Road to Beijing Begins Thursday

2008 Visa U.S. Championships
Date	Thurs., May 22 at 7 p.m. CT and Sat., May 24 at 6 p.m. CT
Location	Houston, Texas \| Reliant Arena
Online	usa-gymnastics.org

NORMAN, Okla. - The road to Beijing and the 2008 Olympic Games is underway as four members of the national champion OU men's gymnastics team compete in this week's Visa U.S. Championships in Houston, Texas. Jonathan Horton, Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons, Chris Brooks and Steven Legendre, as well as former Sooners David and Jamie Henderson, are part of a 44-man field that includes the best men's gymnasts in the country.

Preliminary competition begins Thursday, May 22 at 7 p.m. (CT) inside Reliant Arena in Houston with the all-around and event finals scheduled for 6 p.m. (CT) on Saturday, May 24.

"At this level you not only have to have some of the more difficult gymnastics, but it has to be done very consistently and performed well," said OU head coach Mark Williams. "This is a field that includes the best the U.S. has to offer and I'm proud to have several guys there representing the University of Oklahoma."

Though the competition at the U.S. Championships is always fierce, this year's event takes on added importance with the 2008 Olympic Games just around the corner. The Visa Championships serve as a qualifying competition for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, June 19-22 in Philadelphia, Pa., while also determining membership on the U.S. Senior National Team.

All four members of the Sooner quartet have had their share of success at the Visa Championships in the past. Horton and Brooks are past U.S. champions, winning the floor exercise and high bar titles, respectively, at the 2006 event. Horton was also the runner-up in the all-around after claiming top four finishes on rings and high bar.

At last year's event in San Jose, Calif., Legendre was third on vault and seventh on floor in the senior division after winning the vault and placing second on parallel bars in the junior (16-18) division the previous year.

Abdullah-Simmons tied for fifth on parallel bars in his last U.S. Championship competition in 2006. Although he battled injuries for much of the 2008 collegiate season, the Philadelphia native will be looking to make one more run at the Olympics by qualifying for the U.S. Team Trials in his hometown.

Abdullah-Simmons, Brooks, Horton and Legendre all played important roles in leading Oklahoma to its eighth NCAA title in Stanford, Calif., in late April. According to Williams, the pressure of competing for the national championship, coupled with the relatively short time period between the end of the college season and the Visa Championships could put the Sooners at somewhat of a disadvantage in Houston.

"It's such an emotional process to compete for a national championship in addition to the physical toll it takes," Williams said. "Our guys came back and had finals immediately after NCAAs, so it wasn't the most conducive atmosphere for training. But, I feel like these guys have been very good in terms of their overall conditioning and training over the past couple of years and that's helped sustain their level of performance. Now they're at a point where they have to be ready. They've known the calendar for long enough and been able to prepare well for it."

USA Gymnastics will have complete coverage of the 2008 Visa U.S. Championships, including news, photos, scores and quick hit commentary, on their official Web site, usa-gymnastics.org.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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