Floor Exercise, Women

The format was the same as it had been from 1984-2004, with eight gymnasts advancing from the team all-around, but no more than two per nation. The last two World Champions had been American Shawn Johnson (2007) and China’s Cheng Fei (2006). Both made the final with Cheng leading the qualifying. Johnson was first up in the final and scored 15.500 points. Cheng fell twice during her routine and would finish only seventh. Johnson’s teammate Nastia Liukin had the highest execution scores but her lower difficulty gave her only 15.425. The last gymnast up was Romania’s Sandra Izbaşa, the 2008 European Champion. She nailed her routine, which had the highest difficulty score, and won the gold medal over Johnson, with Liukin taking bronze.