Newz Forum: OLYMPICS: Patterson takes silver on Beam

All-around champion Carly Patterson won her third medal of these Olympics and the sixth for the U.S. women's gymnastics team Monday, taking silver behind Catalina Ponor of Romania in the balance beam finals.

Alexandra Eremia of Romania took bronze. The Romanian women have four medals at these Olympics, including the gold in team competition.

The six medals for the United States surpasses the total of five won by the women in 1992 and makes this the most successful team in a nonboycotted Olympics. Led by all-around champion Mary Lou Retton, the Americans won eight in 1984.

Patterson is from Allen, Texas.

Spain's Deferr wins vault
Gervasio Deferr of Spain won the men's vault title Monday night, giving Spain its second Olympic gold medal in men's gymnastics.

Deferr finished with 9.737 points. Evgeni Sapronenko of Latvia won the silver with 9.706 points, while former world champion Marian Dragulescu of Romania took the bronze with 9.612 points.

No Americans qualified for the vault final.

Deferr was one of the few vaulters to land cleanly.

Russia's Alexei Bondarenko, the first competitor, had a scary crash on his first vault, landing face-down, almost on his head. He took a few seconds to gather himself and went ahead with his second vault, but landed on his side on that one. He was clearly hurting as he climbed off the podium, and he was later carried out of the arena on a stretcher.

Doctors said he had a spine injury, but found no neurological damage. He was staying at the hospital Monday night for further tests.