LONDON — Kayla Williams probably ruins the curve in her classes at school, too.
The 16-year-old American, who was still competing at the level below elite five months ago, looked like an old pro Saturday in winning the vault title at the world gymnastics championships. Only when she stood atop the podium did she seem overwhelmed, taking several deep breaths as she waited for the gold medal to be put around her neck and fighting back tears as the national anthem played.
“This past five months, or however long it’s been, has been the most hectic and crazy,” Williams said. “But I’ve learned a lot and I finished it off as best I could.”
China, meanwhile, finished things off in its usual fashion, winning three of the five titles Saturday. He Kexin added a world title to her Olympic gold on uneven bars, Zhang Hongtao won pommel horse and Yan Mingyong closed the day with a win on still rings.
Marian Dragulescu won his fourth world floor title — not bad for a guy who retired after the Beijing Olympics.
“I was feeling like I can still win medals,” said the Romanian, who retired because of chronic back and neck pain. “I’m glad, because today I won.”
Williams’ rise just doesn’t happen in gymnastics. Newcomers do make a splash at a world championships or Olympics all the time, but odds are they’ve had some international seasoning at the junior level at least.
Not Williams. She was at the Level 10 championships in May, so far off the radar that her only trip to the Karolyi ranch before the world team was selected was for a developmental camp.
“My teammates and the rest of the USA delegation have been very good about telling me to treat it like just another meet,” Williams said. “If I was by myself, I’d definitely be a nervous wreck.”
Neither Olympic silver medalist Oksana Chusovitina nor bronze medalist Cheng Fei was at the worlds, but this was hardly a slouch field. Williams beat the Olympic champion, Hong Un-jong, who fell on both her vaults, as well as Europe’s vault champion, Ariella Kaeslin of Switzerland.
Williams’ power is her obvious strength. While some gymnasts look as if they’re trying to muscle every flip or using every bit of strength to not step out of their landing, Williams makes it look easy. She looks as if she’s exerting all the effort of a cartwheel. It showed in her score, a 15.087 that was more than a half-point ahead of Kaeslin.
This was the first world vault title by a U.S. woman, giving the Americans four medals in the first three events. Bridget Sloan and Rebecca Bross went 1-2 in the all-around Friday night, and Bross tied for bronze on uneven bars Saturday.
“That’s a huge accomplishment,” Sloan said. “She should be very, very proud of herself.”
