U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS NEWS

THANKS TO NBCOLYMPICS FOR THIS CONVERSATION WITH DOMINIQUE, KEEP WITH THE HARD WORK DOM,BYE,CARLOS.

Note: Dominique Moceanu is competing in the U.S. Gymnastics Championships this week at the Kiel Center in St. Louis. She has trained with coach Mary Lee Tracy for the past six months at Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy.
It's great to be back at a nationals. I haven't been at a nationals since '98. I missed it. The Kiel Center is amazing. It's so big and so awesome. It reminds me of the (1996) Olympics, where the arena was so big.

It was great to be back on the podium again during training Tuesday night. I didn't really even see any of the other girls. I've really been focusing on myself and my gymnastics and what I came here to do.

In '96 it was so overwhelming. It was all new to me. I didn't know what to expect. Now I know what to expect -- the arena, the situation, what training consists of and what it takes to get there. I'm almost 19 now. I was 14 at the last Olympics. I've learned a lot in the last couple years. My body's grown. My lines are better now. There are a lot of good things that come with being older.

I'm pretty confident with my routines. There's always little bugs that are going to come out before the competition. Overall, we've been training so hard, and I feel we're ready for this competition. All my routines right now are based on a 10.0 start value.

Mary Lee has taught me a lot. She's sticking beside me the whole way, because she knows how much it would mean to me to make this Olympic Team, and because she knows how hard I've been working. She's going to push me and push me until she can't push me anymore. She knows what she has to do to wake me up sometimes, not let the train pass. Even though it's really hard, I feel like she's given so much of her heart. I trust in her that she's going to make the best decisions on my behalf.

I have come a long way in six months. I couldn't do anything in January. Now I'm back in routine shape. I have all my routines and everything. It took me awhile. I was racing the clock. But I think it all came out at the right time. I did what I had to do. I'm very fortunate that I got things ready in the nick of time.

Gymnastics is brutal on your body. It can be really stressful. The enjoyment I get out of it is at the competitions when, hopefully, I can excel and get back up there on that stand and be there at the Olympics again. That would be the enjoyment.