The work is never done

NEW WAVERLY, Texas -- Nearly two hours after they had finished competing, the Olympic gymnastics team and three alternates were trying on 16 possible Olympic competition leotards.

There were purple ones and bubble-gum pink ones, black ones, red ones, white ones, red-white-and-blue ones. Some had stars, some had stripes, some had stars and stripes. It reportedly takes swimmers 20 minutes to put on the skin-tight Lazr Racer swimsuits, but the gymnasts were changing in and out of the leotards in mere seconds.

The consensus favorite color was purple. "Everyone looks good in purple," Alicia Sacramone said. Finally, at about 10 p.m. here in Texas, the tired girls were back in their own warmups and leaving this Olympic selection process for good.

     -- Diane Pucin