ANAHEIM, Calif. -- How fitting. The American women needed Scotch tape to get through the meet.

No matter. The sick, hurting, disheveled U.S. team won the gold medal at the World Gymnastics Championships, the first gold in history for the Americans -- men or women -- at the biggest international event this side of the Olympics.

They set aside their troubles Wednesday night, outclassing the Romanians, who took silver, the Australians, who took bronze, and everyone else in the team finals after a week of disarray resulting from an injury spate that sidelined half their gymnasts.

"Our greatest win ever," said Bela Karolyi, who was with the U.S. gold medal Olympic team in 1996. "Yes, there was more attention and attendance in Atlanta. But in our misery? Using kids who weren't even scheduled to compete? I'd call this the greatest ever."

The star was Chellsie Memmel, the alternate pressed into service late last week, who is now 8-for-8 on routines in the team prelims and finals. She was clutch. But the moment that best symbolized America's harrowing week belonged to Hollie Vise.

Stepping onto the podium for her uneven-bars routine, the 15-year-old Texan suddenly realized her participant number wasn't on the back of her leotard -- an unfathomable error that costs an automatic .2 points if not corrected before the start of the event.

"I thought maybe it was still in my bag," Vise said. "But they couldn't find it."

While her coaches and teammates scrambled, the start sign, which waits for no one, lit up. Hurriedly, a photo marshal on the floor grabbed a spare piece of paper, used a black magic marker to write Vise's "419" on it and handed it to the coaches, who quickly attached it to her back and pushed her toward the bars.

Rushed to start, Vise fell. She scored an 8.875 and the Americans' chances seemed doomed.

"I just rushed a bit," Vise said. "I didn't take time to compose myself."

As it turned out, though, that was their only busted routine of the night. The winning margin was a comfortable 1.74 points. The gold not only gave the women a magic moment for today, but a big boost of momentum for the Athens Olympics, which are less than a year away.

"Everyone made little mistakes tonight," said Vise's coach, Yevgeny Marchenko. "We just had one. I think that's why we won."

The United States took advantage of a relatively new format in which only three gymnasts go in each event and all three scores count. It brings the already intense pressure to a boil, but it can be a great help to short-handed teams.

And boy did the Americans come in short-handed.

The meet began with the loss of reigning world beam champion Ashley Postell, who got a bad case of stomach flu, and continued with the loss of vault specialist Annia Hatch, who blew out her knee in practice. On Tuesday, it got worse when reigning national champion Courtney Kupets tore her Achilles' tendon in practice. That was three of six athletes, a loss that left the Americans without a single world champion on the active roster.

Now, they have a bunch.

National team coordinator Martha Karolyi agreed it was the biggest moment for American gymnastics since 1996, when Kerri Strug's vault on a sprained ankle lifted them to an improbable gold.

Or maybe even bigger.

"It's just because we had so many setback situations from the time we arrived here," she said. "Every day there was an illness, every day an injury came up. You just don't give up. I told the girls, the world is for the toughest."

Nobody was tougher than Memmel, a 10th-place finisher at nationals who on Wednesday didn't post a score lower than the 9.275 she made on vault, the first jump of the night. She won the Pan American Games last month and was supposed to spend the rest of the summer relaxing at home. Instead, she could legitimately be the best female still tumbling in the country; she'll have another chance to shine in the all-around competition Friday.

"I thought I would just be cheering the team on from the sidelines," said Memmel, who hasn't been home since July 22. "But this is definitely much better."

Vise, meanwhile, overcame her spill on bars with a beautiful balance beam routine, one of three the Americans put on on the toughest event on the floor. In one of the most unique moves in the sport, Vise opened by laying her shoulders down on the 4-inch slab, pulling her legs up and over her head, then arching one leg back so her toes are resting on her other thigh. Sound hard? Think circus acrobat meets Gumby.

The Americans held a .838-point lead after the beam and with only the floor exercise left, "we loosened up a little," said Tasha Schwikert, the lone remaining member of the 2000 Olympic team.

"But then we settled down, we knew there was still work to do."

Closing out the night on floor was Carly Patterson, who was at her saucy best with a high-flying, hip-shaking strut through the gym that left the crowd of 10,120 and her teammates shouting "U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A."

Watching it all from the stands was Martha Karoyli, who was expected to contend for gold this year, but wouldn't have been blamed had she not come through, given the events of the past week.

Sitting with the VIPs was Bela Karolyi, the director emeritus of this program, who high-fived, high-tenned, bear-hugged and back-slapped everyone he could get his hands on _ ensuring the injured gymnasts aren't the only ones who will be sore.

"We haven't had much good luck here," Vise said. "But everything worked out all right."