Sloan edges Bross for title as Americans go 1-2 in women’s all-around at worlds

Americans go 1-2 in women’s gymnastics _ again

LONDON — Bridget Sloan stood on the sidelines, yelling and cheering for Rebecca Bross as her younger teammate tumbled across the floor.

No matter that Bross was likely going to finish ahead of her. The Americans were going to get the gold and the silver — again — and that’s all that really mattered.

The Americans went 1-2, all right. But instead of congratulating her teammate, Sloan wound up celebrating herself.

“I didn’t really notice until the very end and I looked up at the scoreboard. That’s when I was like ‘Ohhhhh, OK,’” said Sloan, the fifth U.S. woman to win the world title. “I did not realize it was so close, so I’m very happy for today and how well both of us did.”

In shades of the Beijing Olympics, Sloan edged her teammate for the title at the world gymnastics championships on Friday night. Except unlike when Nastia Liukin beat Shawn Johnson for the Olympic gold medal, this one came down to the very last skill.

Though this was Bross’ first world championships, she and Sloan came in as the favorites for the title. Bross is a phenom whose routines are jam-packed with tough tricks and, sure enough, she’d built up a sizable lead over Sloan after the first three rotations.

Sloan, the lone carryover from the U.S. team that won silver in Beijing, was up first on floor, and she was gorgeous. She had great height on her tumbling passes and landed all of them as if she were coming down in a vat of superglue.

But what really set her apart was her finesse. Gymnastics officials have changed the rules since Beijing, limiting the number of tumbling runs in hopes of making the event more artistic. For most girls, all that means is they wave their hands around a few times and call it choreography. Sloan actually uses her music, landing her jumps on the beat and striking sultry poses that were the perfect complement to her Bollywood-style music.

Her score of 14.2 was by far the highest of the night on floor, and only one person topped her execution mark of 8.5.

It would, coach Marvin Sharp thought, guarantee the Americans a 1-2 finish — but with Sloan taking the silver.

“We were happy with that,” Sharp said. “Bridget was screaming her head off for Rebecca, I was screaming for Rebecca.”

Bross needed only a 12.925 to win. Considering her lowest score to that point was the 13.95 she’d scored on floor in qualifying, the gold medal seemed like a gimme.

Bross had little bobbles here and there, but they weren’t major. Certainly not anything that would cost her the gold. But on her very last trick, trying to punch forward from the landing of one flip into another one, her legs gave out. She barely got off the ground, not getting anywhere close to the height she needed, and nearly came down on her head.

The crowd — Sloan included — gasped.

“Emotions started going in and out of my head,” Sloan said. “Yes, it’s an individual competition, but she’s still part of the USA team. I was like, ‘Oh, no!’”

Bross picked herself up and quickly climbed off the podium.

“I had a little mishap at the end of my routine. It happened. There’s nothing I can do to change it now,” Bross said.

Sharp, meanwhile, told Sloan to check out the scoreboard. She had finished with 57.825 points, .05 ahead of Bross. Koko Tsurumi won the bronze, only the second all-around medal for a Japanese woman.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” said Sloan, fingering her oversized gold medal. “I imagine as time goes by, I think I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, this is pretty cool.’”

Bross didn’t need any time to think that about her silver medal.

She and Sloan walked off the floor together, chatting and laughing. When Sloan was introduced as the world champion, Bross gave her such a big hug she practically lifted her older — and much taller — teammate off the ground and onto the podium.

“I’m very happy,” Bross said, emphasizing the “very.” ”It’s my first worlds out here. Even though I had a mistake, I’m still very proud and very happy to be out there and showing what I can do.”

Besides, better to be beaten by a friend than a foe. For one more year, at least, the United States has twice the bragging rights on the rest of the world.

“Obviously, we have a strong program,” Sharp said. “It’s a good trend. We want to keep that trend going.”