Nothing draws an Olympics crowd quite like the U.S. women’s gymnastics team. We love, love, love them!

A late-in-the-day press conference a few minutes ago drew more than 100 journalists — who gathered to hear a half-dozen 16-year-old girls say pretty much nothing.

Chellsie Memmel’s ankle is better, thank you. Shawn Johnson is ready to give it her all and is honored to represent her country. And like that.

The single most revealing statement from the girls/women?

Nastia Liukin telling “Access Hollywood” (I think it was; some shameless TV geeks), that her “most exciting moment” at the Games so far occurred in the Athletes Village,  when “I saw Dirk Nowitzki and almost had a heart attack!”

Liukin is from Dallas and, apparently, is a fan of Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA.

(Random thought: Nowitzki is 7 feet tall. Liukin is 5-foot-2. Are they members of the same species?)

Silliest question of the session:

When a fiftysomething reporter asked Samantha Peszek what her most vivid memory of the American-Soviet Union sports rivalry was.

A puzzled Peszek replied, “Well, I was born in 1991, so I don’t know much about that.”

Well, yeah. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

The first Olympics she knows anything about is “1996, when I was 5. I know everything (in gymnastics) that has happened since then. I watched the tape from 1996 so many times it fell apart. I did everyone’s routines. Even the foreigners.”

Peszek was asked why women’s gymnastics is such a popular Olympic draw.

“It’s such a good sport,” she said. “It teaches you morals, and about life and hard work and where you want to go.”

“Morals?” a reporter asked.

“We’re hard-working,” she said. “We’re determined.”

Not sure that has much to do with morality, but nobody pressed her.

The whole event was something of a goof. Heavily stage-managed by bustling USOC handlers, with the heavily made-up teens (a session with NBC was next on their scheduyle) as cliche-spouting stars and lots of reporters hanging around hoping for someone to say something, anything of note.

Marta Karolyi, coach/grande dame of the team, generated the most interesting comment.

Asked about news reports that some key members of the Chinese gym team may be underaged, Marta said, “We all heard some talk about that but we definitely are not about things not under our control. We are ready to face any team — underage or overage.”

NBC, which hovers over the pixies like flies over fresh meat, got a sort of back-handed shout-out from Liukin. “I think NBC has made us fully prepared for anything,” she said. “I feel as prepared as I can be.” Presumably because she hasn’t had a moment to herself since she landed in China.

Women’s gymnastics begins Sunday, Beijing time.