Uneven bars warm-up

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BEIJING -- Nastia Liukin chose a dark blue velvet leotard with red swirls and silver sparkles that make Liukin the obvious red, white and blue girl. Her Chinese competitors -- He Kexin and Yang Yilin -- are wearing the same leotard in national colors of red and yellow that they wore for the team competition.

It’s the first time Liukin has worn red, white and blue, and maybe she is making a statement since she’s the only American to have qualified for the uneven bars finals.

The draw his He up first, then Liukin, Dariya Zgoba of Ukraine, Steliana Nistor of Romania, Anastasiia Koval of Ukraine, Yang Yilin of China, Beth Tweddle of Great Britain and Ksenia Semenova of Russia.

U.S. teammate Chellsie Memmel helped Liukin get reading for warm-ups by putting chalk on the bars and helping Valeri Liukin, Nastia’s father, adjust the tension. Memmel had hoped to be an uneven bars finalist but her fall in the qualifying round ended the hopes of the 20-year-old, who later revealed she had a broken bone in her ankle during the competition.

He is the Chinese gymnast who was listed as 13 years old in some media reports as recently as last November. She suggested after the team competition she would add extra difficulty to her uneven bars routine tonight. She and her teammate Yang already have the highest start value (along with Liukin) of any girl.

-- Diane Pucin