Aly Raisman leads US to gymnastics team gold

JTA —  Jewish American Aly Raisman won the floor exercise in helping the U.S. women’s team to the gold medal in the gymnastics competition at the London Olympics.

The Americans on Tuesday won their first team gold medal in women’s gymnastics since the Atlanta Games in 1996, finishing with 183.596 points to defeat Russia (178.530) and Romania (176.414).

Raisman, 18, of Needham, Mass., scored 15.300 in the floor exercise to win the event, performing her routine to a string-heavy version of “Hava Nagila” as she did on Sunday. Raisman also had performed to “Hava Nagila” when she gained a berth on the U.S. team last year.

Raisman is favored to win the all-around individual competition on Thursday, as well as the floor exercise on Aug. 7, when she also will be competing in the balance beam final. She and Gabby Douglas are representing the U.S. in the individual finals.

Raisman is a recipient of the Pearl D. Mazor Outstanding Female Jewish High School Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award given out by the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in New York.

Raisman’s performance to the Jewish tune was enough to overtake world champion teammate and favorite Jordyn Wieber, who was seen in tears after she failed to qualify for finals competition.

“It’s really hard,” Raisman said. “That was kind of like my first thought. I was really happy but then at the same time I feel bad just because I know how bad [Wieber] wanted it.”

Raisman’s parents have been getting some online attention of their own. The two were caught on camera cheering on daughter Aly in a manner that would put some synchronized swimmers to shame. A YouTube video of the cheering duo has garnered nearly 60,000 views since Sunday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Hw5dWgfOM

Greg Tepper contributed to this report.