Jade Barbosa returns to win floor at Brazilian Championships

Jade Barbosa on vault last year in Beijing. AP Photo/Julie Jacobson 

Jade Barbosa's long road back from Olympic disappointment and necrosis seems finally at an end.

Or at least, at a friendly rest stop.

The 18-year-old Brazilian returned to competition this weekend for the first time since the 2008 Olympics, placing sixth overall and winning floor exercise at the Brazilian Championships in Porto Alegre.

Although she did not throw the same difficulty as she did at the the Olympics, Barbosa showed healthy landings on a full-twisting double pike, a 1.5 to front layout, double tuck and a double pike.

"I am very happy and thrilled with everything that happened. It was a great start," Barbosa told reporters after the meet. She also qualified for event finals on vault and uneven bars, but did not place in the top three on either event.

Jade Barbosa, 2009 Brasileiro Event Finals, Floor:

Saturday's floor victory came after 15 tumultuous months for Barbosa, who was a favorite for medals on vault and floor last year in Beijing. A right wrist injury, later revealed as necrosis, kept her from performing at her best during the Games. Although she qualified for vault finals, Barbosa fell attempting an Amanar and took herself out of medal contention.

There was a lot of uproar when Barbosa returned to Brazil. She was unable to train for several months, doctors told her the injury was untreatable and it appeared that her gymnastics career might be over.

In the meantime, Barbosa and teammates Lais Souza and Daiane dos Santos said they were overtrained leading up to the Olympics and accused coaches of restricting their water intake and ignoring injury problems. The drama was compounded by problems with Barbosa's gymnastics club in Rio de Janeiro, which nearly closed due to financial difficulties.

Barbosa's father at one point insinuated that Barbosa might leave Brazil and come to the United States to train. Barbosa was filmed doing one-armed tumbling runs on a tumble track early last summer.

But things seem to have settled. Former Brazilian National Team coach Oleg Ostapenko, formerly of Ukraine, has migrated to Russia to help develop the Russian junior team. The Flamengo gymnastics club was saved from ruin by the city government, which agreed to subsidize the facility. Barbosa began seeing a sports psychologist. And despite the bad prognosis, she was able to continue training.

Barbosa made history for Brazil at the 2007 World Championships when she tied for third in the all-around with Italy's Vanessa Ferrari. It was Brazil's first world all-around medal in gymnastics, and the country's first world medal in women's gymnastics since dos Santos won floor in 2003.

Barbosa was one of four winners in women's event finals at Saturday's competition. Leticia Costa won vault, women's all-around champion Bruna Leal won uneven bars and Ethiene Franco took the beam title.

Former World floor champion Diego Hypolito won men's floor and vault in Porto Alegre. On floor, Hypolito debuted the "Hypolito 3," a new move.