Jordyn Wieber bounces back to help U.S. bring home gold

US gymnast Jordyn Wieber performs on the floor during the women's team final of the artistic gymnastics event of the London Olympic Games on July 31, 2012, in London. / EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images

(CBS/AP) All Jordyn Wieber needed to bounce back from the biggest disappointment of her career was a little pep talk.

Teammate McKayla Maroney was only too happy to provide one.

Thanks to a few kind words from her best friend, Wieber returned to her world-championship form in the women's gymnastics team finals on Tuesday, helping the U.S. to its first gold medal since Atlanta in 1996.

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Jordyn Wieber

Wieber missed out on the all-around finals after finishing as the third American during qualifying. Coach John Geddert said Wieber was given five minutes to regroup.

She certainly looked rejuvenated in the team finals. Wieber drilled her meet-opening vault and the U.S. rolled. The 17-year-old called her performance "redemption."

Wieber can add a second medal next week in the floor exercise finals.

The Americans lived up to their considerable hype, routing silver medalist Russia and everybody else on their way to their first Olympic title in women's gymnastics since 1996. Their score of 183.596 was a whopping five points ahead of Russia and made their final event, floor exercise, more like a coronation. Romania won the bronze.

The Americans had come into the last two Olympics as world champions, only to leave without a gold. But this team is the strongest, top to bottom, the USA has ever had and the rest of the world never stood a chance. After the U.S. opened with a barrage of booming vaults, everyone else was playing for silver.

"This is the best team all-time," said U.S. coach John Geddert, who is also Jordyn Wieber's personal coach. "Others might disagree. The '96 team might disagree. But this is the best team. Difficulty-wise, consistency wise, this is USA's finest."

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London Olympics: July 31, 2012

[GregG123456]

This years USA Olympic team is the ugliest group of girls I have ever seen. That JW girl is way over rated. The Canadians did exceptional well.

[marzxyz]

Thanks for your input, moron.

[EmpireGeorge______--]

I thought it was a gymnastic competition, not a beauty pagent.

[Jaylah54200]

They all looked like they were having fun by the time they got to floor exercise. I hope they were. No matter how many Olympic golds you end up winning in your life, you'll never forget how you felt the first time. They've all worked so hard to get where they are, they deserved to have some fun.

[_Mariee]

So not a peep about the wonderful Ms. Gabby who scored the overall highest? Or is this just about JW's hardships?

[Weezy54]

Agreed - you'd never know from the coverage that Gabby did MORE than Jordyn to "help the U.S. bring home gold." Gabby was the only team member to compete on all four apparatus and she contributed 33% of the team's total score! Today's CBS morning show also gushed at length about Jordyn but totally ignored Gabby's greater contributions. What's going on?

[rjack61]

I thought the same thing last night after watching the performances. It is so sad that Gabby's accomplishments and high scores are not newsworthy because the media keeps making it all about Jordyn. I'm proud of all of the girls but please give it a rest about Jordyn. And no, I will not play the race card...but it is becoming obvious how the media is playing it. So stop.!!!

[UForgotPoland]

She's hot as Hell!

[FiatHeart]

I'm officially sick of hearing about this girl. She knew the rules going into the competition, and on the day she just wasn't good enough. Get over it. Some former gymnast was on NBC this evening reciting a frickin' POEM about it. Vomit inducing. All this pandering to ego and exaggeration of her "total shock and disappointment" overshadows the achievement of her USA team member who DID advance.

[grik_dog]

Obviously you didn't see with what class all of these young athletes acted. Their behavior throught has been exemplary. Nobody is pandering to any ego. Get the stick out of your butt and celebrate their accomplishment.

[Jaylah54200]

These girls have all been training their hearts out (and missing out on a lot of what most of us consider a normal childhood) for well over half of their lives.

Jordyn had won gold in the all-around at this year's Worlds and as such, was considered the reigning champion of all-around in the world going into this qualifying round. And the only reason she didn't make this year's qualifying round was because there was a recent rule change where only two gymnasts from any one country could compete. So even had she gotten the third highest score of ALL, she wouldn't be able to compete in the all-around competition.

As to your "get over it", I'm guessing the most important thing you ever trained for in your life was 10 minutes of training flipping burgers at your local fast-food joint.

So somebody else has shown themselves to be bigger than you'll ever dream of being. Get over it.