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Samantha Peszek has the activities of an ordinary 13-year-old.
She mows the lawn to earn money to buy shoes and purses. She goes online with the computer she received for Christmas. She hangs out with friends at the mall.
"I do have a life," Peszek said.
In three years, she might have something else, too -- an Olympic medal.
Last year, at age 12, the McCordsville, Ind., gymnast became the youngest member of the junior national team. This week, she is among the contenders to win a junior national title in the Visa Championships at Conseco Fieldhouse.
In three years, Peszek will be 16, and the timing is right for her to aim at making the U.S. gymnastics team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Forecasting the future is nonsense for 13-year-olds in most sports. But the nature of gymnastics is such that a female athlete's peak ages are 16-18. In Indianapolis, the juniors will be watched as closely as the seniors.
Carly Patterson was 16 when she won the Olympic all-around in 2004. She was third in the junior nationals in 2001 and first in '02.
"Carly is a perfect example of how you start in the first year after the Olympic Games," said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics. "You just kind of work your way through the next few years and emerge when you need to emerge."
That Peszek emerged came as a surprise to her parents, who have been around the sport for years.
Her mother, Luan, 41, is director of publications at USA Gymnastics and was press officer for the 1996 Olympic gold-medal-winning team. Luan was a gymnast at the University of Illinois, where she met husband Ed, a former wrestler and hockey player.
The 4-11 Samantha -- everyone calls her "Sam" -- has been taking gym lessons since age 2 and competing since 6. But she came away from those early competitions without medals.
When she did the vault, her mother made the sign of the cross out of fear for her daughter's safety. The coach would have to shove the gymnast over the apparatus.
"She's gone way beyond what we had envisioned," Luan said.
Samantha said she is glad her mother has been around gymnastics and knows how difficult it is to perform the skills.
"I think Sam knows this is her thing," Luan said. "She does it for her. If she comes in tomorrow and says, 'You know? I've just had enough' . . . absolutely fine.
"I'm trying to take what I've learned and put it to what works in our family."
Peszek's potential was revealed at age 6 in the Talent Opportunity Program, in which young girls are given physical tests.
Yet Peszek's greatest virtue is not physical. Tom Strange, a coach at DeVeau's School of Gymnastics in Fishers, said she is a competitor with strong focus.
That concentration was tested in May 2004 after her father was hospitalized with a mild heart attack. She was set to leave for the U.S. Classic at Rochester, N.Y., an important pre-nationals event.
She did not want to go.
Her dad said: Go.
"There was nothing she could do for me, and I was fine," Ed Peszek said. "I would have been very disappointed if she didn't go to the meet."
Sam finished 11th, a springboard to the eighth-place nationals finish that put her on the junior team.
In last month's U.S. Classic at Virginia Beach, Va., coach Peter Zhao inadvertently touched her while she was on uneven bars. That caused a deduction of eighth-tenths of a point. Peszek went directly to balance beam -- a perilous event -- and scored a creditable 8.833.
"You have to be mentally tough to do the beam," Zhao said.
Without the 0.8 deduction, Peszek would have finished second to Ashley Priess, 15, Hamilton, Ohio. Peszek settled for eighth place.
Peszek, besides spending 32 hours weekly at DeVeau's, travels to Texas about every six weeks to train at the ranch of Bela and Martha Karolyi. Martha is the national team coordinator.
St. Simon the Apostle School has accommodated Peszek's training and competition schedule. She will start eighth grade Aug. 17. School friends are as important as judges' scores.
Longtime friend Jennie Shipley, 13, said Peszek likes socializing at the Indianapolis school.
"Everybody loves her. She's so determined to just win everything," Shipley said. "She gets better grades than me, and she's doing gymnastics every day."
Friday nights are for fun. Peszek goes to movies with friends or has sleepovers.
She has eagerly awaited this week -- preliminaries Thursday and finals Saturday -- because many schoolmates will see her compete for the first time.
The vault, formerly her weakest event, has become one of her best. She will be one of four juniors doing a Yurchenko double full, in which a gymnast does a back handspring onto the horse, pushes off and does a flip with two twists.
Peszek's sister, Jessica, 10, is also a gymnast and recently won a state title on beam. The two girls have nearly worn out a 1996 videotape, viewing and reviewing routines of the Olympic gold medalists.
"I tried to act like I could do it," Peszek said.
Now, there's no pretending.