The next year, however, Bhardwaj suffered a dislocated elbow, an injury so serious that it kept her out of action until 2004. Off the national team and running low on training funds, Bhardwaj found herself taking odd jobs to pay for her gymnastics. A generous grant from former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson enabled her concentrate on her training without financial worries. At the 2004 Nationals, Bhardwaj placed a disappointing 12th in the all-around, barely eking her way into the Olympic Trials. However, a sixth-place finish at the Trials, combined with her impressive vaulting, difficult skills and consistent routines on all other events earned her a spot on the US Olympic Team. In Athens, Bhardwaj was an important contributor to the American team's silver medal finish, the team's best ever Olympian placing away from home. She competed all four events in preliminary competition, earning an all-around score that would have advanced her to the AA finals if not for the FIG rule limiting AA competitors to two-per-country. Carly Patterson and Courtney Kupets advanced instead. In the team finals, Bhardwaj was used on three events, turning in solid performances. Her balance beam performance was particularly noteworthy: though this is her worst piece, Mohini had to perform on it because of injuries to other gymnasts in the team. Anything other than a strong performance would have probably seen the US relegated to bronze, but she did a clean routine and managed to keep the US ahead of a resurgent Russian team. Despite some negative coverage in the US press after the Olympics because of the teams 'failure' to win gold, it is worth noting that the 2004 team achieved the best result by any US gymnastics team away from home ground. She also served as a stabilizing factor for the younger members of the team, taking them aside and comforting them when they made errors. Bhardwaj's final performance in the Olympics was the floor exercise event final, where she placed sixth. She appealed her score at first but after the use of a video replay the original start value and score were both upheld. Bhardwaj's father still claimed afterwards that she ought to have been awarded bronze. This happened on the same evening as the notorious high bar debacle, when the crowd, sick of perceived bad judging, booed for twenty minutes following a low score for Alexei Nemov. Mohini suffered from the same problem as Cheng Fei, whose score was also unpopular- she showed difficult tumbling and great artistry, but lost marks because of failure to complete the controversial 'dance bonus' section which is usually complicate jumps and turns in combination. This is a requiremen that is not entirely popular with fans. Mohini herself is on record as stating a dislike for the dance bonus and jumps. Mohini joined the other members of the Olympic team on a national tour after Athens, and unlike the other five she did attempt to continue into 2005. She attended training camps and was originally selected for the American Cup in January 2005, but had insufficient training time to be ready and withdrew. She eventually retired from competitive gymnastics later in 2005, at the age of 26, and in 2006 will finally finish her degree at UCLA. |  |