DALLAS (AP)--- They might have called it "Nastia Unplugged," the closest most people will come to seeing Nastia Liukin looking more like just another gymnast than an Olympic champion.
Still rounding into shape after a yearlong break, Liukin showed off a solid but imperfect beam routine Thursday in the first round of the U.S. championships, a 100-second performance that left her both relieved and anxious.
Relieved that it was over.
Anxious to show a hometown crowd that she can do better.
"I was just getting the butterflies out," she said. "I'm hoping Saturday I'll go out there and be more calm and under control."
The crowd of 7,523 gave the 19-year-old champion as big a hand as anyone after her performance - a routine she can do in her sleep by now, filled with graceful lines, delicate leaps and beautiful pirouettes. There were also a couple wobbles that kept it from being Olympic-type stuff.
Liukin scored a 14.45 - more than a point off her average - then exited stage right. Earlier, she had skipped the uneven bars, which earlier in the week she had said she would perform. She is only a few months back into full-time training after a year of fulfilling obligations that go along with winning all-around Olympic gold.
"Her goal is to stay in gymnastics until we see what's going on in life," said her father and coach, Valeri. "This is her thing. She has to go through this. It's important she goes through this because she wants this."
With Liukin out of the mix for the all-around and defending national champion Shawn Johnson taking a break, 2007 junior national champion Rebecca Bross jumped into the lead after the first day, with 58.55 points, 0.35 points ahead of Ivana Hong. Bridget Sloan is in third.
Bross and Hong train with Liukin at World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, which also produced 2004 Olympic champion Carly Patterson.
"After the Olympics, I thought I needed a vacation," said Valeri Liukin. "But this is unbelievable. I love it. It's better than a vacation."
Also returning from a long break was 2005 world champion Chellsie Memmel, who got back on the beam and scored a 13.8. She was on the fence about returning and decided to come back with a little urging from national team coordinator Martha Karolyi.
Memmel and Liukin hugged when it was over.
"It's kind of nice to know there's someone out there in the same boat with you," Memmel said.
But Liukin conceded she felt more pressure than usual, competing in front of a hometown crowd.
"If nationals wouldn't have been here, I wouldn't have been as nervous," she said. "But there were so many girls from my gym, friends, family out there watching you. Naturally, you want to do your best."
Bross, on the other hand, said she was energized by the Dallas audience.
"It kinda made me comfortable knowing all those girls I train with are out there rooting for me," she said.
She was in the lead despite teetering to avoid falling off the mat on her vault landing and falling on her behind on her beam dismount. Her increasing difficulty is what set her apart, and she also showed toughness, going on all four events less than a month after hurting her ankle in a qualifier for nationals.
Hong has also been dealing with a lingering ankle injury that kept her from making the 2008 Olympic team. She's a graceful, precise gymnast, and when healthy, she could easily be one of the top five in the country.
But she's little-known outside of gymnastics circles.
A national championship might change that a bit.
"That would be huge," she said. "But all I can do is go out there and do my job and let the judges decide."
She still has to prove herself to them.
Liukin, meanwhile, already has their respect. At this meet, though, she feels like there are thousands more judges sitting in the stands.
ROPES AND MATS: 2008 Olympian Alicia Sacramone is doing color commentary on the in-house broadcast. Sacramone said she's getting back into light training after shoulder surgery in May. She hasn't ruled out a comeback. ... Patterson, who took a turn on "Celebrity Duets," after winning her gold medal in 2004, is coming out with an album at the end of the month, "Back to the Beginning."
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