BEIJING — China issued the challenge, and the short-handed U.S. women couldn’t answer yesterday.

Now on to the showdown in the gymnastics team final at the Beijing Olympics, where every element truly counts.

Neither powerhouse was at its absolute best, and the Americans were severely handicapped after Samantha Peszek sprained her left ankle in warm-ups. On floor, vault and balance beam, the Americans could put up only four gymnasts — meaning they had no room for error. Peszek and Chellsie Memmel did one event each, the uneven bars, and neither performed particularly well. Memmel even fell.

So despite the excellence of world champ Shawn Johnson, who drew the only chants of “USA, USA” with her balance beam routine, the United States trailed the hosts by 1.475 points.

“There somewhat is relief the day is over. We overcame so much, it was all kind of a whirlwind,” Johnson said. “And we got the nerves out and the mistakes out.”

Johnson and Nastia Liukin were 1-2 in the all-around halfway through the day’s qualifications, which should stand up.

“I knew things were happening I couldn’t control and that were obviously not very good,” Johnson said. “So I couldn’t let it affect me.”

But Peszek’s injury — her status for Wednesday’s team final is uncertain — had to take a toll on the Americans. It meant they basically were going 4-on-6 against the Chinese yesterday.

“It was a little bit hard to go out from there,” Liukin said. “A few of us had tears in our eyes because we know how badly she wanted to be out there. We said let’s do it for her, let’s do it for our families, let’s do it for the people back home.”

With the slates wiped clean for team finals, the Americans aren’t in a mathematical hole.

“We’ll come back strongly in the team finals and fight for it.” Johnson promised.