17. August 2004  
Olympic City Athens  
Artistic Gymnastics

WOMEN s TEAM FINAL: Third Olympic Gold for Romania

Romania
- Olympic gold following the ECh's title!

Being the clearly best team today evening the Romanian women's artistic gymnastics team defended their Olympic gold medal from Sydney with the score of 114.283. This is their 3rd Olympic team title after Los Angeles 1984 and Sydney 2000.
Their strongest competitor USA won the silver medal with the score of 113.584.
Getting stronger through the course of the competition Russia secured themselves the Olympic bronze medal with the score of 112.235….

The Romanians on the way to the Olympic Hall at the Olympic test event

1st ROTATION
 Already from the first rotation on the clear favourite Romania took the lead on vault but the difference to the 3 following teams USA, Russia (all on vault) and China was only narrow. Most gymnasts presented a double-twisting Yurchenko.
Ukraine also stayed close to the top teams on floor. European Champion Alina Kozich presented a great routine starting with handspring fw., layout fw., double tucked fw.,. For this routine she received the score of 9.650. Unfortunately her team mate Mirabella Akhunu had some problems and only received the score of 8.975…
1st ROTATION, Standing
1. ROM 28,437
2. USA 28,387
3. RUS 28,325
4.CHN 28,149
5. UKR 27,987
6. ESP 27,837
7. FRA 27,449
8. AUS 27,324

World Champion Courtney Kupets

2nd ROTATION
 The USA then wanted to follow with fireworks in perfection on uneven bars including the routine of World Champion Courtney Kupets. Kupets received the highest score on this apparatus with 9.662. However, her team mate Carly Patterson had a few problems during her routine (9.287)…
Also Oana Ban with problems on uneven bars (9.187) but her team mates followed with better performances. Monica Rosu scored 9.387 and Nicoletta Sofronie 9.562. Nonetheless the US team got 4 tenth ahead of them.
Russia started on uneven bars with Natalia Ziganshina who already did not have her best day during the qualification. Also today with problems after her Markelov and the score of 9.05…
Ezhova followed with 9.437 and Svetlana Chorkina earned the highest score for her team on uneven bars (9.650). It was obvious she wanted to avoid mistakes for her team and her routine seemed a bit cautious. Rank 3 after the second rotation secured for Russia!
Despite of technically perfect abilities China could not improve their team position on uneven bars: Fan Ye fell on her Tsukahara dismount and only received the score of 8.537. China dropped down to rank 5 behind Ukraine.
2nd ROTATION, Standing:
1. USA (28,524) =56,911
2. ROM (28,136) =56,573
3. RUS (28,137) =56,462
4. UKR (28,099) 56,086
5. CHN (27,549) 55,698
6. FRA 55,611
7. ESP 55,436
8. AUS 54,773

Catalina Ponor
- Highest score of the day!

3rd ROTATION:
China again with problems although they are usually known for perfection also on beam. The youngest team which China had ever sent to Olympic Games probably needs some more time until Bejing 2008. 2 falls from Li,Ya (8.300) dropped their team down to rank 5.
As expected on beam the Romanians presented themselves great. Catalina Ponor presented a perfect routine which earned her the highest score of the day on this apparatus, 9.762!
Also Russia improved with good routines from Ezhova and Pavlova and a faultless performance from Svetlana Chorkina. The silver medalist from Sydney now was on the way to a bronze medal in Athens.
The USA received loud cheers from the audience but didn’t manage to overtake the high scores of the Romanians. However, they clearly secured their distance towards the Russians behind them. The 25-year old Mohini Bhardwaj presented a faultless and solid routine. Her team mate Carly Patterson thrilled the audience with her difficult dismount of ff- arabian (9.612).
Meanwhile Spain had overtaken China who now found themselves on rank 6…
3rd ROTATION, Standing:
1. ROM (28,961) = 85,534
2. USA (28,499) = 85,410
3. RUS (28,511) = 84,973
4. UKR = 84,285
5. ESP (28,412) = 83,848
6. CHN = 82,922)
7. FRA = 82,622
8. AUS (27,10) = 81,873
4th ROTATION
... and the bad luck for the Asians continued also on floor: Wang, Tiantian only 8.637, then Zhang, Nan with only 8.787 and one of the top ranks this time was definitely gone for China. However, in the last routine Cheng, Fei showed the true potential of this team with a great routine including double-double, piked full-in, 2 1/2 twists – layout fw., triple twist (9.662).
A lot of cheers from the audience for Svetlana Chorkina for her charming floor routine to Greek sounds “Good bye, my love, Good bye…”. However, the last floor routine of her unique career will only be presented on Thursday in the all-around final.
With the score of 113.238 the Russians clearly kept their 3rd rank which earned them the bronze medal.
Courtney Kupets (USA) made a mistake in a pirouette in one combination. This caused a SV of only 9.6 and a final score of only 9.187. Floor finalist Mohini Bhardwaj presented a dynamic routine for which she received the score of 9.325. The 9.662 of Carly Patterson in the end secured her team the silver medal, the second one for the USA after 1984 and the third team medal for them after also the gold medal in Atlanta.
Romania proved on floor why they were the gold medalists of this women’s team final. Nicoletta Sofronie started with 9.562, Oana Ban followed with 9.437 and the highest score was reached by Catalina Ponor with a very beautiful routine including piked full-in, 2 1/2 twists –summersault piked fw., triple twist, double piked bw. – 9.750!

The Romanians happily hugged each other after winning the 3rd team gold in the Olympic history (1984, 2000, 2004) for their country. But also the teams on the following ranks can be happy with their performances.
The Spanish team managed to improve through the course of the competition especially through their best gymnast Elena Gomez, they ended up on rank 5 (like at home in Barcelona 1992) in front of France, China and Australia who again had quite a bit of bad luck today.
FINAL STANDING, 4th rotation:
1. ROM (28,749) = 114,283
2. USA (28,174) = 113,584
3. RUS (28,162) = 113,238
4. UKR = 112,309
5. ESP = 111,572
6. FRA = 110,159
6. CHN (27,086) = 110,008
8. AUS (28,262) = 108,235

>> detailled official results