Khorkina floors 'em for gold

ANAHEIM, Calif. — American Carly Patterson had a chance to win the gold medal. She also had a big problem: The queen, Svetlana Khorkina, was one good floor routine from tumbling her way into history.

With a sizzling performance on the mat Friday night, the lanky Russian starlet became the first person, man or woman, to win three all-around gold medals at the World Gymnastics Championships. Her 9.675 on floor clinched it.

Patterson, who was brilliant in the first three rotations of the evening, had a chance to surpass Khorkina moments later. But her final event, the vault, had been watered down because of a fractured elbow she endured earlier in the year. She wobbled on the landing, scored a 9.262 and won the silver — still a satisfying evening for an American team with a growing list of stars.

Patterson had a better night than teammate Chellsie Memmel, whose otherwise solid night was tarnished on the balance beam, where she wobbled her way to a score of 8.875. It was the first bad routine of the week for the one-time alternate who led the banged-up women's team to an improbable gold medal earlier in the week. Memmel tied for eighth.

But it would have been awfully difficult for anyone to defeat Khorkina on this night.

Competing in what will almost surely be her last world championships, the Russian was great on everything she touched. Her specialty is the uneven bars — she has two moves named after her on the event — and she didn't disappoint.

Gliding and twisting from bar to bar, looping her long legs over and around the apparatus, Khorkina did it like nobody else. She scored a 9.662.

Still, the highlight was the floor exercise, where she hit tough jump combination after tough jump combination, giving the judges little to be critical of.

Of course, tumbling and jumping was only part of the presentation. As always, Khorkina commanded the floor — and everybody's attention.

She was a show-woman in the broadest sense — strutting, shaking and dancing her way through the routine. It ended with a graceful leap that left her face-down on the mat. She followed with a seductive roll onto her back and a devilish look to the side. When the drama finally ended, she stood up and blew kisses to the adoring crowd.

She received the gold medal — the 10th she's won in major international competition — and her face glistened. Earlier in the week, she said this would likely be her last world championships and next year in Greece, her last Olympics.