Gymnastics’ Sacramone’s Toughest Critic Is Herself

“Nobody else really made mistakes, so it’s kinda my fault,” 20-year-old team captain Alicia Sacramone told Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush following the U.S. women’s gymnastics team’s silver finish at the Olympics.

“Is that fair? Because there are other factors, are there not,” Billy asked.

“There are other factors,” she continued. “But today, you know my team did their job and I was the one that made a couple mistakes.”

Only 2.375 points welded shut the 2nd-place fate of Team USA.

Sacramone faltered on her balance beam mount, despite doing it perfectly in practice. She then fell again during her floor exercise.

“This is a disaster,” the announcer said.

But, all three U.S. competitors – including stars Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin – also stepped out of bounds during the floor competition. Meanwhile, gold medalists China sailed through their routines.

But Alicia’s family and teammates couldn’t be more supportive.

“Just knowing that we still have the support at home felt really great,” said Nastia.

“And then after,” she continued. “We just took a few minutes to ourselves each, but then got back together and played some loud music and, you know, tried to tune it out and think, ‘You know, we just won an Olympic medal,’ so it was really great.”

“Johnson, if it was all tomorrow, what would happen,” Billy asked Shawn.

“I’d say we’d take everything home,” Shawn said. “I mean, we’ve got one girl for each event and we’ve also got the all around, so I want to see more golds coming home.”

Just hours after she was disappointed in herself, Alicia’s parents rallied around her in support – and Access was the only outlet there to capture the reunion.

“She did a great job and we’re so proud of her,” Alicia’s mom told Billy.

“What did you say to her,” Billy asked. “Did you help pick up her chin?”

“We haven’t really talked to her yet,” Alicia’s dad began. “So that’s one of the reasons we made it down here. We’d like to speak to her and tell her that, ‘You did your best!’”

We also watched as Alicia first reunited with her brother, Jonathan, crying into his shoulder. But as siblings do, he seemed to know just what to say to her. Shortly after they hugged, Alicia’s face broke out into a smile – and also, a small laugh.