Looking Back At The 2003 World Championships In Anaheim

#15YearsLater

Prior to the start of the competition the U.S. team lost Ashley Postell to a stomach virus and Annia Hatch to a torn ACL. The alternates, Chellsie Memmel and Terin Humphrey were flown in to replace them.

During the qualification round, China came in first place but in the actual team final they would end up fourth due to a 0.2 penalization for having Fan Ye warm up on the podium prior to her beam routine.

Qualified in first place to the all-around, you will never guess, no it was not Khorkina or Patterson, it was Spain’s Elena Gómez who at the time was the defending World Floor Champion. Elena would end up fifth in the actual all-around final.

And talking about defending Champions, Courtney Kupets who was the defending champion on bars qualified second on the apparatus but she would not make it past the preliminary round, she would rupture her Achilles tendon prior to the team final.

And talking about the team final, it was drama for team USA when coaches realized Hollie Vise didn’t have her back number attached and she had already signaled to begin her bars routine. They quickly scribbled the number on a piece of paper and pinned it to her back, however, upset Hollie fell on her piked Jeager.

In the end, the United States would win their first World Team Title because Hollie’s fall ended up being the country’s only major mistake with strong performances everywhere in all the remaining apparatus. The win for the United States marked a broken streak for the Romanians who had won the last five World Team Titles.

Romania was struggling; they were 8^th on the uneven bars and had to count a fall on Floor from Andreea Munteanu. In third, Australia, with China’s neutral penalization and a steady performance of the Aussie team that saw them place first on bars they won team bronze. Their victory became Peggy Liddick’s first major achievement, at the time she had been Head Coach of the Australian program for 7 years.

And you might be wondering, and where was Russia? Well, they saw any chance of a medal slip when their first performer on their first apparatus Floor, Alexandra Schevchenko scored a 7.575 on Floor. This was roughly two points behind what top gymnasts were scoring at the time. Alexandra has said she was inexperienced and that Worlds were her first international meet.

But Russia would have their victory moment with Svetlana Khorkina winning her third World All-Around Title. It was the only final Khorkina made, shockingly despite not counting a fall in the qualification round she did not advance to the bars final.

In the event finals, Kang Yun Mi from North Korea presented an Amanar, a rarely seen vault at the time. She placed second to 28-year-old Oksana Chusovitina who with her victory won her sixth World medal on vault.

In the uneven bars final, a tie was registered for the gold medal between Chellsie Memmel and Hollie Vise. Hollie had qualified to the bars final as the third best American on the apparatus but with the two-per-country rule she was set to miss it, but when the injury to Courtney Kupets happened she automatically gained a spot in the final. This success was added to Carly Patterson winning silver in the all-around and while Carly would upgrade her result at the Olympics a year later neither Chellsie nor Hollie would make it to Athens.

Fan Ye found redemption during the beam final by taking gold and by a wide margin. Her success was added to Zhang Nan’s bronze medal in the all-around. Zhang would equal her result at the Olympics.

In the Floor final the defending champion, Elena Gómez, finished third. In first place and making history for her country was 20-year-old Daiane Dos Santos. Sandwiched between them was Romania’s new star, Catalina Ponor who was the silver girl after finishing second on beam and Floor. She would upgrade her results to gold at the Olympics and have a long career with several hiatus in the middle.

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