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Spain Upsets Bulgaria to Win Team Gold

ATHENS, Ga. — Spain upset reigning world champion Bulgaria to win the first Olympic gold medal in rhythmic group gymnastics Friday.

The individual competition, meanwhile, pared its field from 37 to 20, and American Jessica Davis did not make the cut. The 18-year-old from San Anselmo, Calif., was 30th. The top 20 advance to semifinals Saturday, with the best 10 from that round advancing to Sunday’s finals.

Medals have been awarded in individual rhythmic since 1984. But the five-person version of the sport, which emphasizes the handling of instruments over acrobatics, made its debut at these games. A U.S. team was in the field by virtue of being the host, but it finished last in Thursday’s preliminaries.

Bulgaria won last year’s world title and was the top qualifier in preliminaries. Spain was second in both. Rhythmic scoring is split equally between composition and execution, and both countries received 10s for the composition of their two routines.

The teams also tied on the execution scores of the routine involving three balls and two ribbons, so the deciding factor was Spain’s .067 edge in the competition featuring five hoops.

Russia, which finished between Spain and Bulgaria in the hoop round, won the bronze medal. France, China and Belarus followed.

Spain’s hoop routine, the difference-maker, was easily the best of the day as the five gymnasts were perfectly in synch and nicely choreographed to their music — a medley mostly featuring "I Want To Be An American" from "West Side Story."

The gymnasts dove through the plastic rings and made several difficult catches. One even threw her ring high in the air and bounced it off her chest directly to a teammate.

As they finished, the performers saluted the judges and turned to thank several groups of Spanish fans, a handful of whom waved Spain’s flag. As each gymnast had a medal placed around her neck, the fans chanted: "Ole."

Plenty of U.S. flags popped up for Davis’ routine in the morning session, but it wasn’t enough to spur her into the semifinals.

After a solid club performance and a good start on the ribbon, she botched it all with a careless miss of a simple behind-the-back ribbon toss.

"I made some mistakes, but I tried my hardest," said Davis, who was 24th at last year’s world championships. "It’s just been an amazing experience."

The top two semifinal qualifiers were the Ukranian tandem of Ekaterina Serebryanskaya and Elena Vitrichenko. Serebryanskaya tied for last year’s world championship with Bulgaria’s Maria Petrova, who also advanced.