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All Romania Romanians sweep all-around amid vault controversy
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- With bright eyes and a captivating smile reminiscent of another Romanian darling, tiny Andreea Raducan captured the Olympic women's gymnastics all-around gold medal Thursday -- and the fans' hearts, too. Only 1.48 meters (4-foot-10) tall and nine days shy of her 17th birthday, Raducan easily won with 38.893 points, the first Romanian to take the all-around gold since Nadia Comaneci in 1976. As if that wasn't triumph enough for the Romanian team, which also won the team gold, Simona Amanar and Maria Olaru took the silver and the bronze medals. It's the first time a country has swept the all-around since the former Soviet Union did it in 1960. When Raducan finished her floor exercise, her last routine, the Romanian team began a raucous celebration. Amanar and Olaru exchanged hugs with their coaches, while team coach Octavian Belu grabbed Raducan and put her on his shoulders. She stood tall, waving to the crowd and blowing kisses, a wide smile on her face, as the crowd cheered.
It didn't even matter that she had to wait another 15 minutes for the results to become official as five gymnasts -- including American Elise Ray -- repeated their vaults. The vault was set too low in the first two rotations, and gymnasts were given the option of doing their vaults over. The Americans, so lively and chipper during the team finals Tuesday, were back to being their boring, bad selves. Ray finished 14th, Amy Chow was 15th and Kristen Maloney was 20th. It wasn't exactly a pretty night for everyone else either. Russian Svetlana Khorkina, the favorite going into the event, faltered badly and had the tears flowing long before she finished the night in 11th place. She botched her first vault, not getting enough height and landing on her knees. She scored only a 9.343, and she was well aware that she'd just cost herself the gold. When a coach reached out to comfort her as she got off the podium, she angrily pulled her arm away and stomped off.
Up next on uneven bars, where she's the reigning Olympic, world and European champion, Khorkina threw herself off the bar, somersaulted over it and then plummeted to the ground when the tips of her fingers grazed the bar but couldn't catch it. The crowd gasped as she slammed into the mat. Khorkina slowly got up and finished her routine, trying to hold back tears as she sat down. That opened the door for Raducan. The 37-kilogram (82-pound) gymnast looks like Comaneci, and she's got the same steely nerves. As she got ready to take the floor, a horde of television cameras followed her every move. More fragile people might have cracked, but Raducan turned on her smile and wowed the judges. Performing to "Riverdance," Raducan kicked up her heels, prancing across the floor with a big smile on her face. She looked almost like Peter Pan as she tumbled, flying across
the floor with ease. When she finished, she grinned and ran to
Belu, who swept her into his arms in triumph.
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