CITAZIONE
Alicia Sacramone had a great career. She’s an Olympic silver medalist, Olympic vault finalist and the owner of seven World medals, including team and floor gold. After the Games, where she competed despite multiple major injuries—torn labrum, dislocated knee; it got so bad the U.S. team captain dubbed herself “a walking disaster”—Sacramone announced her retirement.
“I feel like it’s a little bit overdue, my retirement,” a laughing Sacramone told Inside last September, seemingly at peace with her decision to call it quits. Well, a lot can change in 11 months.
This Spring, Sacramone left her studies at Brown, where she was also a volunteer assistant coach for the gymnastics team she once competed on, and headed to L.A., hoping to make it big in her first love, fashion, and encouraged to pursue acting after well received commentating and commercial stints (like the hilarious “Quest for G” Monty Python parody for Gatorade).
But Sacramone quickly came to the realization that Hollywood wasn’t for her. “You know, acting was never my thing to begin with,” she says with an easy laugh. “I think it was just a fun idea to play with. Nothing I’m going to miss.”
But what Sacramone did find she missed, surprisingly, was gymnastics. She was, in fact, shocked by how much.
“I don’t really know what happened,” Sacramone says of the slow realization she might not be done after all. “It kind of snuck up on me. It’s kind of weird. I was focused on just being done and then I went to [April’s] Classic in San Diego, just to see [my coach] Mihai (Brestyan). I was in L.A. at the time and he was like, ‘Just come down.’
“So, I get there, I’m hanging out, seeing everyone and he’s like, ‘You know, nobody’s vaulting. We could use you,’” Sacramone recalls. “I was like, ‘Ha, ha, ha. I don’t know about that.’ But, I don’t know, they instilled the idea. I think they had a secret plan. They tricked me.”
But Sacramone is no longer joking about her return to gymnastics. She underwent shoulder surgery in May to repair the labrum tear and has no qualms about what comes next.
“I am coming back, that much is decided,” she says happily. “How far I’m gonna get with that, we’ll see. I don’t know exactly what the process is going to be. I’ll probably take the rest of the summer off, just to heal up. Then I’ll start getting back into the gym in the Fall. As far as National Team stuff, I’ll leave that all up to Mihai to deal with, but hopefully I’ll be starting to compete the beginning of next year and then the main goal right now is [2010] Worlds.”
Big goals for someone who insists she’s “taking it one step at at time.”
It’s hard to ignore the enthusiasm in Sacramone’s voice. In fact, the girl who once posted a “countdown to retirement” on her personal Facebook page, now sounds almost giddy when she talks about competing again.
“I think, as of now, it would only be vault and beam,” she notes of her plans. “Floor is just so much pounding, too much for my body, so I think vault and beam is what I’m working to do right now.
“There’s not much like competing,” she explains of why her forays into coaching and choreography weren’t enough to satisfy her gymnastics obsession. “I love to perform and I think that’s one of the biggest things I was missing. And I kind of think I have a little bit of unfinished business with gymnastics. Yeah, I made my dream come true, but the Olympics weren’t the ideal situation. I think that plays a pretty big part of it. Obviously we still did so well, with the silver medal, but I wanted a different outcome for myself. I think that’s probably one of the biggest motivating factors.”Sacramone, who will be 24 when the 2012 Games kick off, is motivated enough to make the move back to Massachusetts next month in order to resume training with Brestyan. She’s also already received the blessing of National Team Coordinator Martha Karolyi.
“She was pretty happy about it,” a laughing Sacramone said of Karolyi’s reaction to the news. “She was very pleased with my decision and she was like, ‘We can’t wait to have you back.’ She wanted me to be sure I was safe and healthy about it. She was really good about it, actually.”
In fact, Sacramone suspects it’s what Karolyi, and her personal coach, Brestyan, had wanted all along.
In addition to Brestyan “casually” convincing her to come to San Diego last April, Karolyi had recruited Sacramone to coach at a recent National developmental camp. Then Brestyan brought her to July’s senior National Team camp in Texas in his stead. Call it a Romanian-American comeback conspiracy.
“I was at the last National Team camp, coaching one of Mihai’s girls, because he’s on the National Staff, so I was stepping in as [personal] coach, which was, umm, pretty interesting,” Sacramone says with a laugh. “Yeah, I think it was all part of their plan.”
And why not? Sacramone has always contributed a lot more to the U.S. team than just big gymnastics.
“I think it could be beneficial to the younger generation coming up,” Sacramone says of the role she could play as a team leader heading towards 2012. “Hopefully they know they can come to me for advice, and I can give them my two cents about the situation, since I’ve pretty much been around the block now—more than a couple times. I think we have a new generation of kids coming up. They need someone to turn to and I hope they can do that with me.”
As for Sacramone’s personal plans, she’s ready for some big life shifts, beyond just returning to the gym. She’s looking to resume her college career and is still firmly focused on a future in fashion.
“I plan to continue school [but] I’m looking into transferring somewhere in Boston,” she explains. “Brown is a great school and I loved it, but it was just not the best atmosphere for me; maybe a little too liberal. It was a great two years and I learned a lot about myself and from the professors and coaches there. I’m looking at Boston University, Boston College and Harvard. I want to weigh my options before I make an ultimate decision, but I would love to transfer to Harvard. I think that would be pretty much ideal.
“Fashion will never be on my back burner,” she adds passionately. “That’s something I was trying to keep up with, even while I was training. I think I’ll probably try and do a little bit of multiple projects at once. Gymnastics can be my physical outlet and fashion can be my creative way of relaxing and letting loose. I was working with Tank Farm over the summer. They’re a men’s line and we’re launching this thing called Greek Mile, which is basically a clothing line that does customized Greek apparel for fraternities, sororities and the whole college lifestyle.”
For the next few weeks Sacramone, who will be at next week’s U.S. Championships for an Olympic team reunion and as a part of Fan Fest outside the American Airlines Center, will be busy bouncing from one gymnastics camp to another—“I’m based out of a suitcase right now,” she jokes when asked where she’s currently living—before she gives up the role of coach and resumes being a gymnast.
“I can tell you that my body is hating me for this decision to comeback,” she says with yet another happy laugh. “I had the surgery in my shoulder and I’m trying to shy away from any other surgeries, so good luck with that. I can say that this year off has been pretty helpful. I’m feeling pretty good, but you never know what can come up with gymnastics. It’s a day-to-day thing.”
It’s clear Sacramone can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.
