U.S. women’s gymnastics team overcomes injuries, wins gold

Nancy Armour

Thursday, Aug. 21, 2003 | 9:04 a.m.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The U.S. women were trying to come up with a suitable nickname for their scrappy team when Chellsie Memmel suggested, "The Five Left Standing."

Better yet, "World Champions."

"We haven't had much luck here, with the illness and the injuries," Hollie Vise said. "But everything worked out all right."

Better than maybe anyone but the team itself could ever have imagined. Between injuries and illness, the Americans ran into so much bad luck in the World Gymnastics Championships it seemed someone must have been sticking pins in a doll somewhere. No way they should have been able to compete for a medal after losing three of their six gymnasts, let alone the gold.

Yet there they were at the end of the night Wednesday, five left standing -- on top of the podium, gleaming gold medals around their necks and bright smiles on their faces.

It was the first team gold ever at worlds for the Americans, men or women.

"That was unheard of. You do not go into a meet with eight girls and come out with five," said team captain and Las Vegas resident Tasha Schwikert. "We pulled together as a team and we said, 'We can do this. There's nothing else that can go wrong.' "

And for the first time since they arrived at worlds, something finally went right for the Americans. Strutting their stuff as if they didn't have a care in the world, the U.S. women came through with one clean routine after another.

Nobody was more clutch than Memmel, who went from being an emergency alternate to the anchor of the team, hitting 8-for-8 in preliminaries and finals.

Vise overcame a spill on the bars with a beautiful balance beam routine, one of three the Americans put on on the toughest event on the floor. In one of the most unique moves in the sport, Vise opened by laying her chin and shoulders down on the 4-inch slab, pulling her legs up and over her head, then arching one leg back so her toes rested on her other thigh.

Sound hard? Think circus acrobat meets Gumby.

The Americans practically had the gold locked up after the balance beam, but the show wasn't over yet. Carly Patterson closed the night with a high-flying, hip-shaking saucy strut that left the crowd of 10,120 and her teammates slapping hands and shouting "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!"

Their competition, meanwhile, fell away one by one. When Russia went slipping and sliding on the floor, so did its medal hopes. China lost a bronze medal on a technical mistake, getting penalized when one of its gymnasts warmed up on the podium before.

Australia faltered on beam and floor, dropping to third. Romania, winners of the last five world titles, settled for silver because of problems on the uneven bars.

By the time the night was over, the Americans had a spacious 1.74-point edge over the Romanians.

"Life is life, and we just have to accept the situation because we made some mistakes," Romanian coach Octavian Belu said. "I was very impressed with the Americans after so many bad injuries and accidents. The team has such great potential."

Indeed, imagine if the United States had put the team it really wanted on the floor.

The Americans arrived in Anaheim as favorites, bringing their best team since the Magnificent Seven won gold in the Atlanta Olympics. Then the karma soured.

First Ashley Postell, reigning world champion on the balance beam, got a bad case of the stomach flu and had to be scratched. Then vault specialist Annia Hatch blew out her knee, leaving the Americans even more vulnerable on what already was their weakest event.

On Tuesday, reigning national champion Courtney Kupets tore her Achilles' tendon in practice.

"Every day there was an illness, every day an injury came up," national team coordinator Martha Karolyi said. "You just don't give up. I told the girls, the world is for the toughest."

And as if the Americans hadn't been tested enough this week, they endured one more gut check when Vise stepped onto the podium for her uneven bars routine and discovered her participant number wasn't on the back of her leotard.

With the green start light gleaming, her coaches and teammates scrambled for anything that could pass for a number. A photo marshal on the floor grabbed a spare piece of paper, used a black magic marker to write Vise's "419" on it and handed it to the coaches, who quickly attached it to her back and pushed her toward the bars.

Rushed to start, Vise fell. She scored an 8.875 that seemed to doom the Americans' chances. But it was their only busted routine of the night, and it was more than good enough for gold.