Of all the contenders for the U.S. team, 15-year-old Kyla Ross has been the least shy about saying how badly she wants to be in London.
"I definitely think so," Ross said after being asked whether she felt she had proven her worth to the selection committee following the Visa Championships, where she finished fourth all-around. "I came out this Visas and I felt that I had a really good bars and beam and I showed that I was strong."
One of her best events at the U.S. Championships was vault, where she stuck a double-twisting Yurchenko on both days after struggling with her more diffiuclt Amanar in practice and warmups. Although not as mightily difficult as the "Dramanar," Ross performs the DTY beautifully and seems worthy of a score above 15.0 in international competition.
Not that she doesn't want the Amanar back. "Hopefully I can come back and work on my vault and hopefully I can be a good all-around contender," she said of her goals for the Olympic Trials coming up in San Jose.
To know how badly Ross wants to make the Olympic team, one needed only to look at her choice of leotard for the final day of competition: a long sleeved, snow white choice with something that clearly resembled the flag. A hint to the selection committee? "Sort of," she said. "I wore that leo in the GK catelog, so I definitely liked it and thought it suited me. It was really pretty, and I enjoyed wearing it."
Needless to say, she wouldn't mind wearing something similiar in London next month.
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