2006 Aarhus World Championships

2006 Aarhus World Championships
NRGi Arena during the competition
City	Aarhus, Denmark
Venue	NRGi Arena
Team Gold Medalist	China Zhou Zhuoru Zhang Nan Cheng Fei Pang Panpan He Ning Li Ya
All-Around Gold Medalist	Vanessa Ferrari (ITA)
Vault Gold Medalist	Cheng Fei (CHN)
Uneven Bars Gold Medalist	Beth Tweddle (GBR)
Balance Beam Gold Medalist	Iryna Krasnianska (UKR)
Floor Exercise Gold Medalist	Cheng Fei (CHN)
Preceded by	2005 Melbourne World Championships
Succeeded by	2007 Stuttgart World Championships

The 39th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Aarhus, Denmark from October 13 to October 21, 2006 in NRGi Arena.

It was the first time the World Gymnastics Championships was organized by a Danish city. The International Gymnastics Federation, which celebrated the 125th anniversary of its foundation in 2006, introduced the new Code of Points into the World Championships for the first time. The new code breaks the limit of "perfect" 10 points.

Format of Competition

All participating gymnasts, including those who were not part of a team, participated in a qualification round. The results of this competition determined which teams and individuals participated in the remaining competitions, which included:

• The team competition, in which the eight highest scoring teams from qualifications competed. Each team of six gymnasts could only have three gymnasts perform on each apparatus, and all three scores counted toward the team total.
• The all-around competition, in which only the twenty-four highest scoring individuals in the all-around competed. Each country was limited to only two gymnasts in the all-around final.
• The event finals, in which the eight highest scoring individuals on each apparatus competed. Each country was limited to two gymnasts in each apparatus final.

Results

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Team	China Zhou Zhuoru Zhang Nan Cheng Fei Pang Panpan He Ning Li Ya	USA Jana Bieger Natasha Kelley Nastia Liukin Chellsie Memmel Ashley Priess Alicia Sacramone	Russia Anna Grudko Svetlana Klyukina Polina Miller Anna Pavlova Kristina Pravdina Elena Zamolodchikova
All-Around	Vanessa Ferrari Italy (ITA)	Jana Bieger United States of America (USA)	Sandra Izbaşa Romania (ROU)
Vault	Cheng Fei China (CHN)	Alicia Sacramone United States of America (USA)	Oksana Chusovitina Germany (GER)
Uneven Bars	Beth Tweddle Great Britain (GBR)	Nastia Liukin United States of America (USA)	Vanessa Ferrari Italy (ITA)
Balance Beam	Iryna Krasnianska Ukraine (UKR)	Sandra Izbaşa Romania (ROU)	Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs Canada (CAN)
Floor Exercise	Cheng Fei China (CHN)	Jana Bieger United States of America (USA)	Vanessa Ferrari Italy (ITA)

Notable Moments

• The Chinese won the team gold medal for the first time in history.
• Romania failed to medal in the team final for the first time since 1981.
• Vanessa Ferrari became the first Italian to win the World All-Around title (albeit controversially - see below).
• Beth Tweddle became the first World Champion from Great Britain.
• Iryna Krasnianska became the first Ukrainian World Champion since Lilia Podkopayeva in 1995.
• Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs became the first Canadian gymnast to win an individual World medal.

Controversy

• Italy's Vanessa Ferrari won the World All-Around title after falling off the balance beam. This placed her out of the medals after the third rotation, but she fought back on the floor, sticking her tumbling passes and clinching the gold medal. She finished ahead of several athletes who, unlike her, did not fall, notably the rest of the top 5: Jana Bieger, Sandra Izbaşa, Steliana Nistor, and Dasha Joura. Ferrari was the first woman ever to win a World Championship with a fall under the "New Life" system (prior to 1989, scores from the team competition counted towards the all-around title, therefore gymnasts were assessed on twelve routines rather than four, making the deduction for a fall easier to absorb). Nicolae Forminte, the coach of the Romanian athletes in third and fourth, lashed out at the result, declaring Bieger the rightful winner and presumably his own athletes the silver and bronze medalists. Consequently, the new code came under fire from experts and fans alike. However, FIG president Bruno Grandi has said the new code needs no changes.

Medal Count

Rank	Country				Total
1	USA	0	5	0	5
2	China	3	0	0	3
3	Italy	1	0	2	3
4	Romania	0	1	1	2
5	Great Britain	1	0	0	1
6	Ukraine	1	0	0	1
7	Russia	0	0	1	1
8	Germany	0	0	1	1
9	Canada	0	0	1	1