Vanessa Atler won two event finals, beam with a 9.30 and vault with a 9.50, during preliminaries at the 1997 Visa American Cup in Fort Worth, Texas, at the Tarrant County Convention Center.

Fifteen-year-old Atler said, “I’m real happy I made finals. I did the best I could and everything worked out fine. I was determined to hit my new vaults and I knew in the air I had it.”
France’s Elvire Teza won bars with a 9.375 and Ji Liya from China won floor with a 9.60.
Teza said, “I enjoyed winning bars and leading the preliminary all-around competition tonight. It would be a bigger pleasure to win finals tomorrow.”
Event winners received $1,000 toward their training funds.
The top eight gymnasts in the all-around, with a limit of two per country, will advance to the all-around finals on Sat. Mar. 1. The U.S. athletes that will advance include Kristin Maloney from Pen Argyle, Pa., and Atler from Canyon Country, Calif.
Attendance at the Tarrant County Convention Center Arena was 2,713.
Below is a list of the all-around finishes.

Visa American Cup Women’s Preliminary Results
#, Name, Country, Score
1. Elvire Teza, FRA, 36.525
2. Ji Liya, CHN, 36.388
3. Kristin Maloney, USA, 35.813
4. Vanessa Atler, USA, 35.800,
5. Oksana Chousovitina, UZB, 35.625
6. Lindsay Wing, USA, 35.075
7. Elise Ray, USA, 34.913
8. Alexandra Marinescu, ROM, 34.888
9. Shanyn MacEachern, CAN, 34.538
10. Mohini Bhardwaj, USA, 34.250
11. Elena Savko, BLR, 33.750
12. Elena Dolgopolova, RUS, 33.638
13. Risa Sugawara, JPN, 33.513
14. Olga Teslenko, UKR, 33.275
15. Ruth Moniz, AUS, 33.138
16. Gritt Hoffmann, GER, 32.950
17. Francesca Morotti, ITA, 29.900

The top eight men and women in the all-around will advance to the all-around finals on Saturday, Mar. 1. The International 3 on 3 Gymnastics Championships, which features a trio of a male, female and rhythmic gymnast, will conclude the competition on Sunday, March 2.