Romanian Edges the United States' Johnson for Gold Medal; Liukin Earns Bronze
By Liz Clarke
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 18, 2008
BEIJING, Aug. 17 -- Part acrobatics and part artistry, women's gymnastics is at its most breathtaking when its two dimensions, so often in conflict, are seamlessly melded.
With the floor exercise as her canvas, Romania's Sandra Izbasa did that ever so slightly better than America's best, Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin, in the eyes of Olympic judges on Sunday.
The result relegated Johnson and Liukin to silver and bronze after the floor exercise gold was bestowed upon Izbasa, 18, the last gymnast to compete among the field of eight.
Johnson and Liukin, friends and roommates here at the Athletes' Village, now have three Olympic medals apiece. Last week they led the U.S. women to the team silver medal. Then they finished 1-2 in the individual all-around, with Liukin winning gold and Johnson claiming silver.
It appeared their roles would be reversed until the final moments of Sunday's competition at Beijing's National Indoor Stadium.
Johnson, 16, was the first gymnast up, and radiated confidence and charisma throughout her routine, delivering a performance as brassy as her purple sequined leotard. She bounded off the gym floor with an enormous smile. And her score -- 15.500 -- withstood challenges from the next six competitors, including Liukin.
At 5 feet 3 inches, Liukin is six inches taller than Johnson. And while she lacks the power to pull off stunts such as the 2 1/2 twisting backflip that concludes Johnson's floor routine, Liukin compensates with tumbling passes that accentuate her long limbs and are connected by dance steps that flaunt her artistry.
Judges awarded Liukin the highest execution marks (9.225), which offset her relatively low "start value" -- the measure of a routine's difficulty. The final score, 15.425, moved Liukin into silver, just behind Johnson.
Izbasa was hardly daunted by the Americans' marks. At 5-5 and 110 pounds, she is towering for a female gymnast. And she delivered the most technically difficult routine of the evening (its 6.500 start value one-tenth of a point higher than Johnson's) to near perfection, clinching the gold with 15.650.
Johnson met her with an embrace, as she does all her rivals, fairly sure that the Romanian had nudged her from the gold even before Izbasa's score was posted.
But if she was disappointed over a third silver medal, Johnson was far too polite to suggest it.
"Seeing how beautiful her routine was today -- she stuck all of her landings -- I pretty much knew she had it," Johnson said of Izbasa. "And she deserved it."
Izbasa's triumph was welcome news for Romania, which has seen its dominance of women's gymnastics eclipsed in recent years. And within moments, Izbasa received a congratulatory phone call from Romania's president.
No such honors will be bestowed on China's Cheng Fei, however. Cheng was considered the favorite to win two golds Sunday -- on vault, as a three-time world champion; and on floor exercise, as the top qualifier for the final.
But on the second of her two mandatory vaults, she fell forward on her shins upon landing, finishing with bronze. Cheng's floor routine was marred by an ugly tumble, and she ended up seventh and in tears.
Johnson took no joy in Cheng's struggles, or those of any other gymnast, even though each rival's setback helped solidify her temporary hold on the gold.
"Knowing everything that I've gone through to get here, I know that everybody else out there has given just that much or even more," Johnson said afterward. "I want them to do their best, because they've given their life and heart to this sport. Seeing anybody fall -- Cheng Fei fall -- it tears you apart just because if that was you, you'd know how painful it was."
But veteran gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi, in Beijing as an analyst for NBC, couldn't help but view each gymnast's routine -- and the scores that followed -- with a sharply critical eye.
In an interview after the competition, Karolyi expressed outrage that Cheng wasn't penalized more for her fall on the vault.
Had Cheng been scored more harshly (even by as little as 0.053 of a point), American Alicia Sacramone would have won bronze on the vault rather than finishing fourth.
"That was a highway robbery," Karolyi said of Cheng's bronze. "She shouldn't have won anything. You can't fall on your face and be rewarded with an Olympic medal, there's no way. There is no explanation."
North Korea's Hong Un Jong was the surprise gold medal winner, finishing with 15.650 points (the average of the gymnasts' two vaults). Taking silver was Oksana Chusovitina (15.575 points), a 33-year-old Uzbekistan native who competed for the Soviet Union before moving to Germany to seek medical care for her son's leukemia.
Cheng took the bronze with 15.562 points. And Sacramone's final score was 15.537.
In the men's pommel horse final, Sasha Artemev, 22, the lone American contender, started strong but flew off the apparatus with about 25 seconds remaining in his routine.
China won two golds, bringing its total gymnastics gold medals to five.
Xiao Qin won gold on the pommel house (15.875), and Zou Kai won gold on the floor exercise (16.050 points).
For Johnson and Liukin, the competition continues. Liukin will battle for a medal on the uneven bars on Monday and join Johnson in the balance beam finals on Tuesday. American Jonathan Horton of Houston competes on the horizontal bar on Tuesday.
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