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2006 Aarhus World Championships
Screen Shot 2012-08-09 at 6.32.53 AM
NRGi Arena during the competition

City

Aarhus, Denmark

Venue

NRGi Arena

Team Gold Medalist

China

All-Around Gold Medalist

Vanessa Ferrari (ITA)

Vault Gold Medalist

Cheng Fei (CHN)

Uneven Bars Gold Medalist

Beth Tweddle (GBR)

Balance Beam Gold Medalist

Iryna Krasnianska (UKR)

Floor Exercise Gold Medalist

Cheng Fei (CHN)

Preceded by

2005 Melbourne World Championships

Succeeded by

2007 Stuttgart World Championships

The 39th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Aarhus, Denmark from October 13 to October 21, 2006 in NRGi Arena.

It was the first time the World Gymnastics Championships was organized by a Danish city. The International Gymnastics Federation, which celebrated the 125th anniversary of its foundation in 2006, introduced the new Code of Points into the World Championships for the first time. The new code breaks the limit of "perfect" 10 points.

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. 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.

Results[]

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Team 800px-Flag of the People's Republic of China China

Zhou Zhuoru
Zhang Nan
Cheng Fei
Pang Panpan
He Ning
Li Ya

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

Jana Bieger
Natasha Kelley
Nastia Liukin
Chellsie Memmel
Ashley Priess
Alicia Sacramone

800px-Flag of Russia Russia

Anna Grudko
Svetlana Klyukina
Polina Miller
Anna Pavlova
Kristina Pravdina
Elena Zamolodchikova

All-Around 800px-Flag of Italy Vanessa Ferrari
Italy (ITA)
800px-Flag of the United States (Pantone) Jana Bieger
United States of America (USA)
600px-Flag of Romania Sandra Izbaşa
Romania (ROU)
Vault 800px-Flag of the People's Republic of China Cheng Fei
China (CHN)
800px-Flag of the United States (Pantone) Alicia Sacramone
United States of America (USA)
800px-Flag of Germany Oksana Chusovitina
Germany (GER)
Uneven Bars 800px-Flag of the United Kingdom Beth Tweddle
Great Britain (GBR)
800px-Flag of the United States (Pantone) Nastia Liukin
United States of America (USA)
800px-Flag of Italy Vanessa Ferrari
Italy (ITA)
Balance Beam 800px-Flag of Ukraine Iryna Krasnianska
Ukraine (UKR)
600px-Flag of Romania Sandra Izbaşa
Romania (ROU)
800px-Flag of Canada Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs
Canada (CAN)
Floor Exercise 800px-Flag of the People's Republic of China Cheng Fei
China (CHN)
800px-Flag of the United States (Pantone) Jana Bieger
United States of America (USA)
800px-Flag of Italy Vanessa Ferrari
Italy (ITA)

Notable Moments[]

  • The Chinese won the team gold medal for the first time in history.
  • Romania failed to medal in the team final for the first time since 1981.
  • Vanessa Ferrari became the first Italian to win the World All-Around title (albeit controversially - see below).
  • Beth Tweddle became the first World Champion from Great Britain.
  • Iryna Krasnianska became the first Ukrainian World Champion since Lilia Podkopayeva in 1995.
  • Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs became the first Canadian gymnast to win an individual World medal.

Controversy[]

  • Italy's Vanessa Ferrari won the World All-Around title after falling off the balance beam. This placed her out of the medals after the third rotation, but she fought back on the floor, sticking her tumbling passes and clinching the gold medal. She finished ahead of several athletes who, unlike her, did not fall, notably the rest of the top 5: Jana Bieger, Sandra Izbaşa, Steliana Nistor, and Dasha Joura. Ferrari was the first woman ever to win a World Championship with a fall under the "New Life" system (prior to 1989, scores from the team competition counted towards the all-around title, therefore gymnasts were assessed on twelve routines rather than four, making the deduction for a fall easier to absorb). Nicolae Forminte, the coach of the Romanian athletes in third and fourth, lashed out at the result, declaring Bieger the rightful winner and presumably his own athletes the silver and bronze medalists. Consequently, the new code came under fire from experts and fans alike. However, FIG president Bruno Grandi has said the new code needs no changes.

Medal Count[]

Rank Country Gold-medal Silver-medal Bronze-medal Total
1 800px-Flag of the United States (Pantone) USA 0 5 0 5
2 800px-Flag of the People's Republic of China China 3 0 0 3
3 800px-Flag of Italy Italy 1 0 2 3
4 600px-Flag of Romania Romania 0 1 1 2
5 800px-Flag of the United Kingdom Great Britain 1 0 0 1
6 800px-Flag of Ukraine Ukraine 1 0 0 1
7 800px-Flag of Russia Russia 0 0 1 1
8 800px-Flag of Germany Germany 0 0 1 1
9 800px-Flag of Canada Canada 0 0 1 1
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