From her first compulsory test, U.S. vaulter Megan Benjamin sprang to the lead of women’s vaulting at the FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, and never looked back. She made history as the first non-German woman to win the World Championship since its inception in 1986.

Over four days, Aug. 24-27, Benjamin dominated the individual competition while concurrently vaulting on a different horse with the U.S. team, which took the silver medal. This was also the first time the United States has earned more than a team bronze medal in a World Championship.

Benjamin, Saratoga, Calif., and two Austrians, Katharina Faltin (silver medal) and Sissi Jarz (bronze) led the rankings from the start. For the first time ever, Germany didn’t win an individual medal in the women’s vaulting, despite the hundreds of German flags waved by thousands of cheering spectators.

“I’m really thrilled I’m doing so well,” said Benjamin, 18. “I’ve been spending all my time training with the team. Individual is not necessarily the priority right now–you can’t let down your team members.”

The compulsory test for all vaulters–women’s, men’s and team–requires the seven basic exercises. Like all other individual tests, it’s timed for 1 minute from when the vaulter first grasps the handles. Among the 52 starters from 23 nations, Benjamin was 29th to vault and scored 8.015.

“After compulsories, she’s so strong in technical,” said Chef d’Equipe Suzanne Detol. “Now she has to go out and do her thing.”

She did just that in the next day’s first round free test, with 8.273. She kept her lead overall, although Faltin outscored her in the free test.

She warmed up for the WEG by winning all four of the U.S. selection trials, and then placing second at the prestigious Munich CVI** (Germany) in July, where the U.S. team (F.A.M.E.) also earned their first CVI team win. Benjamin also won the U.S. National Championships.

“I’ve never done so well as this year,” she said.

Benjamin trains with Emma Seely in Saratoga, Calif., and was ninth at the 2002 WEG, and then seventh at the 2005 European Championships. She’s a freshman at Santa Clara University (Calif.).

Leonardo Leads The Dance
Benjamin vaulted on Leonardo, a bay Danish Warmblood longed by Lasse Kristensen. “I chose to go on Leo, who’s kept at Lasse’s in Hveujsel, Denmark. The team was training in southern Germany, so I went to Denmark once in July and once in August, three days each time, to train.

“I’m really comfortable with Leo and really comfortable with Lasse,” Benjamin added. “Lasse is like a team member to me. There’s that bond you need in these competitions.”

As a backup, Benjamin also leased a German horse. “I chose at Munich not to go on the other horse. And here I literally made the choice the day before,” she said. “I had it in my head that I wanted to go on Leo.”

Advancing to the final round of the top 15, Benjamin held a slim lead over Faltin 8.144 to 8.126. Saturday featured the technical test, new to the World Championships this year.

“It takes the place of the second compulsories,” explained Detol. “It’s fun to judge and very exciting to see the top vaulters do a freestyle and still the compulsories.”

Vaulters can perform five required exercises in any order, combined with freestyle moves. Benjamin went last in the ranked order, earning 8.673 and remaining atop the leader board.

More than 7,000 spectators packed the stadium the final day, when Benjamin performed her freestyle. With her best score yet (8.720,) she clinched the gold. Her final overall score was 8.421, with Faltin at 8.311 and Jarz, 8.254.

Benjamin is the only vaulter ever to medal individually and as part of a team at the same World Championship.

She credited Devon Maitozo, the 1998 World Champion from the United States, for moving her up to a higher level. “Working with Devon this year–yes, he’s definitely a legend. He’s more of a performer than what I’m used to. In past years I’ve had the skills in the technical elements, but not the extra ‘oomph’ you need to get on the podium.”

Two other U.S. women competed in only the qualifying round. In compulsories, Mary McCormick, 23, Woodside, Calif., scored 6.596 for 27th place. Elizabeth Osborn, 16, Menlo Park, Calif., earned 6.481 for 32nd place.

In the men’s individual competition, the story was more familiar. Early on Germany took possession of the top spots. The surprise was the uneven showing of France’s Matthias Lang, the 2000 and 2002 World Champion.

From 14 nations, 27 men competed in compulsories. The U.S. men performed only in the qualifying round. Christopher Littmann, 22, Syracuse, N.Y., was 21st with 6.993. Todd Griffiths, 26, Simms, Mont., placed 25th with 6.773.

Kenny Geisler, in his third WEG, earned the best score (7.367) for the U.S. men. He was in 15th place, the cutoff for moving to the final round, but placed 17th in his free test (7.474). Geisler, 25, practices vaulting evenings at his family’s ranch in Diamond Bar, Calif., after his workdays as a manager of a feed store.

The defending World Champion of 2004, Germany’s Kai Vorberg, repeated his win in Aachen. The silver medal went to Gero Meyer from Germany, and Slovakia’s Ladislav Majdlen took the bronze medal.

Vorberg performed his freestyle in an elaborate Mozart costume, complete with white hair. “This year is the 250th anniversary of Mozart, and I wanted to recognize that,” he said. “I think it was the idea of genius and madness that inspired me. When you put it all together, that may be me.”

Team Vaulters Leapfrog
Among the 15 best teams in the world, the U.S. team stood fifth after compulsories. The F.A.M.E. team scored 6.647, after Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Slovakia. This year, the always-strong team from Sweden–who like the U.S. had a record of three bronze medals in World Championships–withdrew by not presenting their horse for the vet check.

F.A.M.E. represents two vaulting teams that contributed members to this combined team: Free Artists (Maitozo’s team) and Mt. Eden vaulters from Northern California. Members include Californians Blake Dahlgren, 22, Sun Valley, Elizabeth Ioannou, 10, Saratoga, Rosalind Ross, 16, Woodside, Benjamin and Maitozo. Annalise VanVranken, 14, is from Mays Landing, N.J.

Maitozo coached the team, assembled just for the WEG. “We have been training since October, the last 10 months,” he said. “This is the last official competition for this team.”

In all, he and Matthias Long have won more medals in men’s individual than any other vaulters–both a total of four (one gold, three bronze for Maitozo).

At this WEG, the United States started off at a disadvantage when their horse, Dino, exhibited distinct nervousness in the arena, which negatively affected the quality of their performance.

“Dino is usually very good,” said vaulting coach Seely. “Horses pick up the energy of what’s going on around them–vaulting horses maybe more, because we really have to trust them. The vaulters dealt with it quite well.”

She added that the team had limited practice with the horse: Two weeks before the Munich CVI, and then 10 days before this competition.

Both horse and team rebounded for the first round’s second test, the first of two free tests. They bested all other teams with 9.527, to move up to third place (8.900) behind Germany and Austria.

For the final of three team tests, the team–in their white uniforms and red vests–performed by telling a love story. Expressiveness launched them ahead of the competition again with 8.936.

F.A.M.E. concluded the competition with 8.161, moving ahead of Austria’s team with 8.152. Germany gave their fans a scare when horse problems caused a vaulter to fall–but they ended up with the gold with 8.189.

“We are very happy to be here,” said the German team trainer, Jessica Schmitz. “It’s very special to win, especially since this is a very young team.”

The German team consisted of Antje Hill, Sarah Schaefer, Mark Phillip Goetting, Elisabeth Simon, Janika Derks, Simone Wiegle, and Pauline Riedl.

For Maitozo, the 1998 WEG individual gold men’s medalist, and the leader of the F.A.M.E. team, the win was particularly sweet.

“This team has been together for less than a year, and we’re very proud of our silver medal,” he said. Since Maitozo, 31, couldn’t compete both as an individual and on a team at the WEG, he chose to vault with F.A.M.E. “I decided to put my individual career aside and vault with the team. I’ve never had the opportunity to be on the world stage with a team like this–it’s been the experience of a lifetime.”

Never before has a U.S. team earned better than a bronze medal. They’d grabbed their first bronze at the first WEG, 1990 in tockholm, and eight years later another bronze in Rome’s WEG. In 2004, the team earned a third World Championship bronze.

Vaulting Changes Abound
The sport of vaulting looks different every two years in its World Championship. Rules continually evolve, and this year the changes affected the sport’s look.

No more are team vaulters ineligible when they hit the age of 18. With no age limit, a team can have mostly adult vaulters. That rule change now creates a demand for a larger horse to carry the additional weight of larger athletes.

For example, the United States team horse at the World Equestrian Games, Dino, stands 18.3 hands. According to Emma Seely, team coach Devon Maitozo chose him as “most suited” for the team. The tallest U.S. vaulter, Blake Dahlgren, is 6’3″.

“Vaulting is more like modern dance on a horse,” said U.S. vaulter Christopher Littmann. “Devon is pushing the boundaries. He makes everything flow or be more graceful.”

A team is now limited to six vaulters, reduced from eight. And the time allowed for the team free test is 4 minutes instead of 5 minutes.

The horse score has always been a really big part, noted vaulting judge Adrienne Stang. “The horse score is one-eighth.”

Now the judges number six, with three scoring the vaulter’s exercises and three scoring the horse. Judges look for the horse to move in self-carriage and to use his back.

“You want a nice, rocking canter,” said Stang. “The outside hind should come at least to the vertical, with no phase of suspension. The horse is not collected but gathered.”

And she described the interplay among horse and human, so crucial in this high-trust sport. “You have so much teamwork. It’s the horse and the longer. The horse has to pay attention to the longer, and love the vaulter at the same time.”