Swedish rookie gymnast Wagner looks forward to Beijing 2008

Veronica Wagner, Swedish first female gymnast to compete in the Olympics in recent years, hopes to use her Athens experience for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

"It is hard to be in the Olympics when you are not from one of the top teams, but I want to use the experience for the Beijing Games four years later," the 17-year-old said here Thursday after the podium training.

Wagner has trained in Greece for long. Unfortunately, she had her right heel injured after a bad landing three weeks ago.

"I had a very bad smash of the bone in my right. That's why I didn't do floor exercise today, but I will do all of the events inthe competition and will try to do my best," she said.

Wagner, however, still felt upset to compete alone in Athens.

"It's hard when you have an injury like I do, because you wouldotherwise have the whole team pushing you and saying, 'Come on, Veronica!'"

The Olympic gymnastics competition will start with men's qualification on Saturday, followed by women's qualification.

Source: Xinhua