No Sacramone sugarcoating

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PHILADELPHIA -- Alicia Sacramone, the women’s 20-year-old captain and wise elder stateswoman, says she worries that the expected sellout crowd Sunday at the Wachovia Center might be expecting more than it will receive. Yes, the women’s gymnastics finals will be held there that night, but many people also expect the women’s team to be announced afterward. Not quite the case.

The top-two all-around finishers will be automatically chosen and can be cheered for. But the rest of the team probably won’t be known until July 20. ‘Really, I don’t think the crowd knows that,’ Sacramone said. ‘I think they may be slightly disappointed when they figure this out.

And Philadelphia isn’t a place where disappointed fans take things quietly. ‘Yeah,’ Sacramone said, ‘I know about the booing. Uh oh.’

Many of these U.S. gymnasts are used to receiving rude treatment though. They were booed mercilessly and had garbage thrown at them at the 2007 Pan-American Games in Brazil. The partisan Brazilian crowd was so carried away that the Brazilian gymnasts begged them to quiet down and then apologized to the American team that was led by Shawn Johnson and earned a team gold medal anyway.

-- Diane Pucin