World Championships 2003 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Great Britain

Great Britain actually placed 9th, which no one thought they could do. The Netherlands, 5th at the 2001 World Championships in Ghent, slipped all the way down to 16th place with the loss of many of their top gymnasts to injuries (including their star, Verona van de Leur), and inconsistent performances from their younger team members.

Italy also lost a key team member: Daria Sarkosh, and only managed to pull a 15th place ranking. Germany finished 13th, only .04 away from North Korea, who earned the final Olympic team berth.

Answer: Courtney Kupets

Samantha Sheehan was actually slated as first alternate in the beginning, but when she became the first member of team U.S.A. to go down with an injury, she was replaced with Pan American Games champion Chellsie Memmel. Then in Anaheim only a few days before the competition was scheduled to start, Courtney Kupets caught the flu and passed it to her roommate Ashley Postell. Kupets was weakened, but okay to compete. Postell was not, and was replaced with first alternate Chellsie Memmel.

Then Annia Hatch destroyed her knee in a training vault and in went second alternate Terin Humphrey. Team USA's problems were not yet over. Kupets too went down after competing in prelims: she tore her Achilles in training and the U.S went into finals short one gymnast. Fortunately it didn't matter: the new 3 up, 3 count finals format can be very favorable for this kind of situation.

Answer: Yelena Anoshina

Russia, who had previously always been a contender for the team gold, fielded a young, inexperienced team this time around and had to leave one of their stars from Ghent, Natalia Ziganshina, at home due to injury. Of the youngsters on the Russian team, Kryuchkova was made an alternate and didn't compete at Worlds.

Shevchenko bombed floor, Pavlova had problems with bars, and Anoshina fell all over the place in prelims. As for their veterans, Yelena Zamolodchikova was competing on a severely injured ankle, Lyudmila Yezhova bombed beam in team finals, and Svetlana Khorkina put in several sub par performances in team qualifications and finals.

Answer: China

The general consensus in the gymnastics community had been for a while, that China had all of the skills to be on top of the world, but not the consistency. However, they managed to put it together in prelims, and were absolutely fabulous.

Answer: Elena Gomez

Interestingly enough, it was Elena Gomez from Spain, Chellsie Memmel of the USA, and then Svetlana Khorkina of Russia. Carly Patterson was all the way down in seventh (fall on Arabian double front dismount off of balance beam).

Answer: Hollie Vise

In a gymnastics competition, once the judge turns the green light on, a gymnast has 30 seconds to mount the apparatus without incurring a deduction. Right before the green light went on for her to start her uneven bars routine, it was discovered that Vise was not wearing her official competition number (which would also have been a deduction).

After a mad scramble to find it, someone from the U.S. delegation grabbed a Sharpie, wrote her number on a piece of notebook paper, and pinned it to Vise's back.

The head judge okayed this, and Vise hit the bars just before her time ran out. Unfortunately, she was so flustered that she crashed her Jaeger, the U.S.'s only mistake in team finals. However, Vise came back strong for the U.S. on beam in the next rotation. Later in the week she went on to avenge herself further in the individual event finals on bars, tying with Chellsie Memmel to become the World Champion on that event.

Answer: Alexandra Shevchenko

Shevchenko's music was the James Bond theme, but it didn't seem to help her at all. She had a huge fall early in her routine. Not only did she fall out of bounds, she almost fell off the podium entirely. That alone would have taken Russia almost completely out of it, but then Shevchenko followed that pass up with a fall on her whip to triple full.

The Russian team went on to finish in sixth place, its lowest finish ever at a World Championships.

Answer: illegally warming up on the podium

With the elimination of the one-touch warm-up, it is now illegal to do actual gymnastics elements or anything other than some stretching while on the podium and waiting for the judge to turn on the green light. All three of China's gymnasts were doing parts of their routines on the podium while warming up, and so they incurred a deduction of 0.20.

This was enough to put them out of the medals and give the bronze to Australia, Australia's first ever medal for its women in a World Championships.

Answer: uneven bars

Romania's problems on bars stretch way back into the '90s. Head coach Octavian Belu said that they haven't had a true bars coach in many years, and their program has suffered as a result of that. In Anaheim, Romania lost its first World team title since 1994.

Answer: Marina Proskurina on vault

Unfortunately, nerves would be the downfall of the Ukrainian team, who like the Chinese, had beautiful, world-class gymnasts that could stand up to anyone in the world, but didn't have the consistency to back that up. However, Ukraine was the only country to qualify a gymnast to compete in every event final, a sign of their tremendous depth.

In team finals, Proskurina actually had a nice 1 and 1/2 twisting Yurchenko and scored 9. 262 for it. Ukraine was second after 2 rotations, even with Kozich falling on bars on her Jaeger.

However, that position in the standings didn't last long. Krasnyanska had a nice beam routine going until she put her hands down on her dismount (double back). Yarotskaya followed that with a fall right off the bat on her Yurchenko mount. Finally, on floor, Kvasha sealed Ukraine's fate by falling on her double front.

Answer: she had several major form breaks on the balance beam

Answer: Zhang Nan

Yarotskaya of Ukraine finished fourth, just out of the medals, and Zhang Nan became China's first gymnast ever to win an all-around medal at a World Championships.

Answer: Kang Xin for Fan Ye

Fan Ye actually finished fifth in prelims to qualify in to the all-around, but China's head coaches thought Kang was a better bet. She ended up in seventh place.

Answer: Oana Ban

Ban earned her highest marks on beam and floor, the highlight of her performances a laid-out full on beam. Her teammate Munteanu face planted her Jaeger on bars and finished 15th. Eremia finished just slightly behind Munteanu in qualifications and didn't make it to the all-around, falling victim to the new two-per-country rule for all-around brought into being by the Code of Points (good until 2008).

Answer: Daniele Hypolito

Brazilian Daniele Hypolito, who placed fourth all-around in 2001, injured herself on a tumbling pass on floor exercise (double pike) and was sidelined for the rest of the meet, but her coaches and gymnastics federation later said that the injury was not very serious and that Hypolito would be fine.

Answer: First World medal for North Korean women

Daiane dos Santos of Brazil earned the first World title for Brazil on the floor exercise, beating out Catalina Ponor of Romania and dethroning reigning World Champion Elena Gomez of Spain. Oksana Chusovitina, 28 years old and with a 3 year old son, earned her second World title, 12 years after she earned the first one in 1991 (for the then Soviet Union). Elizabeth (Beth) Tweddle of Great Britain took her historic bronze on bars behind Americans Hollie Vise and Chellsie Memmel, who tied for gold.

The PRK did win a women's medal (silver on vault) and came close to winning another on bars, but it was not their first World medal (notably, Kim Gwang-Suk was World Champion on uneven bars in 1991).

Answer: Elena Gomez

Gomez mounted with a Yurchenko, while Ponor had a simpler "step-on" mount and Krasnyanska and Memmel both had a press to handstand.

Answer: Fan Ye

Li Ya, the other Chinese gymnast to make that final, finished fourth behind Fan's tremendous 9.812, Ponor of Romania's 9.587, and Lyudmila Yezhova of Russia's 9.55, scoring a 9.45 out of a 9.8 Start Value.

Answer: Kang Yun Mi

That vault was the 2 and 1/2 twisting Yurchenko (or the Amanar), performed by Kang Yun Mi of the People's Republic of Korea. Kang eventually finished second in the final, tied with "Zamo," and behind Chusovitina of Uzbekistan.

Answer: Suzanne Harmes on floor exercise

The Dutch team had been expected to be such a force at this World Championships, but it not only failed to qualify a team to the Olympic Games, it also failed to qualify more than one gymnast to any event final and only one gymnast to the all-around. In both instances, that gymnast was Suzanne Harmes, and she went on to finish sixth on floor exercise and 17th in the all-around.