ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Shawn Johnson already knows how to write her name in Chinese. That could, of course, come in handy for the young gymnast in a couple years.

The 14-year-old from West Des Moines, Iowa, won the U.S. Gymnastics junior title Saturday after a second day of near-flawless performance that separated her from the rest of the field by more than four points.

None other than Mary Lou Retton put the gold medal around Johnson's neck.

"I've wanted to meet her for a long time, or just see her," Johnson said. "To have her be the one to give me the gold, it's amazing."

In many ways, the junior competition was as important as the seniors this year because most of these girls will be eligible for the Olympic team in 2008 in Beijing. Coached by Chinese native Liang Chow, Johnson had her name written in Chinese running down the sleeve of her leotard.

"I thought that would be unique," she said.

At this point, it seems it would take something big to keep her from making the trip in two years.

The 4-foot-6, 85-pound gymnast, given the nickname "Peanut" by former Olympian Dominique Moceanu, caught the eye of team coordinator Martha Karolyi about 18 months ago when Liang sent a video to Karolyi's ranch.

"He said, `I think I have a little girl you'll like," Karolyi said. "I thought, `Wow, this is a gutsy guy."

Johnson made the first trip to Karolyi's training camp on her own dime and immediately proved her coaches right. Nothing she did this week changed Karolyi's opinion.

"She is a confident performer," Karolyi said. "She knows her strengths and has very high goals and she understands what it takes to reach her goals."

Bianca Flohr and Samantha Peszek finished second and third to Johnson. Like Johnson, both should also be in the mix for a spot on the World Championship team next year and the Olympic team in '08.

"I try not to think of the big picture because if I do, I forget the small stuff," Flohr said. "But yeah, I think about it a little bit."

^HAMM UPDATE:@ Defending Olympic champion Paul Hamm says he expects to decide on whether to return for 2008 sometime in the winter.

Hamm is currently completing his schooling at Ohio State, where he's seeking both an undergraduate and master's degree in accounting.

The 23-year-old gymnast won gold in the Olympic all-around with a thrilling comeback after a fall on the vault. But a scoring controversy that dragged out for weeks -- until it was finally resolved by the Court of Arbitration for Sport -- took a lot of the fun out of the victory.

Hamm said that won't play a role in his decision. Neither will his relationship with USA Gymnastics, which became strained in the wake of the Athens controversy, but has now been smoothed out.

"I wouldn't say anything in the past would hinder or affect my decision in any way," Hamm said.

Rather, he said the decision will come after he's had time to study the sport's new scoring code at World Championships in October. He wants to see it to determine how effective he thinks he can be in the new system.

Many of the changes came about because of events in which Hamm was involved. The new code is roundly disliked in men's gymnastics circles. Hamm said that based on what he knows, he's not a fan, either.

"The solution they've created to the so-called problem does nothing to change anything, nothing to help," he said. "You still have human error. You've made it more difficult for judges to understand, more difficult for the crowd to understand. And it does nothing to help with any case of bias that judges might have for one athlete over another."

Hamm said he doesn't miss competition so much "as the feeling of success" when it's over. Still, he made it clear he'd go all-in if he does choose to return. He still works out for 1½-2 hours a day, four or five days a week. He believes it would take him about six months to get into top competition shape, "but in a month, I could do a routine that's as hard as most of what's been going on" at nationals this week.

Besides Sasha Artemev's faster-than-expected comeback, which resulted in a national title Friday, the men's team looked as though it could dearly use Hamm and his brother, Morgan, who is also in school at Ohio State.

USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny said the federation would obviously like to have the Hamms back, but is proceeding as if they won't be there.

Hamm had no problem with that.

"It's an honest statement to make," Hamm said. "I don't think the program should be dependent on any one person."

Kerri Strug, the star of that show for her dramatic vault on a sprained ankle, is now working for the Justice Department in Washington, helping analyze community programs that help "high-risk" children.

It's miles away from what she used to do.

She says 1996 didn't work out exactly how she planned. She had been hoping to have what she called a "Mary Lou Retton moment," competing in individual events to try to win more hardware to go with the team gold. Her injury prevented that, but made her more famous, as well.

"Every gymnast and athlete has some injuries at some point," she said. "I just had mine in front of the world. I'm fortunate how things worked out."