Two-time World medalist Rebecca Bross and World team members Jonathan Horton and Tim McNeill will compete at the 2010 American Cup March 6 in Worcester, Mass., USA Gymnastics announced today. A second U.S. woman will be named to the lineup early in 2010.
According to USA Gymnastics, 2009 World all-around champion Bridget Sloan declined her invitation to compete, preferring to make her 2010 debut later in the season. As in previous years, eight gymnasts will make up the men's and women's fields, six of whom will be international competitors. The rest of the field, including gymnasts from Britain, Germany, Japan, Russia and Romania, will be announced at a later date.
Sloan told the Associated Press earlier this week that although she has not officially made a decision about whether she'll push for the 2012 Olympics (and probably won't until 2011), winning the World all-around title in October has given her motivation to continue.
"After I won I was like, "Wow, I want to come back,"' she said in the AP interview. "That's my goal, to prove to everyone that I'm not done." Sloan also said she plans to be at January's National team training camp in Texas.
There was no word about whether 2009 American Cup champion Jordyn Wieber had declined an invitation to compete. Wieber, 14, who did not compete at the 2009 U.S. Junior Championships due to injury, has been M.I.A. since last spring.
Germany's Fabian Hambuchen won the men's title over American David Sender at last year's competition. Sender has since retired to go to veterinary school, and the U.S., in sending its top two all-around gymnasts, appears serious about getting it back. Horton won the American Cup title in 2006 and 2007.
The American Cup has often criticized for not having a strong international field, which has made it easier for Americans to dominate the meet in the past. But it has also been the competition where many future American greats -- including Carly Patterson, Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson -- made their senior international debuts.
The American Cup will be held the day after the first-ever Nastia Liukin Cup, a podium meet for level 10 gymnasts who qualify for the meet through invitationals known as the Nastia Liukin Cup series. American Cup tickets, which can be purchased via Ticketmaster for $35-$125. Proceeds from the Liukin Cup will go to the Nastia Liukin Fund, a charitable fund under the umbrella of the National Gymnastics Fund.
The list of past American Cup winners reads like a who's who of U.S. gymnastics greats: Mary Lou Retton (1983-85), Kim Zmeskal (1990 and 1992), Betty Okino (1991), Shannon Miller (1993), Kerri Strug (1996), Tasha Schwikert (2002), Patterson (2003-04), Liukin (2006 and 2008) and Johnson (2007). Prominent U.S. men to have won the meet include Bart Conner (1976), Peter Vidmar (1983) and Paul Hamm (2008).
Related: Who do you want to see in the 2010 American Cup lineup? Leave a comment below!
Follow Gymnastics Examiner Blythe Lawrence on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GymExaminer.
Comments
Kim Zmeskal won the American Cup in 1992 too!
Speaking of Jordyn Wieber, whatever happened to her? She won the 2009 Cup and then disappeared off the face of the earth! Oh, I hope she hasn't joined the ranks of the injured. Not another one...
Would be great to see Koko Tsurumi and Lauren Mitchell compete against each other again next year :)
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