(MCT) — As an alternate member of the women's Olympic gymnastics team, Anna Li, of Aurora, had almost no chance of competing. That was fine with her.
The Waubonsie Valley High School graduate appreciated how far she had come in such a short time to make the team. Her trip to the United Kingdom was a thrill, a personal Olympic victory.
But that thrill was tempered as training wrapped up. Li, 23, fell while practicing a dismount on the uneven bars, tearing ligaments in her neck.
From a practical standpoint, the injury poses no change in her status. The top five U.S. women gymnasts chosen after the Olympic trials July 1 are expected to be listed as the competition team when final rosters are submitted Saturday.
Once the names of those five athletes are filed, alternates cannot replace them, said Leslie King, vice president of communications for USA Gymnastics, the nation's gymnastics governing body.
From her hotel in London on Thursday, Li said most of the pain was emotional. She was in the top shape of her life, she said, when the injury occurred Tuesday. To have that taken away so suddenly "is a little bit difficult emotionally," Li said.
"Physically I guess I'm OK," she said, adding that she's wearing a neck brace and enduring "a little bit" of pain. "Everything besides my neck is working."
Her teammates were shaken by Li's injury. Several cried when they heard the news. Li never hid how excited she was to be in London.
"I definitely teared up," McKayla Maroney said. "Our team felt really bad."
Team coordinator Martha Karolyi said the team is "very saddened" but grateful that the injury was not catastrophic.
"I'm happy for her that she made it this far," Karolyi said.
Many shared Karolyi's support for Li, who was thought to be over the hill, too big and too broken down from years of competing to be an Olympian. An elite gymnast as a teenager, Li decided to divert from that Olympic path to accept a full scholarship to UCLA.
She helped lead UCLA to a national championship in 2010, but collegiate-level gymnastics are less rigorous than the demands of Olympic training. After graduating with a history degree, Li did stunt work in car commercials and was a background performer in a TV gymnastics drama.
The desire to compete at an Olympic level, however, kept hounding her. And in March 2011, she returned to Aurora and resumed intensive training with her parents — both Olympic gymnastic medalists. Despite losing months of work after surgery to repair a broken foot in October, Li made the Olympic team as an alternate.
USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny said Thursday that Li accepted the role "extremely gracefully." He called the injury "heartbreaking. I know it's not easy for her, and I know it's not easy for us."
Li said she's planning on staying in London to support the team from the stands when competition occurs Sunday night.
