on her first three events and then seized her golden ticket on the U.S. team's fourth and final event of the day, floor exercise.
Raisman's specialty.
Competing after Wieber -- a lineup decision by the U.S. coaches that is already being second-guessed -- Raisman was powerful and practically flawless.
And then came the wait.
When Raisman's score -- 15.325 -- flashed on the scoreboard, it meant that she had leapt over both Wieber and Gabby Douglas and temporarily into first place.
Wieber's head immediately slumped. While her teammates waved to the crowd, she marched off the floor without looking up. In the mixed zone, where reporters waited, a sobbing Wieber walked through without comment.
Not all that long ago, finishing third on your team in the qualifying round would have caused no heartbreak. But after three Romanian girls swept gold, silver and bronze at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the world governing body of gymnastics, FIG, decided to change the rule to limit each nation's all-around competitors to two.
"I'm basically devastated for her," said Wieber's coach, John Geddert. "She has trained her entire life for this day, and to have it turn out anything less than she deserves is going to be devastating. She has waited her entire career for this.
"She is happy for her teammates and disappointed that she doesn't get to move on."
Later, after all the teams had competed, Wieber's disappointment was complete. Raisman's all-around score (60.391) was the second highest of the day, bettered only by Russia's Viktoria Komova (60.632).
American Gabby Douglas was third (60.265) and Wieber fourth (60.032).
Fifty-six other gymnasts, in other words, finished behind Jordyn Wieber on Sunday. But she won't be one of the 24 competing for the all-around gold medal Thursday night.
"It's sad," said Martha Karolyi, the U.S. team coordinator. "But we have to be able to turn the page and go on to the next chapter, the team final. This is what happens when you have so many high-level gymnasts on one team.
"I think Alexandra [Raisman] and Gabrielle [Douglas] just had a better day than Jordyn had."
For Wieber, the day could have been even worse. Only the eight finishers on each apparatus get to compete in the individual event finals. Wieber's floor ex score survived a late scare from the Japan and Romania teams, and she qualified in that event.
But her lottery jackpot, the all-around gold, is gone.
"What can you tell her? I'm sorry?" Bela Karolyi said. "There's nothing to say."
Bela was worried how the crushing day would affect Wieber in the team finals, set for Tuesday.
"That's another thing I'm afraid of, to be honest," he said. "There are two people over there and both deserve to be there by performance. But the stronghold, the one that was always the anchor of the team, I'm not sure how she's going to respond.
"I hope she's going to be great and that her composure will be there. But we are human beings, and you never know."
For months, the gold medal buildup had centered around Wieber and Douglas.
"Yeah, everybody was talking about me and her -- the showdown," Douglas said. Now, she admitted, she doesn't know what she's going to say when she sees Wieber again.
"We're still working on that," Douglas said.
They all will be, including Wieber's roommate.
Cinderella?
Gil LeBreton, 817-390-7697Twitter: @gilebreton
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