NEW WAVERLY, Texas — When Alicia Sacramone looked around and saw Chellsie Memmel bent over, her hands on her thighs and unable to finish her floor routine, one thought raced through her mind.

"I was just hoping I wasn't third," Sacramone said. "Bad things happen in threes."

As it turns out, Memmel only had whiplash and, after skipping vault and uneven bars, came back to reel off one of the best balance beam routines of the entire day at the Olympic selection camp. She may be a little sore Saturday, but she'll be ready to go for the last competition before the Beijing squad is selected.

The same can't be said for Shayla Worley, a member of last year's gold-medal squad at the world championships. Worley broke her right fibula during warm-ups Friday, essentially ending any chance she had of making the team.

Though only Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin have secured their spots on the six-woman team, Memmel is considered a lock to join them when the rest of the squad is selected Saturday night.

After missing most of the past two years with a devastating shoulder injury, the 2005 world champion finished third to Johnson and Liukin at both the national championships and Olympic trials, and gives the Americans one of those monstrous uneven bars scores that Karolyi covets to keep pace with the Chinese.

All she had to do was get through Friday's all-around and Saturday's event finals healthy.

"We can afford bumps," said Andy Memmel, Chellsie's father and coach. "We can't afford holes."

But on her second tumbling pass on floor, the first event of the day, Memmel got off-balance on her landing and took a big bounce backward. The force of it snapped her head back, and she immediately stopped and put her hands on her thighs.

"She just landed and whiplashed her neck a little bit," Andy Memmel said. "I thought, 'Oh my goodness, we've come this far for something to happen. I'm just glad it's not something terrible."

Memmel stayed bent over for several minutes. When she finally stood up, she rolled her neck and someone massaged her neck, shoulders and upper back. After getting a drink of water, she sat down with a heating pad resting on her neck and upper back.

When healthy, Worley is one of the best Americans on the uneven bars. But she was bothered by a back injury much of the spring and missed the national championships, and clearly wasn't in her usual shape at last month's Olympic trials. Karolyi wanted to give Worley all the time she could to prove herself, and the 17-year-old was one of 10 gymnasts invited to the selection camp.

Worley's leg was bothering her when she arrived, but she decided to and compete.

But as she landed on balance beam, team doctor Dr. Scott Rand said she heard a "pop." She left the gym shortly after to get X-rays, on crutches and in a black protective boot, tears filling her eyes.