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2003 Anaheim World Championships
Artistic Gymnastics 2003 Worlds logo
Official logo

City

Anaheim, USA

Venue

Arrowhead Pond (now known as the Honda Center)

Team Gold Medalist

USA

All-Around Gold Medalist

Svetlana Khorkina (RUS)

Vault Gold Medalist

Oksana Chusovitina (UZB)

Uneven Bars Gold Medalist

Chellsie Memmel (USA)
Hollie Vise (USA)

Balance Beam Gold Medalist

Fan Ye (CHN)

Floor Exercise Gold Medalist

Daiane Dos Santos (BRA)

Preceded by

2002 Debrecen World Championships

Succeeded by

2005 Melbourne World Championships

The 37th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Anaheim, California, United States, in 2003. These World Championships also served as qualifications into the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Format of Competition[]

All participating gymnasts, including those who were not part of a team, participated in a qualification round. The results of this competition determined which teams and individuals participated in the remaining competitions, which included:

  • The team competition, in which the eight highest scoring teams from qualifications competed. Each team of six gymnasts could only have three gymnasts perform on each apparatus, and all three scores counted toward the team total.
  • The all-around competition, in which only the twenty-four highest scoring individuals in the all-around competed. For the first time, each country was limited to only two gymnasts in the all-around final.
  • The event finals, in which the eight highest scoring individuals on each apparatus competed. Each country was limited to two gymnasts in each apparatus final.

Tie-breakers were not used at this competition. If two gymnasts received identical scores in the event finals, they were both awarded medals for their placement.

Results[]

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Team 800px-Flag of the United States (Pantone) USA

Terin Humphrey
Courtney Kupets
Chellsie Memmel
Carly Patterson
Tasha Schwikert
Hollie Vise

600px-Flag of Romania Romania

Oana Ban
Alexandra Eremia
Florica Leonida
Aura Andreea Munteanu
Cătălina Ponor
Monica Roşu

800px-Flag of Australia Australia

Monette Russo
Allana Slater
Belinda Archer
Jacqui Dunn
Danielle Kelly
Stephanie Moorehouse

All-Around 800px-Flag of Russia Svetlana Khorkina
Russia (RUS)
800px-Flag of the United States (Pantone) Carly Patterson
United States of America (USA)
800px-Flag of the People's Republic of China Zhang Nan
China (CHN)
Vault 500px-Flag of Uzbekistan Oksana Chusovitina
Uzbekistan (UZB)
800px-Flag of North Korea Kang Yun-Mi
North Korea (PRK)
800px-Flag of Russia Elena Zamolodchikova
Russia (RUS)
Uneven Bars 800px-Flag of the United States (Pantone) Chellsie Memmel
United States of America (USA)

800px-Flag of the United States (Pantone) Hollie Vise
United States of America (USA)

N/A 800px-Flag of the United Kingdom Beth Tweddle
Great Britain (GBR)
Balance Beam 800px-Flag of the People's Republic of China Fan Ye
China (CHN)
600px-Flag of Romania Cătălina Ponor
Romania (ROU)
800px-Flag of Russia Ludmila Ezhova
Russia (RUS)
Floor Exercise 720px-Flag of Brazil Daiane Dos Santos
Brazil (BRA)
600px-Flag of Romania Cătălina Ponor
Romania (ROU)
750px-Flag of Spain Elena Gómez
Spain (ESP)

Notable Moments[]

  • Coming into the team final, USA's Ashley Postell and Annia Hatch were sidelined with illness and injury. They had to call on their alternates, Terin Humphrey and Chellsie Memmel, to join the team. Then Courtney Kupets also became injured, but it was too late to call for more alternates. The Americans competed with five gymnasts, while the rest of the teams on the floor had six. They ended up winning their first World team gold medal. Kupets' name remained on the roster in the team final and received a medal when the Americans won.
  • The Australian team won the bronze medal, the highest placement for an Australian team at a World Championships.
  • Russia's Svetlana Khorkina became the first gymnast to win three World All-Around titles.
  • Oksana Chusovitina won Uzbekistan's first individual World gold medal since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
  • China's Fan Ye became the third Chinese gymnast to win the World title on balance beam, following Mo Huilan and Ling Jie. Incidentally, these three gymnasts all won their World beam titles the year before the Olympics.
  • Daiane Dos Santos became the first Brazilian World Champion.
  • The Longines Prize for Elegance was awarded to USA's Carly Patterson.

Controversy[]

  • The team final was plagued with falls, mistakes, and uncharacteristic low scores from pretty much every team on the floor, including Russia, Romania, and China. One particular incident centered around USA's Hollie Vise, when she almost performed on the uneven bars without her number on. Once the judges put up the green flag, the gymnast has thirty seconds to mount the apparatus. Vise's coach and teammates all scrambled around to find her number. Eventually, someone had to write her number on a piece of paper and pin it to the back of her leotard. Although this went way beyond thirty seconds, Vise was allowed to perform. Some people believed it to be an advantage until Vise fell during her routine.

Medal Count[]

Rank Country Gold-medal Silver-medal Bronze-medal Total
1 800px-Flag of the United States (Pantone) USA 3 1 0 4
2 800px-Flag of Russia Russia 1 0 2 3
3 600px-Flag of Romania Romania 0 3 0 3
4 800px-Flag of the People's Republic of China China 1 0 1 2
5 500px-Flag of Uzbekistan Uzbekistan 1 0 0 1
6 720px-Flag of Brazil Brazil 1 0 0 1
7 800px-Flag of North Korea North Korea 0 1 0 1
8 800px-Flag of Australia Australia 0 0 1 1
9 800px-Flag of the United Kingdom Great Britain 0 0 1 1
10 750px-Flag of Spain Spain 0 0 1 1

Gallery[]

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