McKayla Maroney wins vault gold medal for U.S.

McKayla Maroney, a 15-year-old from Laguna Hills and a first-year competitor for the United States at the senior level of gymnastics, won her second gold medal at the world championships in Tokyo on Friday night.

After helping the United States women win the team gold medal earlier in the week, Maroney won individual gold in the vault event final.

Maroney's two vaults averaged a score of 15.3 and gave her a solid win over silver medalist Oksana Chusovitina, a 36-year-old from Germany, who won the silver medal. Thi Ha Thanh Phan of Vietnam won the bronze.

"I was really calm," Maroney said by telephone from Tokyo after the medal celebration. "I didn't worry, I just felt really good going out there."

Maroney said she didn't cry during the medal ceremony but she said her U.S. teammates gave her a hard time. "They said I wasn't smiling," she said. "I think I was smiling. I felt like I was smiling. I don't know, it is just so great."

Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics, said the international judges made a point of praising Maroney's skills and form on her vaults, both in the individual event final and during team preliminaries and finals. "She was really electrifying," Penny said, "not only impressing the people in the crowd but for the judges. Members of the technical committee said they were impressed by every one of her vaults."

It is the third year in a row an American has won the world championship vault gold medal. Alicia Sacramone, who tore her Achilles' tendon while training in Japan on Oct. 6, won last year and Kayla Williams won two years ago.

Sacramone, who flew home to Massachusetts to have surgery, congratulated Maroney via Twitter.

"So proud you kept it in the country! thats my girl!" Sacramone tweeted.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: McKayla Maroney sticks a landing in the women's vault event final Friday night at the world championships in Tokyo. Credit: Koji Sasahara / Associated Press

U.S. wins second gymnastics world championship gold medal

The winner, Jordyn Wieber, cried, a bouncy, athletic American astounded that her two mistakes on uneven bars and floor exercise didn’t relegate her to second place.

The loser cried too, an elegant Russian whose fingers and toes must have been pointed just so when she entered the world. Victoria Komova burst into tears after she finished her final event -- floor exercise -- with a routine that was done with some bent knees and maybe a turn that wasn’t quite completed.

The U.S. captured the second major women’s gold medal awarded at the 2011 World Gymnastics championships in Tokyo when 16-year-old Wieber of DeWitt, Mich., won the all-around gold medal by edging out 16-year-old Komova, who won silver.

The U.S. women already won the team gold medal and the U.S. men won team bronze.

Wieber, the U.S. all-around champion in her first senior world championship competition, finished with 59.382 points, 0.033 head of the saddened Komova.

“I was so surprised to see my name up on the top,” Wieber said, “but I was so happy at the same time. It was an amazing feeling.”

Speaking to International Gymnast magazine, Komova, who had suffered an ankle injury in July, said: “My vault was not as fully ready as it should have been. On beam I had mistakes and my bars were not very well done. My floor routine was mediocre.

"Today, on a beam I did not make some connections, therefore, that's why the lower score.”

Yao Jinnan of China won bronze and another American, Aly Raisman, finished fourth and, like Wieber, had a major mistake on uneven bars.

Wieber, coached by John Geddert, became the sixth American to win a world all-around title, joining Kim Zmeskal, Shannon Miller, Chellsie Memmel, Shawn Johnson and Bridget Sloan with the honor. Notable about that group, though? None followed up with an Olympic all-around gold.

Johnson dominated the 2007 world championships and beat out her American teammate Nastia Liukin. But it was Liukin who came back a year later and wowed judges with an elegance that seemed to trump Johnson’s more strength-based gymnastics.

The last reigning world champion to win the Olympic all-around gold was Lilia Podkopayeva in Atlanta in 1996.

With the win Thursday, Wieber and Komova automatically become Olympic favorites along with another Russian, Aliya Mustafina, who won the 2010 world title but who missed this competition with an injury. 

Also last week, Liukin announced she was making a comeback, and so is Olympic all-around silver medalist Johnson, who will show how far she’s come later this month in the Pan-American games.

After making a major error on the uneven bars where she almost came to a stop on a swing, Wieber was convinced she had lost the competition. But she recovered with the best balance beam routine of the night to cut Komova’s lead almost in half. But Wieber finished on floor exercise by taking a step out of bounds and it was after that when she buried her head in Geddert’s shoulder.

“I told her I was proud of her no matter what,” Geddert said. “She was mad because that mistake on bars was going to cost her and she knew it.”

Even Martha Karolyi, the U.S. women’s team coordinator, thought gold was gone after Wieber’s bars. “But Jordyn is such a strong person,” Karolyi said. “She’s just somebody with real special abilities who is able to fight back as strong as she did.”

-- Diane Pucin

MORE:

Shawn Johnson still looking toward 2012 Olympics

Russia finished; U.S. still leads at world gymnastics championships

Photo: Jordyn Wieber. Credit: Koji Sasahara / Associated Press.

Russia finished; U.S. still leads at world gymnastics championships

With two qualifying subdivisions left at the 2011 world gymnastics championships, the U.S. holds a slim lead over Russia. The U.S. has 234.253 points while Russia has 231.062. Defending Olympic champion China is third.

Among the teams left to finish the team qualifying round with a chance to move ahead of the top three is Japan.

The top eight after team finals on Tuesday automatically qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. The other four spots in the 12-team final will be decided next year at a test event in London.

“I am very proud of this very young team and how they pulled it together after Alicia Sacramone's injury,” said Martha Karolyi, national team coordinator for the U.S. women’s national team from Tokyo.  “They were very brave and fought for the United States and for Alicia.”

Sacramone ruptured an Achilles' tendon during training in Japan and flew home to Massachusetts for surgery. Sacramone, the defending world vault champion, was the sole member of the 2008 U.S. silver-medal team in Tokyo.

Russia's Victoria Komova leads the all-around qualifying with 60.157 points over defending U.S. all-around champion Jordyn Wieber, who has 60.032 points. American Aly Raismann is fourth in the all-around with 58.432 points.

Also, 15-year-old McKayla Maroney of Laguna Hills is the leader on the vault with a score of 15.083, ahead of 36-year-old Oksana Chusovitina of Germany, who has a qualifying score of 14.833. Chusovitina was the vault silver medalist at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

The controversial Chinese gymnast He Kexin, whose age eligibility was questioned during the Beijing Olympics after evidence was found showing conflicting birth dates, failed to qualify for the uneven bars event finals. She had won gold on uneven bars in Beijing, edging out Nastia Liukin of the U.S.

-- Diane Pucin

U.S. women first so far in world gymnastics qualifying

Despite last-minute injuries to 2008 Olympian Alicia Sacramone and uneven bars specialist Anni Li leaving the U.S. short-handed going into qualifying competition at the 2011 world gymnastics championships in Tokyo, the U.S. is in first place with more than three-quarters of the first round of qualifications finished.

Only the Russians and, possibly, the Japanese are among the teams remaining to finish qualifying with a legitimate chance to overtake the U.S. This portion of the championships is when each nation puts up six gymnasts on the five apparatus and counts the four best scores, although the U.S. only put up five because of the two injuries.

In the team finals, each team will use three gymnasts on each apparatus and all three scores will count.

So far the U.S. has 234.253 points, nearly four points ahead of reigning Olympic champion China. Romania is third. Despite the team's youth -- the U.S. has three members who are first-year senior-level gymnasts on the team and in their first world competition -- they didn't have any major bobbles or falls.

Sacramone, who was also defending world champion on vault, was flown back to the United States to have surgery on her Achilles' tendon, which she tore during a tumbling pass when training earlier in the week.

Before she left, Sacramone, 23, the only 2008 Olympian on the U.S. team, pulled 15-year-old McKayla Maroney from Laguna Hills aside to give her a pep talk.

"She told me to win the vault gold medal for the U.S. now," Maroney said from Tokyo. "She told me I could do it."

Indeed, Maroney so far stands first in the vault and seems likely to be one of the eight competitors on the vault when event finals take place next week.

Americans led three of the four event finals so far, including defending U.S. all-around champion Jordyn Wieber, who is first in the all-around.

Li, a former star at UCLA, said from Tokyo that the abdominal injury she suffered was healing well and that she felt she could be available for team finals. Li's start value on uneven bars is nearly a point better than anyone else on the U.S. squad and could be a boost for the U.S. in the team finals.

The top eight teams qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. Teams that don't qualify for London from the world championships will get a second chance to earn a spot at a test event in London next year.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: McKayla Maroney performs a flip on the uneven bars during qualifying at the world championships in Tokyo on Saturday. Credit: Koji Sasahara / Associated Press

Shawn Johnson still looking toward 2012 Olympics

USA Gymnastics women’s coordinator Martha Karolyi said Thursday she expects the three 2008 Olympians who didn’t make the 2011 team that will represent the U.S. at the world championships next month in Tokyo to shine at their assignment to the Pan-Am Games instead. She also is expecting good things from the relatively inexperienced group that will go to Tokyo and try to earn the U.S. team a spot at the 2012 Olympics.

The top eight teams in Tokyo will earn places for the London Games; the U.S. will be led by another 2008 Olympian, Alicia Sacramone.

Shawn Johnson, Chellsie Memmel and Bridget Sloan, also members of the 2008 team who are in various stages of returning from retirements, are still strong candidates for London, Karolyi said, even though they were named to the Pan-Am team on Wednesday night.

“Bridget, with another month to reach her potential, can win Pan-Ams,” Karolyi said. “Memmel had to stop in the middle of her bar routine at nationals because of shoulder problems -- and those problems kept her from her potential and [led to] her not being selected. She’s had to deal with this injury.

“Shawn, nice effort but same thing. She wasn’t in maximum shape on her preparation. She’s had to deal with a knee injury and couldn’t train 100 percent all these months leading up. For next year I think she’ll be a fantastic competitor for the Olympic team.”

Johnson, who won a gold medal on the balance beam in Beijing and silver medals in all-around, floor exercise and team competition,  was designated the “non-traveling” alternate for the world team, and if there is an injury before the team leaves for Tokyo, Johnson might still compete.

“It’s not a disappointment at all,” she said. “I’ve made a lot of progress in the last year. I’m here for the team and right now I’m not the best pick for the team. I think there’s always room for improvement. I’ll go home, work hard, put in the hours.”

Johnson said she isn’t certain she will do all four events at the Pan-Am Games. She may skip the floor exercise, which is most difficult on her knee.

Karolyi said that putting together the world team was made more difficult by recent injuries to former U.S. all-around champion Rebecca Bross, who dislocated her knee at nationals in August, and Mackenzie Caquatto, who severely sprained an ankle at the final selection camp in Texas this week.

Joining Sacramone on the world team are 15-year-old McKayla Maroney from Laguna Niguel, who finished second in the all-around at the 2011 nationals; former UCLA standout and uneven bars specialist Anna Li; 2011 U.S. all-around champion Jordyn Wieber; Alexandra Raisman, who was part of the 2010 U.S. world silver medalist team; and newcomers Gabrielle Douglas, who trains with Johnson in Iowa, and Sabrina Vega of Carmel, N.Y.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: Shawn Johnson. Credit: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images.