Olympic Gymnast Alicia Sacramone is HOT for Gold (Photos)

U.S. Olympianis the older woman on the team. At 20 years old, the Brown University student is the U.S. gymnastics team leader at the Beijing games. The U.S. women took a silver medal on Wednesday after a series of missteps by key team members. Nearly invincible China took gold and Romania captured bronze in the team event.

Things went awry for Sacramone during team finals. She lost her balance on the beam and it carried over to floor exercise. Officials delayed her start on the balance beam and she thinks that may have contributed to her problems. She apologized to her teammates by saying:



"I think everything just got the best of my head. I got nerves on the beam and carried it to the floor, too."

The elite gymnast was born and raised in Boston and has an older brother. She did not make the 2004 Athens team after doing poorly at Nationals that year and nearly quit the sport.

Sacramone and her band of premiere athletes will have an opportunity to win individual medals over the next few days and two will compete in the all around competition which takes place on Thursday.

Alicia and team mates Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin signed on as spokesmodels for CoverGirl in June 2008, a first for U.S. Gymnasts. Check out Shawn photos here. Check out Nastia photos here.

See Michael Phelps 8th Gold Medal WIN here.

Check our more photos below. Click the link for several magnificent night view photos of Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium.

















