Alicia Sacramone

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Alicia Sacramone

Personal information
Full name:	Alicia Marie Sacramone
Country Represented:	United States
Date of birth:	December 3, 1987 (1987-12-03) (age 20)
Place of birth:	Winchester, Massachusetts
Discipline:	Women's Artistic Gymnastics
Level:	Senior International Elite
Years on National Team:	6 (2002-2008)
Gym:	Brestyan's
College team:	Brown
Head coach(es):	Mihai Brestyan

Medal record
Gymnastics
World Championships
Gold	2005 Melbourne	Floor exercise
Gold	2007 Stuttgart	Team Competition
Silver	2006 Aarhus	Team Competition
Silver	2006 Aarhus	Vault
Silver	2007 Stuttgart	Floor exercise
Bronze	2005 Melbourne	Vault
Bronze	2007 Stuttgart	Vault

Alicia Marie Sacramone (born December 3, 1987) is an American gymnast from Winchester, Massachusetts.^[1] A member of the U.S. National Team, she is the 2005 World Champion on floor exercise, the current U.S. National Champion on vault, and a seven-time medalist at the World Championships.

1 Early life and career
2 2004-2006
3 2007
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Sacramone was born on December 3, 1987 to parents Fred and Gail Sacramone.^[2] She is of Italian descent.^[3] Sacramone has an older brother, Jonathan, who is 5 1/2 years her senior.^[2]

Sacramone began studying dance at the age of 3 ^[3] and started training gymnastics five years later, at age 8, in 1996.^[2]^[4] She began her gymnastics career with Romanian coaches Mihai and Silvia Brestyan at Gymnastics and More club and continued to train with them after they opened their own training facility in Ashland. The Brestyans still serve as Sacramone's coaches.^[5]^[1]

Sacramone entered the elite ranks in 2002, placing 7th in the all-around and 6th on the vault in the junior division at that year's U.S. Classic competition. At the 2002 U.S. National Championships, she placed 22nd, but achieved a seventh place finish on the balance beam.^[6] Her results improved immensely the next year, when she placed 14th in the all-around and won a bronze medal on the vault at the 2003 U.S. Nationals, earning a spot on the U.S. National gymnastics team. Sacramone also participated in her first international competition in 2003, the Massilia Cup in France, where she placed 4th on the floor exercise and 9th on vault.

In 2004, Sacramone earned a spot on the American team for the important Pacific Alliance Championships in Hawaii. She contributed several scores to help the team to a gold medal finish and won the individual vault title. Sacramone's strong performances caught the attention of the media, who began to consider her a legitimate contender for the American team at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.^[7]^[3]

However, at the 2004 U.S. Nationals, an error-filled performance dashed Sacramone's hopes of an Olympic berth. Although she tied with Mohini Bhardwaj for the silver medal on the vault,^[8] she finished in 19th place overall and did not qualify to the Olympic Trials. She also suffered an injury to her back and required time off to recover.^[3]

[edit] 2004-2006

Sacramone continued competing in late 2004 as a member of the U.S. national team, and was assigned to several international meets, including the Pan American Individual Event Championships, where she won the vault and floor exercise titles.^[9] At the World Cup Finals in Birmingham, England, Sacramone attracted media attention again when she upset reigning Olympic vault champion Monica Rosu to take first place on the event.

At the 2005 U.S. National Championships, Sacramone won the individual titles on floor and vault, scoring a 9.9 on the latter event, and placed 3rd on the balance beam and 4th in the all-around. She was named to the American team for the 2005 World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, where she won a gold medal on floor and placed 3rd on the vault. She also defended her World Cup vault title successfully in 2005, winning the event at both the World Cup qualifier in Ghent and the finals in Paris.^[1]

Sacramone continued to compete for the U.S. team in 2006, participating in the 2006 World Championships in Aarhus, where she won a silver medal with the American squad and an individual silver on the vault. She defended her vault and floor titles at that year's U.S. Nationals.^[1]

In September 2006, Sacramone enrolled in Brown University, an Ivy League school, and joined the Brown gymnastics team. During the 2006-2007 season, she juggled a full NCAA competition schedule with her elite training at Brestyan's. She is the first female American gymnast since Kelly Garrison in the late 1980s to combine full-time university studies and NCAA competition with elite gymnastics.^[10]

During Sacramone's first year with the Brown Bears, she broke the school's records for the highest scores in the all-around, vault and floor exercise. She was named ECAC Rookie of the Year^[11] and swept the Ivy League Classic, becoming the first gymnast to win all five events and posting the highest all-around total ever recorded at the competition.^[12] She qualified as an individual on the floor exercise for the NCAA National Championships, the second Brown gymnast ever to do so, but did not advance beyond the preliminary round.^[11]

[edit] 2007

At the 2007 U.S. National Championships, Sacramone competed on three events, choosing to skip the uneven bars. She defended her title on the vault, placed 2nd on the floor exercise and 3rd on the balance beam. Following Nationals, Sacramone was named to the American team for the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.^[13]

During the qualifying round at the World Championships, Sacramone performed well, qualifying for event finals in floor and vault and contributing to the top qualifying position of the American team. Sacramone also posted a score on beam that would have been high enough to qualify her to the beam event final. However, due to the FIG rule only allowing two athletes per country to participate in each event final, and due to the fact that teammates Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson qualified ahead of her with higher scores, Sacramone was unable to compete for a beam medal. For the team final, Sacramone competed on vault, beam, and floor, earning 15.750, 15.600 and 15.325 respectively. The American team earned 184.400 points overall which was good enough to secure the gold medal ahead of the Chinese and Romanians.^[14]^[15]

During event finals, Sacramone received a bronze medal for her vault performance and a silver on floor behind teammate Shawn Johnson.^[16] She was visibly upset by her performances, and fought back tears after floor and during the flower and medal ceremonies.^[17]

Both the Brestyans and the U.S. National Team Coordinator, Marta Karolyi, suggested that Sacramone forgo NCAA competition during the 2007-2008 season to concentrate on her preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.^[10] In September 2007, Sacramone announced that she was "turning pro" and signed with an agent, forfeiting her remaining NCAA eligibility.^[4] She remains a full-time student at Brown, and continues to work with the Brown Bears gymnastics team as a volunteer assistant coach.^[18]^[19]