U.S. gymnastics wraps up most successful World Championships ever

By Nick ZaccardiOct 6, 2013, 11:33 AM EDT

The U.S. gymnastics team dominated the World Championships like never before, winning 12 medals (three gold), including five on the final day of competition Sunday.

Simone Biles, 16, was the standout again, winning the floor exercise final. She finished her first international meet with four medals. She also won bronze on balance beam Sunday to give her two golds, one silver and one bronze for the meet.

Kyla Ross, the youngest member of the Olympic team, won her third silver medal in four days in Antwerp, Belgium, this time on beam behind Russian Aliya Mustafina.

On the men’s side, Steven Legendre (silver, vault) and John Orozco (bronze parallel bars) also won medals.

The U.S. won the overall medal count at a worlds or Olympics for the first time since 2005. Its previous medal high was nine at the 2005 World Championships, where all of the medals were won by the women.

China led the medal count at every worlds and Olympics (artistic gymnastics only) from 2006 to 2012.

The Chinese will look to regain the top spot at the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, China, which will include a team competition, unlike this past week’s event.

Here are full results, recaps and videos from Sunday’s event finals:

Women’s Floor Exercise

Gold: Simone Biles (USA) 15
Silver: Vanessa Ferrari (ITA) 14.633
Bronze: Larisa Iordache (ROU) 14.6
4. Mai Murakami (JPN) 14.466
5. Giulia Steingruber (SUI) 14.333
5. Kyla Ross (USA) 14.333
7. Sandra Izbasa (ROU) 13.733
8. Elsabeth Black (CAN) 13.566

Biles wrapped up one of the most successful World Championships by a single athlete ever. She won medals on every event except one, uneven bars, where she finished fourth.

The only other U.S. female gymnasts to win four medals at a single World Championships were Rebecca Bross in 2010 and Nastia Liukin in 2005.

Women’s Balance Beam

Gold: Aliya Mustafina (RUS) 14.9
Silver: Kyla Ross (USA) 14.833
Bronze: Simone Biles (USA) 14.333
4. Vanessa Ferrari (ITA) 14.3
5. Carlotta Ferlito (ITA) 14.283
6. Chunsong Shang (CHN) 14.133
7. Larisa Ioradache (ROU) 13.933
8. Anna Rodionova (RUS) 13.1

Mustafina won the only event she didn’t win a medal in at the 2010 World Championships. She picked up her third medal of worlds, adding to her bronze in the all-around and the uneven bars.

All of the medalists submitted scoring inquiries, disputing their original scores. Ross’ and Biles’ were upheld, moving Ross from 14.733 to 14.833 and Biles from 14.133 to 14.333. That lifted Biles into bronze-medal position.

Ross won her third silver medal of the meet (all-around, uneven bars). Biles added the bronze to her all-around gold and vault silver.

Men’s Vault

Gold: Yang Hak-Seon (KOR) 15.533
Silver: Steven Legendre (USA) 15.249
Bronze: Kristian Thomas (GBR) 15.233
4. Kenzo Shirai (JPN) 15.133
5. Sergio Sasaki Junior (BRA) 15.099
6. Diego Hypolito (BRA) 15.049
7. Marius Daniel Berbecar (ROU) 14.850
8. Oleg Verniaiev (UKR) 14.449

Yang entered as the reigning world and Olympic champion and the favorite. He performed last out of the eight men and posted a 15.733 on the first of his two vaults. That marked the highest score of the competition and pretty much wrapped up the gold.

Legendre ended the longest drought in event finals in U.S. gymnastics, men or women. An American had not won a medal in men’s vault at the Olympics or World Championship since Mitch Gaylord’s silver at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

Men’s Parallel Bars

Gold: Kohei Uchimura (JPN) 15.666
Gold: Lin Chaopan (CHN) 15.666
Bronze: John Orozco (USA) 15.333
4. Epke Zonderland (NED) 15.3
5. Marius Daniel Berbecar (ROU) 15
6. Brandon Wynn (USA) 14.266
7. Vasileios Tsolakidis (GRE) 13.433
8. Anton Fokin (UZB) 12.466

Unlike the Olympics, there are no medal tiebreakers at the World Championships. Uchimura and Lin’s tie marked the first double gold at a worlds event since the men’s parallel bars final in 2007.

Uchimura won his third medal of the meet and 12th career worlds medal. Orozco won his first career individual worlds or Olympic medal after blowing out his left knee at a post-Olympics tour stop in October. Only one of the finalists from the 2012 Olympics was in this final (Tsolakidis). The 2011 world champion on parallel bars, American Danell Leyva, withdrew from the U.S. team with a shoulder injury.

Men’s High Bar

Gold: Epke Zonderland (NED) 16
Silver: Fabian Hambuechen (GER) 15.933
Bronze: Kohei Uchimura (JPN) 15.633
4. Sam Mikulak (USA) 15.566
5. Jossimar Orlando Calvo Moreno (COL) 15.466
6. Andreas Bretschneider (GER) 15.158
7. Ryohei Kato (JPN) 15.025
8. Lin Chaopan (CHN) 14.9

The high-flying Dutchman Zonderland followed up his Olympic gold medal on the most exciting event in gymnastics. Hambuechen was the 2007 world champion on high bar. Uchimura won his fourth medal of the meet and 13th of his career.

Mikulak, the U.S. all-around champion, was trying to win his first medal at worlds after stumbling on his final event in the all-around to finish sixth.

Impressed? McKayla Maroney wins vault world title (video)

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Football takes significant step in Olympic push

By OlympicTalkMar 29, 2023, 2:18 PM EDT

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Football took another step toward possible Olympic inclusion with the IOC executive board proposing that the sport’s international federation — the IFAF — be granted full IOC recognition at a meeting in October.

IOC recognition does not equate to eventual Olympic inclusion, but it is a necessary early marker if a sport is to join the Olympics down the line. The IOC gave the IFAF provisional recognition in 2013.

Specific measures are required for IOC recognition, including having an anti-doping policy compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency and having 50 affiliated national federations from at least three continents. The IFAF has 74 national federations over five continents with almost 4.8 million registered athletes, according to the IOC.

The NFL has helped lead the push for flag football to be added for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Flag football had medal events for men and women at last year’s World Games, a multi-sport competition including Olympic and non-Olympic sports, in Birmingham, Alabama.

Football is one of nine sports that have been reported to be in the running to be proposed by LA 2028 to the IOC to be added for the 2028 Games only. LA 2028 has not announced which, if any sports, it plans to propose.

Under rules instituted before the Tokyo Games, Olympic hosts have successfully proposed to the IOC adding sports solely for their edition of the Games.

For Tokyo, baseball-softball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were added. For Paris, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing were approved again, and breaking will make its Olympic debut. Those sports were added four years out from the Games.

For 2028, the other sports reportedly in the running for proposal are baseball and softball, breaking, cricket, karate, kickboxing, lacrosse, motorsports and squash.

All of the other eight sports reportedly in the running for 2028 proposal already have a federation with full IOC recognition (if one counts the international motorcycle racing federation for motorsports).

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Helen Maroulis stars in wrestling documentary, with help from Chris Pratt

By Nick ZaccardiMar 29, 2023, 10:05 AM EDT

Getty

One of the remarkable recent Olympic comeback stories is the subject of a film that will be shown nationwide in theaters for one day only on Thursday.

“Helen | Believe” is a documentary about Helen Maroulis, the first U.S. Olympic women’s wrestling champion. It is produced by Religion of Sports, the venture founded by Gotham Chopra, Michael Strahan and Tom Brady. Showing details are here.

After taking gold at the 2016 Rio Games, Maroulis briefly retired in 2019 during a two-year stretch in which she dealt with concussions and post-traumatic stress disorder. The film focuses on that period and her successful bid to return and qualify for the Tokyo Games, where she took bronze.

In a poignant moment in the film, Maroulis described her “rock bottom” — being hospitalized for suicidal ideations.

In an interview, Maroulis said she was first approached about the project in 2018, the same year she had her first life-changing concussion that January. A wrestling partner’s mother was connected to director Dylan Mulick.

Maroulis agreed to the film in part to help spread mental health awareness in sports. Later, she cried while watching the 2020 HBO film, “The Weight of Gold,” on the mental health challenges that other Olympians faced, because it resonated with her so much.

“When you’re going through something, it sometimes gives you an anchor of hope to know that someone’s been through it before, and they’ve overcome it,” she said.

Maroulis’ comeback story hit a crossroads at the Olympic trials in April 2021, where the winner of a best-of-three finals series in each weight class made Team USA.

Maroulis won the opening match against Jenna Burkert, but then lost the second match. Statistically, a wrestler who loses the second match in a best-of-three series usually loses the third. But Maroulis pinned Burkert just 22 seconds into the rubber match to clinch the Olympic spot.

Shen then revealed that she tore an MCL two weeks earlier.

“They told me I would have to be in a brace for six weeks,” she said then. “I said, ‘I don’t have that. I have two and a half.’”

Maroulis said she later asked the director what would have happened if she didn’t make the team for Tokyo. She was told the film still have been done.

“He had mentioned this isn’t about a sports story or sports comeback story,” Maroulis said. “This is about a human story. And we’re using wrestling as the vehicle to tell this story of overcoming and healing and rediscovering oneself.”

Maroulis said she was told that, during filming, the project was pitched to the production company of actor Chris Pratt, who wrestled in high school in Washington. Pratt signed on as a producer.

“Wrestling has made an impact on his life, and so he wants to support these kinds of stories,” said Maroulis, who appeared at last month’s Santa Barbara Film Festival with Pratt.

Pratt said he knew about Maroulis before learning about the film, which he said “needed a little help to get it over the finish line,” according to a public relations company promoting the film.

The film also highlights the rest of the six-woman U.S. Olympic wrestling team in Tokyo. Four of the six won a medal, including Tamyra Mensah-Stock‘s gold.

“I was excited to be part of, not just (Maroulis’) incredible story, but also helping to further advance wrestling and, in particular, female wrestling,” Pratt said, according to responses provided by the PR company from submitted questions. “To me, the most compelling part of Helen’s story is the example of what life looks like after a person wins a gold medal. The inevitable comedown, the trauma around her injuries, the PTSD, the drive to continue that is what makes her who she is.”

Maroulis, who now trains in Arizona, hopes to qualify for this year’s world championships and next year’s Olympics.

“I try to treat every Games as my last,” she said. “Now I’m leaning toward being done [after 2024], but never say never.”

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