Sports Connection Connecting you to your favorite North Texas sports teams as well as sports news around the globe. Mike Tirico 1 hour ago. Liukin then tackled balance beam without much difficulty and was again met by the roar of the crowd, with tears in her eyes she waved to the crowd and hugged her fellow competitors. Bross who fell off the balance beam during the first night's competition also had a rough Sunday night. Bross, who's coming back from a knee injury, fell twice during her uneven bar routine and with tears in her eyes ended the night without finishing her routine.
Back to Article. Close Menu. While the fall looked and sounded worse than it was, we are taught to fall flat, to avoid landing on a limb and breaking it. In the very last moment I knew I was not going to catch the bar or my dreams for that matter.
As my coach and spotter, it was his job to catch me if I fell. But, if he touched me, even laid one finger on me when I could have actually caught the bar on my own, it was an automatic one-point deduction to my score.
When scores are calculated in thousandths, a full point is a huge price to pay. To catch me——or not? My dad only had a split second to make his decision, and up until the last instant even I thought I was going to catch the bar.
I am positive that even if he had caught me, I still would have fallen. Then we both would have gone down, and one or both of us could have gotten hurt. I knew I had just thirty short seconds to get back up on the bars and finish my routine——if I chose to.
Life is all about choices. I could have walked away, even walked out of the gym and all the way back to Texas, and no one would have faulted me for that choice. Well, no one but me. I knew that this was a decision I would have to live with for the rest of my life, and if I wanted to end my career on my terms I had to finish my routine. I also knew that if I completed this routine I would also have the courage to finish anything I ever started in my life.
Besides, my dad had always taught me to finish what I started. The crowd was eerily silent as I walked to re-chalk my hands. Then, when I walked back toward the bars they erupted into a deafening round of cheers. I had never heard anything like it before. The cheers were so loud that their echoes banged around inside my head and it was hard for me to think. I nodded at my dad and he boosted me back up onto the bars. And because I knew my career was over, I forgot about the competition.
I forgot about the crowd, and my team. I forgot about the television cameras, photographers, and reporters. I finished that routine for my dad. He had been with me every step of the way, through all of the ups and down inside the gym and out. I finished that routine and I have to say, I enjoyed every second of it. At the end, I landed on my feet.
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