ESPN Olympic Sports

Samantha Peszek's "time off" after the Beijing Olympics was no vacation.

The gymnast had to let her badly sprained ankle heal. She needed knee surgery. When she was finally healthy, she had to work back into shape. Oh, throw in finding a new gym, too.

"It's definitely been hard, hard work," Peszek said. "It seemed forever to me to not be training and not be working. It was maybe three, four months, but it seemed like forever. It was a lot of hard work, so I'm really proud of where I am right now."

Like Olympic champion Nastia Liukin, Peszek competed for the first time since Beijing last weekend. The results were mixed -- she finished second on vault, but struggled on balance beam with a fall, a wobble and a shaky dismount -- but the meet was more about getting back out there than anything else.

Her real targets are the national championships, Aug. 12-15 in Dallas, and the world championships in October.

"I feel like there's some unfinished business," she said.

Peszek was expected to be a key part of the U.S. team in Beijing, a rock-steady competitor who could put up solid scores in all four events, floor and vault in particular. But as the Americans were finishing their warmups in the training gym before prelims, Peszek sprained her left ankle.

She was only able to do uneven bars in preliminaries. All those years of training, and she could do little more than watch as the U.S. women won the silver medal.

"I was crushed," Peszek said. "To pretend everything is normal when you walk out on the floor and still be there and support my teammates, it was really hard for me. But I just had to remember it wasn't about me, it was about the U.S. team. I felt so bad, I felt like I was letting them down."

With two years of high school left -- she's already committed to UCLA for the fall of 2010 -- Peszek decided to continue elite gymnastics. First, though, she had to get healthy.

And with longtime coach Peter Zhao returning to his native China, she had to find a place to train. She didn't have to look far. Fellow Olympian Bridget Sloan is also an Indianapolis native, so Peszek now trains with her and her longtime coach, Marvin Sharp.

Peszek was still rehabbing when she switched gyms, so she and Sharp really did start from scratch. But she's pleased with the progress, and is confident she'll be even further along when it really matters.

"I definitely have a lot of work cut out for me," said Peszek, who probably won't do bars at nationals because of a torn labrum. "I know exactly what I need to do."

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SOCCER DEBATE: FIFA president Sepp Blatter is under no deadline to solve the dilemma of eligibility for men's soccer in the Olympics. Still, he'd like to find a solution quickly.

The FIFA congress in June discussed the matter, but the executive committee has made no decision on whether to change the age limit for the games. Blatter has always expressed concern that the Olympics should not challenge the World Cup for prestige, thus the use of under-23 men's teams; there are no age restrictions for women.

Each nation can add three overage players to its Olympic roster.

But many soccer clubs, particularly the most influential ones such as Champions League winner FC Barcelona, are pushing for under-21 squads.

"It's a touchy subject," Blatter admitted. "The IOC is not happy with us if we diminish the quality of the competition.

"There are two moves that can be made. One is to maintain the status quo of the under-23 and three additions of overage players. The other, there is a big move from the clubs and international union that they only want 21-and-under players in the Olympics. They say it is too difficult to release the players during the season. The Olympics are not in the international calendar."

Indeed, the London Games won't even interfere with the opening of domestic league seasons because they end on Aug. 12, 2012.

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LAMBIEL RETURNS: Vancouver is proving to be quite the draw for figure skating medalists from the Turin Olympics.

Stephane Lambiel, the 2006 men's silver medalist, joined Evgeni Plushenko (gold, men), Sasha Cohen (silver, women) and Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo (bronze, pairs) in making a comeback for Vancouver. Lambiel retired from competitive skating in October 2008 because of a lingering adductor muscle injury that was limiting his training, but said the pain is now "manageable."

"I feel really good, both physically and mentally, and I am determined, downright eager, to take on the Olympic challenge and score a top result in Vancouver," the two-time world champion from Switzerland said.

First he has to get there.

Swiss skaters didn't finish high enough at the last world championships to earn any of the 24 spots available for the 30-man field in Vancouver. For Switzerland to get one of the remaining spots, Lambiel -- or another Swiss skater -- will have to finish in the top six at the Nebelhorn Trophy, Sept. 22-26 in Oberstdorf, Germany.

Swiss rules also require Lambiel to score 195 points or better in two competitions. Though he is not entered in any Grand Prix events, Lambiel plans to do the Japan Open in October and the European championships in January.

Lambiel routinely scored 200 points or better, with a personal best of 239.10 at the 2008 Grand Prix final.

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STREAK CONTINUES: With Olympic gold already in hand, Brazil's women's volleyball team is eyeing the world title.

Brazil and Peru became the latest teams to qualify for next year's world championships with their semifinal victories in last weekend's third-round tournament. Brazil then beat Peru 3-0 to clinch the tournament crown, its sixth straight.

Brazil has won every tournament it played dating back to July 13, 2008, including the gold medal at the Beijing Games.

"It will be the toughest world championship ever, as the tournament will have more teams than previous editions," Brazil coach Jose Roberto Guimaraes said. "Eight strong teams from Europe have already qualified. But I am sure we have what it takes to be in the gold-medal match."

Worlds are Oct. 29-Nov. 14, 2010, in Japan. The other teams qualified are: the United States (silver medalists in Beijing), the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Kenya, Italy, Serbia, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Turkey, the Netherlands and Algeria. Japan and Russia got byes into worlds.

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OLYMPIC RINGS: Katelyn Bouyssou is going to the world championships -- all three of them. The 15-year-old, who this spring became the youngest U.S. judo athlete to qualify for the senior world championships, earned a spot on the junior world team last weekend. She also has a spot at the cadet worlds, for 15- and 16-year-old athletes. ... In what could be a preview of the world championships, Olympic silver medal gymnast Kohei Uchimura of Japan beat Germany's Fabien Hambuechen for the all-around title at the Japan Cup. ... The Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., is the new home for the national BMX Hall of Fame. ... Germany won the junior world title in women's volleyball, beating the Dominican Republic. Brazil took the bronze medal.

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AP Sports Writer Barry Wilner contributed to this report.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

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