Alicia Sacramone Wins World Championship On Floor
November 27, 2005 | Gymnastics
Nov. 27, 2005
Future UCLA gymnast Alicia Sacramone won the gold medal on floor exercise and the bronze medal on vault at the 2005 World Gymnastics Championships in Melbourne, Australia.
Sacramone scored a 9.612 with tumbling that included an Arabian double front opening pass and a triple twist final pass. Her U.S. teammate Nastia Liukin won silver (9.425), and Suzanne Harmes of the Netherlands won the bronze (9.212).
"I'm ecstatic," Sacramone said. "I didn't have any expectations. I just came here to do my best, and it happened. I just tried to make my passes consistent, make clean jumps and just do the best that I could."
On vault, she competed a clean double-twisting laid-out Yurchenko and then stuck a layout Rudi for a two-score average of 9.412. China's Cheng Fei, who vaulted two 10.0-start value vaults, won the gold with an average of 9.656. Thirty-year-old Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan edged out Sacramone for the silver, scoring 9.418.
The U.S. women finished the World Championships with nine medals, including gold on three events (Liukin on bars and beam and Sacramone on floor). The U.S. went 1-2 in the all-around, with gold going to Chellsie Memmel, and silver to Liukin. Memmel also captured silver medals on bars and beam.
When Sacramone joins the Bruins, she will be the first individual world gold medalist to compete for UCLA. Sophomore Tasha Schwikert won team gold in 2003.
