Julie Zetlin- the 2010 U.S. Rhythmic Gymnastics National Champion- is feeling great and ready to compete at World Championships following surgery earlier this year.  Zetlin is the U.S.’s best chance of avoiding being shut out of the rhythmic gymnastics competition at the 2012 London Olympics.

The Washington Post

Zetlin, a U.S. National Champion in a sport in which the United States has struggled internationally, reluctantly followed her doctor’s recommendation in early May.  The last thing Bethesda’s Julie Zetlin wanted to hear on the eve of the biggest summer of her rhythmic gymnastics career was these three words: You need surgery.

Rehabilitation from the operation to repair a torn meniscus in her right knee took longer than expected. She was forced to withdraw from the U.S. championships in August. She couldn’t jump until about a month ago.

Yet, beginning at this week’s world championships in Montpellier, France, she is tasked with nothing less than saving the U.S. rhythmic gymnastics program from a second straight global slip-up.

Four years ago, the U.S. rhythmic program failed — for only the second time since 1984 — to qualify for the Summer Olympics. Bum knee or not, Zetlin’s primary goal between now and January, when the final qualifying spots will be doled out in London, is to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

Despite losing weeks of training this summer, she said she is physically ready for the start Monday of the world championships, where 15 Olympic qualifying slots will be on offer. On paper, she provides the United States with huge hopes; last year in Moscow, Zetlin became the first U.S.-born rhythmic competitor to qualify for a world all-around final.

“Now, I feel really great,” Zetlin, 21, said from Paris during a conference call Monday. “I feel pretty prepared. I feel strong mentally, physically. . . . I think the biggest thing for me to show is . . . my ability to be consistent. If I show my strength in that, I think I have a pretty good chance of advancing to the Olympics.” (read more)