USA Gymnastics has submitted its line-up for the women’s competition at the 2006 World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. The U.S. women compete in the preliminaries in subdivision 5 on Oct. 16; the women’s preliminaries conclude on Oct. 17, when the athletes and countries advancing to the final rounds will be determined.
Four U.S. women will compete in all four events: 2005 all-around world champion Chellsie Memmel of West Allis, Wis.; Jana Bieger of Coconut Creek, Fla.; Natasha Kelley of Houston; and Ashley Priess of Hamilton, Ohio. 2005 floor exercise world champion Alicia Sacramone of Winchester, Mass., will compete in the vault, balance beam and floor exercise. 2005 balance beam and uneven bars world champion Nastia Liukin of Parker, Texas, will compete in the uneven bars. Jacquelyn Johnson of West Chester, Ohio, is the team alternate.
The 2006 World Championships features men’s and women’s competition in the team, all-around and individual apparatus (men—floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar; women – vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise). The format for the team competitions is: preliminaries, five gymnasts on each apparatus and top four scores count; and finals, three gymnasts compete and all three scores count. The top eight countries after the prelims advance to the team finals. For the all-around, the top 24 gymnasts (maximum of two per country) in the prelims advance to the finals. For individual event finals, the top eight from the preliminary rounds (maximum of two per country) advance to the finals.
The women’s prelims wrap up on Oct. 17, with the women’s team finals on Oct. 18 and the women’s all-around finals on Oct. 19. The men advancing to the final rounds will be determined at the conclusion of men’s prelims on Oct. 15. The men’s team finals are Oct. 17 and the all-around is on Oct. 19. The individual event finals for both men and women are Oct. 20-21.