A golden age for US

Men and women bring home three

By John Powers, Globe Staff, 8/24/2003

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- And the Great Orange County gold rush continues for the home folks. This time, it was a three-fer -- a double gold on uneven bars by Chellsie Memmel and Hollie Vise and a shared gold from Paul Hamm on floor exercise -- at the World Gymnastics Championships yesterday afternoon at Arrowhead Pond.

Taken with earlier victories by the Fantastic 5 in the women's team event and Hamm's triumph in the men's all-around, that brought the golden haul to five, the best American performance, and the total tally to seven, the most since 1979. And there'll be two more chances this afternoon with Memmel on balance beam and Blaine Wilson on parallel bars.

It was the first time the US had won three apparatus golds at a world meet since Kurt Thomas and Bart Conner produced three 24 years ago in Fort Worth. It was also the first time the Americans had shared one.

"That was, like, amazing," said Vise, after she and fellow 15-year-old Memmel had deadlocked to the thousandth of a point (9.612). "To have two of us in bars was great. To have two gold medals . . ."

For Vise, who splattered on her bars routine in the team event, it was sweet redemption. "I wanted this really bad," she said. "I messed up in team finals, so I had to show everyone what I could do."

Hamm, who had to wait nearly a year to get his floor bronze from the last meet (after Spanish silver medalist Gervasio Deferr finally was disqualified for doping), thought he had the gold alone until Bulgaria's Jordan Jovtchev matched his 9.762. "It would have been better to have it to myself," said Hamm, the most bemedaled US male at one meet since Thomas won six and Conner three. "But it feels just as good."

Share and share alike was yesterday's theme. Jovtchev, who gritted his way through two events on painfully bruised ribs, went on to split the gold on still rings (9.787) with Greece's Dimosthenis Tampakos, while Italy's Matteo Morandi and Andrea Coppolino shared bronze.

On men's pommel horse, China's Teng Haibin and Japan's Takehiro Kashima broke even to three places (9.762). And on women's vault, North Korea's Kang Yun Mi and Russia's Elena Zamolodchikova each took silver behind Uzbekistan's Oksana Chusovitina (9.481), the oldest female here. "This sport is not only for kids," declared the 28-year-old Chusovitina, whose 3-year-old son is being treated for leukemia in Germany.

There are medals for everybody now and the Americans, who left Olympus emptyhanded last time, aren't bashful about taking multiple helpings. "It's not the end, " proclaimed Stacy Maloney, Hamm's coach. "It's the beginning, as we turn into a world superpower."