ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Extra rice cakes for everyone!

Despite losing two gymnasts to devastating leg injuries and a third to the plain old flu, the U.S. women's gymnastics team won the gold medal at the world championships Wednesday night in Anaheim, beating Olympic champion Romania by almost two points.

	National champ Courtney Kupets was injured in practice.

It is the first time any U.S. team has won the gold at the world championships and the U.S. is the first women's team other than Romania or the former Soviet Union to win a team gold medal at worlds since 1966.

The team was so excited after the victory that the girls could have carried Bela Karolyi to the medals podium in their arms.

"These kids won the greatest team victory ever for the United States,'' Karolyi said. "I say that because of the repeated blows we got all week long. We had to compete with gymnasts who were not scheduled to compete and we had to compete with gymnasts who were not scheduled to be here.''

Indeed, 15-year-old Chellsie Memmel, an alternate called upon late last week, and 17-year-old Terin Humphrey stepped in superbly Wednesday night following a string of ailments and injuries the past few days. First, world beam champ Ashley Postell pulled out due to the flu. Then vault specialist Annia Hatch shredded her left knee Saturday while world champion Courtney Kupets tore her Achilles during practice Tuesday afternoon. Kupets will be out at least eight months, which places her Olympics hopes in serious jeopardy.

The injuries left the United States without a world champ on the active roster and so unnerved the team that gymnast Tasha Schwikert said the girls made extra sure to wear their seat belts on the way to the arena Wednesday afternoon.

"It was shocking,'' Schwikert said of the injuries. "It was the spookiest thing I've ever seen. To come in with eight athletes and wind up with five? Every workout it was like, 'Come on everybody, let's just get through this workout with everyone healthy.' ''

In past years, the injuries would have knocked the U.S. team out of contention, but two important changes kept them very much alive. One, the team competition format has changed, with only three gymnasts competing in a single rotation with all scores counting. More important, a plan that increased coordination and integration of the national program since 2000 has given the United States its deepest talent pool ever.

"This victory is the culmination of all that,'' said USA Gymnastics president Bob Colarossi.

"We have a nest now. We have the depth,'' Karolyi said. "And we proved it tonight.''

The United States missed on only one of its 12 routines. After taking the lead in the balance beam -- an insanely sadistic event that Karolyi calls "the purgatory of gymnastics'' -- the U.S. women secured their gold with their impressive final routine, the floor exercise.

Given the height and seeming ease of their flips, it occasionally appeared they were more than weightless, and actually filled with helium, which for all I know, is one of the new training techniques in gymnastics, where the girls seem to get younger and smaller with every competition. I'm not clear on all the details, but I think one of the criteria for making a country's Olympic team is being able to fit inside a coach's carry-on bag.

And again, while I'm not sure, I think the United States also held a big edge in the music selection. The amazing thing is that even with the fall of Communism, the collapse of the Soviet Empire and the breakup of Wham!, we still have to listen to such crap music during the floor routines, especially from the European teams. Teenage girls can't possibly choose this stuff on their own, can they?

But I digress. The U.S. women left the Pond wearing gold while the U.S. men are likewise looking very strong heading into Athens after winning their second consecutive team silver medal Tuesday night.

"We showed we're contenders for the Olympics coming up,'' U.S. gymnast Brett McClure said. "A second silver medal by the U.S. makes a statement. It shows we're here to stay.''

"I don't think we realized we were this deep,'' Schwikert said. "This psyches us up even more for Athens. We'll celebrate, but we'll go back and work even harder, too. Because we know people will be scraping at our feet even harder to bring us down and we're not going to let that happen.''

Jim Caple is a senior writer at ESPN.com.