Samantha Peszek

After an injury last summer, Samantha Peszek told IG she is ready to show upgraded routines at Saturday's American Cup in New York City.

Peszek will compete at Madison Square Garden along with three of her teammates from the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the 2007 Worlds in Stuttgart: defending American Cup champion Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin and Shayla Worley.

Peszek, who trains at DeVeau's Gymnastics in Indiana with coach Peter Zhao, competed at the 2007 American Cup, which was a two-day event. She finished fifth in preliminaries, but only two per country advanced to the finals.

On Saturday, only eight female gymnasts will compete; four of them are Americans. Also competing are Canada's Alyssa Brown, China's Xiao Tingting, Colombia's Natalia Sanchez and Germany's Joeline Möbius.

"I know it sounds like a line, but truly my goal is to hit all four events to the best of my ability," said Peszek, who turned 16 in December. "Last year my beam routine was overtime and I had a couple of wobbles, which hurt my score on beam and dropped me in the all-around. I was first on vault and second on floor during prelims, so I hope to just hit all four events this year and see where I stand."

Peszek said she's upgraded uneven bars and plans to bring back two big skills she left out from her repertoire in Stuttgart: a double-twisting double back on floor and an Arabian double front dismount off balance beam.

"I included both of these skills in my routines at both the January and February [national team] camps," Peszek said. "I hope to do them both in New York."

Peszek said she is healed from a hip flexor strain diagnosed shortly before last summer's Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

"They told me to rest it a couple of weeks or I would risk pulling it away from the bone," Peszek said. "So, I rested it and had about two weeks of full training prior to the Pan Am selection camp. I didn't think I'd make the team because I wasn't fully prepared.

However, I did really well at the selection camp and made the team. My body just wasn't in peak shape yet so I didn't have my best meet at Pan Ams. I was happy to be a part of the team and get such great experience, but I was disappointed that I couldn't do my full difficulty."

Peszek called her American Cup rivals Johnson, Liukin and Worley "great athletes and friends."

"Shayla and I go way back since we met at TOPS camp when we were 10 and 11 years old," she said. "We roomed together at the World Championships and are best friends. Nastia is an amazing gymnast and so fun to hang out with, too. Nastia has been around the sport for a long time and is a great role model for all of us. Shawn and I have traveled all over together and have a lot in common, since our coaches are both from China and have a great working relationship with one another."

Log on to IG Online at 11:30 a.m. EST Saturday for quick hits from IG Publisher Paul Ziert!

— Amanda Turner