Thursday, June 19, 2003 | 10:15 a.m.
At a Glance
WHAT: U.S. Gymnastics Championships
WHERE: U.S. Cellular Arena, Milwaukee, Wis.
WOMEN4S SCHEDULE: Individual event finals and all-around prelims, 5 p.m. today; all-around finals, 4 p.m. Saturday.
TV: NBC (delay) 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday and noon-2 p.m. Sunday.
It seems like Las Vegas' Tasha Schwikert has been an underdog throughout her international gymnastics career, so the fact that a lot of people don't expect her to defend her U.S. Gymnastics Championships all-around title probably doesn't bother her.
Only 16 percent of the respondents to a poll on the Inside Gymnastics magazine website believe Schwikert, 18, will win her third consecutive championship at the U.S. meet, which starts today at Milwaukee.
Most are siding with Courtney Kupets, the reigning world champion on the uneven bars, who received 51 percent of the votes in the online poll, or even Chellsie Memmell, a 14-year-old sprite (she turns 15 Monday) who will be competing in front of a hometown crowd at U.S. Cellular Arena.
In fact, a story in USA Today previewing the championships barely mentioned Schwikert, mentioning only in passing that she would be on hand to defend her title.
There are at least two reasons why Schwikert is being discounted.
First, she's coming of an ankle injury that required arthroscopic injury in December and has kept her out of major competition for nearly a year.
Second, because she's not sure how the ankle will hold up, she has removed some of the difficulty from her routines. Hitting difficult maneuvers is what impresses judges.
Still, she hasn't counted herself out, although she indicated she would gladly settle for a top three in the all-around, which would automatically put her on the U.S. team for August's World Championships in Anaheim, Calif.
"As far as my ankle, it was kind of disheartening with nationals just around the corner," said Schwikert, who took some time off from training to rest the ankle after tweaking it on the balance beam several weeks ago.
"I'm glad we took some time off. Training (for the U.S. meet) was easy for me; the ankle didn't get worse, which was really good."
She said her ankle is about 95-percent healed.
"Sometimes it throbs a little bit, but as far as gymnastics go, it would be hard to tell that it's been bothering me at all," Schwikert said.
Although she will leave some of her difficult routines in her gym bag, Schwikert, the only member of the 2000 Sydney Olympic team who will be competing in Milwaukee, said she left enough in to be a factor -- provided she executes them.
"If I do hit my routines, I believe my starting values are high enough to do really, really well at nationals," she said.
Schwikert said she would feel a little better about her title defense had she a little more time in the gym. She trains under coach Cassie Rice at Las Vegas Gymcats, and in addition to her own injury, she also has had to deal with an injury to her training partner -- her sister, Jordan.
Jordan Schwikert was on the verge of following her older sister onto the international scene last year when her back was seriously injured. She only returned to the gym about two weeks ago to begin light training.
Still, Tasha Schwikert said she's eager to compete and see where she stands with the World Championships and next year's Summer Games in Athens just around the corner.
"For me, it's just gone by so quick," she said about her meteoric rise to prominence. "It feels like maybe three months ago that I went to the Olympics, and that was 2000.
"Time's creeping up on us fast, but it's exciting with the Worlds and Olympics coming up, and I'm excited."
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