Ghent, Belgium – The U.S. women’s team earned a bronze medal tonight at the 2001 World Gymnastics Championships, the fourth world team medal ever earned by U.S. women. The U.S. team scored 108.514 behind Romania and Russia who scored 110.209 and 109.023, respectively.

“Our team came together as one and that’s why we won this medal tonight,” said 2001 U.S. National Champion Tasha Schwikert.

 

World Championships team members include Schwikert (Las Vegas, Nev.), Mohini Bhardwaj (Los Angeles, Calif.), Tabitha Yim (Irvine, Calif.), Katie Heenan (Burke, Va.), Ashley Miles (San Antonio, Texas) and Rachel Tidd (San Marcos, Calif.).

Previous U.S. women’s team medals were won in 1995, 1994 and 1991. The U.S. men’s team also won the first World Championships silver medal earlier today. This is the first time that the U.S. men and women have ever medaled in the same year.
“Winning this medal is so exciting and all of our hard work has paid off,” said Yim. “This is refreshing and very reassuring. Now I look toward all-around finals and everything else is icing on the cake from now on.”

“This is my biggest medal in all my years of gymnastics,” said Bhardwaj. “This just sums up my whole career. On top of all of the collegiate accomplishments, this is worth just as much, if not more.”

“This is amazing and just so exciting to think we won a medal at the World Championships,” said Tidd. “We are such a tight team and get along so well, so it’s very fun to win together.”
“This means everything to me. This is what we work for, to get to this moment at a World Championships or at an Olympic level competition,” said Miles. “It feels good for all my teammates to do this together. This is a great moment.”
“It’s awesome, nobody expected this,” said Heenan. “We came out and proved everybody wrong. This is my first international competition and to come out and get a bronze at a World Championships is amazing.”
Women’s competition continues Friday when Schwikert, Yim and Bhardwaj compete in the all-around. Event finals are Saturday and Sunday.