ANAHEIM, Calif. — They literally needed scotch tape to get through the meet.
No matter. The sick, hurting, disheveled American women won the gold medal at the World Gymnastics Championships.
They set aside their troubles Wednesday night, outclassing the Romanians, who took silver, the Australians, who took bronze, and everyone else in the team finals after a week of disarray resulting from an injury spate that sidelined half their gymnasts.
The star of the show was Chellsie Memmel, the alternate pressed into service late last week, who is now 8-for-8 on routines in the team prelims and finals. She was clutch. But the moment that best symbolized America's harrowing week belonged to Hollie Vise.
Stepping onto the podium for her high-bar routine, the 15-year-old Texan suddenly realized her participant number wasn't on the back of her leotard — an unfathomable error that costs an automatic .2 points if not corrected before the start of the event. Her coaches and teammates scrambled, but nobody could find it.
The start sign, which waits for no one, lit up. Hurriedly, a photo marshal on the floor grabbed a spare piece of paper, used a black magic marker to write Vise's "419" on it and handed it to the coaches, who quickly scotch-taped it to her back and pushed her toward the apparatus.
Rushed to start, Vise fell. She scored an 8.875 and the Americans' chances seemed doomed.
As it turned out, though, that was the only busted routine of the night for the United States. The margin between first and second was 1.74 points. The gold was the first for any American team at worlds — men or women — and it gave these gals a major boost as they head into the Athens Olympics next year.
The United States took advantage of a relatively new format, being implemented at this year's worlds, in which only three gymnasts go in each event and all three scores count. It brings the already intense pressure to a boil, but it can be a great help to short-handed teams like the United States.
And boy did the Americans come in short-handed.
The week began with the loss of reigning world beam champion Ashley Postell, who got a bad case of stomach flu, and continued with the loss of vault specialist Annia Hatch, who blew out her knee. On Tuesday it got worse when reigning national champion Courtney Kupets tore her Achilles' tendon. That was three of six athletes, a loss that left the Americans without a single world champion on the active roster.
Now, they have a bunch.