LONDON — As Jordyn Wieber, Aly Raisman and the rest of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team waited to march onto the pink floor of North Greenwich Arena, coach John Geddert pulled out his iPhone and, in a tweet, described the anticipation as “10 minutes of hell.”
It only got worse once the meet began.
“It’s almost like when someone passes away,” national team coordinator Marta Karolyi said. “What’s to say?”
Wieber, the defending world champion and favorite in the individual all-around at these Games, lost to her teammate, Raisman, and was knocked out of the all-around competition after not one major miscue but several teetering imperfections.
There was a step out of bounds on vault and a break in form on the uneven bars, and she never quite seemed to achieve balance on the beam. On the final rotation, the floor exercise, she stepped beyond the corner boundary.
Wieber, 17, had not lost a meet in two years before the U.S. Olympic trials, when she was upset by rising star Gabby Douglas, 15.
Meanwhile, Raisman, the 18-year-old team captain, had the “meet of her life,” said Geddert, who is also Wieber’s personal coach.
Russian Victoria Komova led the way in the individual all-around with 60.632, and was followed by the tight grouping of three Americans. Raisman finished with a team-high 60.391, while Douglas qualified with a 60.265, two-tenths of a point ahead of Wieber, who, despite a fourth-place finish, does not qualify because of a rule limiting each country to two gymnasts.
Ironically, Wieber qualified on floor, the apparatus that cost her a shot at the all-around. Going into the floor exercise, Raisman trailed Wieber by only three-tenths of a point, although she later said she was not paying attention to the scores. After Wieber stumbled to a 14.666 on floor, Raisman performed with precision.
She qualified with 15.325.
Wieber cried as she walked through the mixed zone where media interviews are held. She later tweeted: “Thank you all for your love and support. I am so proud of our team today, and I can’t wait for team finals!!”
