Romania Sweeps Women's Gymnastics All-Around

S Y D N E Y, Australia, Sept. 21 -- With bright eyes and a captivatingsmile reminiscent of another Romanian darling, tiny Andreea Raducancaptured the women’s gymnastics all-around gold medal today —and the fans’ hearts, too.

Only 4-foot-10 and nine days shy of her 17th birthday, Raducaneasily won with 38.893 points, the first Romanian to take theall-around gold since Nadia Comaneci in 1976.

As if that wasn’t triumph enough for the Romanian team, whichalso won the team gold, Simona Amanar and Maria Olaru took thesilver and the bronze medals. It’s the first time a country hasswept the all-around since the former Soviet Union did it in 1960.

Standing Tall

When Raducan finished her floor exercise, her last routine, theRomanian team began a raucous celebration. Amanar and Olaruexchanged hugs with their coaches, while team coach Octavian Belugrabbed Raducan and put her on his shoulders.

She stood tall, waving to the crowd and blowing kisses, a widesmile on her face, as the crowd cheered.

It didn’t even matter that she had to wait another 15 minutesfor the results to become official as five gymnasts — includingAmerican Elise Ray — repeated their vaults. The vault was set toolow in the first two rotations, and gymnasts were given the optionof doing their vaults over.

Americans Shut Out

The Americans, so lively and chipper during the team finalsTuesday, were back to being their boring, bad selves. Ray finished14th, Amy Chow was 15th and Kristen Maloney was 20th.

Ray got into trouble at the start of the night, stumbling on thelanding of her first vault and landing flat on her backside on thesecond. She scored a 7.816, one of the lowest scores in the entiremeet, but was allowed to do her vaults over.

She scored a 9.487, not enough to push her back into contention.

The national champion also had other mistakes, falling off thebeam and stepping out of bounds on floor. She has one last chanceat a medal in the event finals — and one more chance to keep theU.S. women from being shut out of the medals only four years afterwinning the all-around gold.