What they had to say: A collection of quotes after event finals

LONDON -- An Israeli television journalist, waiting to interview Alexander Shatilov on his history-making bronze medal finish on floor exercise, told me that Shatilov receives no funding aside from the occasional sponsorship. It's been hard on the 22-year-old, she said. She hopes his medal will raise awareness and help him earn a living doing gymnastics.

"I wasn't looking at medals or anything...I wasn't really concerned with either of my vaults. On my Yurchenko double I was just focused on sticking. I was just glad I went out today and did the best vaults I could. I accomplished my ultimate goal today." -- 2009 World vault champion Kayla Williams, USA

"I'm going to go back home and keep training and hopefully end up with more titles." -- Williams on what's next for her.

"My friends don't understand gymnastics, but I think when I come home with this they will." -- Williams on being well-known for being a gymnast

"'I'm going to give it a couple days." -- Williams on whether the title has sunk in

"I did plan to throw the Yurchenko 2.5, but it was decided at camp that it wasn't ready." -- Williams on not attempting to join The Amanar Club at this time

"We're very proud of Kayla's achievement. She proved an extreme mental strength and a total control. She is very disciplined and determined." -- U.S. National Team Coordinator Martha Karolyi on Kayla Williams

"When you come to compete, you want to perform something that is absolutely confident...in event finals, there's no warmup, so it's important to do a vault you're absolutely sure of." -- Karolyi

At the post-event finals press conference, the athletes were each asked to say something about the O2 Arena, where each of them is undoubtedly hoping to compete again at the 2012 Olympics:

"The gym was OK. The events...it's OK, that's all. It's OK." -- Marian Dragulescu

"The O2 is beautiful. The training center is amazing. The Olympics are going to do really well here." --Williams

"The audience was so passionate and I felt very excited because of them, and the equipment here is very good." -- He Kexin

"I like the audience here and I like the beautiful city and beautiful construction of this venue." -- Zhang Hongtao

"I want to thank London for such a good event. I like the city -- it's very beautiful." -- Yan Mingyong

"I made a break for about eight months, and then I was feeling better. I was feeling I could still win medals. It was a tough competiton, tough athletes, young, powerful...but I am glad [to have won]." -- Dragulescu on his victory on floor

"We didn't have any pressure because the coaches and officials said we needed to relax. We came here to study with the other athletes and practice." -- Yan on pressure after the Chinese team's success at the 2008 Olympic Games

"I also feel very relaxed here because there's no team events. We just focused on our own events. We just finished our National Games, so our condition is a bit low. The coaches just asked us to do our best." -- He on expectations

"The landing is not a big mistake. I just made one step and I controlled myself." -- Yan on hopping forward on his full-twisting double layout dismount on rings

"After I had finished my event, I just congratulated myself. I didn't realize I had won the event." -- Zhang on his winning pommel horse routine

"I can work." -- Dragulescu on whether he plans to continue toward 2012

"The level of gymnastics now is very high. It was a bigger challenge for me." -- After winning the vault final

"Very good. The whole nation won that now." -- Dragulescu on the Romanians going 1-2 on vault

"This makes me that much stronger and more experienced." -- Ivana Hong on her beam bronze

"I was able to control it." -- On her small wobbles on beam in event finals

"That's definitely a goal." -- On hoping to compete at the 2012 Olympic Games

"We have a big day tomorrow...shopping and dinner and a play." -- On what's next for her

"Our team performed very well. It's perfect success." -- Deng Linlin on China's six golds  (AP)

"It's a pity that I didn't qualify for any finals at the Olympic Games. So this time, the world championships is a big success for me." -- Deng on being a World Champion after her success with the Chinese Olympic team in 2008 (AP)

"It's hard to compare. The Olympic gold medal, it's more impressive. But I've never got a world championship title, so it's also important for me." -- Zou Kai on his gold on high bar (AP)

"I want to be remembered as someone who has achieved something not as someone who achieved then failed...I'd love to represent Team GB, but the decision will probably be made in 2012. If my results start to decrease, then maybe it's time to bow out." -- Beth Tweddle on the question of competing in 2012 (BBC)

"Gymnastics is changing now, it used to be about 15- and 16-year-olds but the age barrier is moving up now. (Oksana) Chusovitina, who represented Germany at the Olympics last year, was 32 and won an Olympic silver, so it is possible...But three years is a long time away, we'll have to take one step at a time and see if I'm there." -- On the age requirement (BBC)

"When I won my first world title it was on my signature piece, the uneven bars. Only in the past couple of years have I started to come through the ranks on the floor. I've still got stuff that can go into my routine on the floor but in bars, to get my start value up is pretty hard with the new eight-skill requirement. I'm going to have to go home and seriously think what else I can do, whereas on floor I've got a couple more things in the bag I can pull out." -- On what she's planning to upgrade (BBC)

"I probably could have done a little bit better on the landing on my last pass, but I am happy with how I did today. I am very proud of how I did at my first World Championships. I did the best that I could and I am very happy with how all of it went.” -- Rebecca Bross on her floor routine (USA Gymnastics)

“My nerves were really, really high today. This is my first world championships, and I was really excited. I controlled myself before I competed, and it obviously paid off. I had a great time here and I enjoyed myself a lot.” -- Danell Leyva on his high bar routine (USA Gymnastics)

“You learn something from every single competition. A rough meet this year is going to raise me to the next level of where I need to be, providing the motivation to train even harder and be more prepared next time. What happened here is a combination of how much I trained and how much preparation I’ve had. I always expect the best but sometimes this happens.” -- Jonathan Horton on this week's falls (USA Gymnastics)

"Lauren has always had big physical ability and a very good work ethic but she's not so naturally coordinated, it takes her quite a long time to learn her skills. She has to go slow and steady but sometimes that wins the race. She's structurally very sturdy, she's had a relatively low injury rate and she's just kept chipping away." -- Western Australia Institute of Sport program manager Liz Chetkovich on double silver medalist Lauren Mitchell (The Australian)

"I just wanted to hit all my routines and I did that and when I came fourth in the all-around that was amazing, but then to get two silver medals -- it hasn't sunk in yet." -- Mitchell on her week at Worlds (The Australian)

"Training with Dasha (Joura) made me aspire to be as good as her and then to be better than her..I know that there is still room for improvement and this has made me more determined. Now I have a feel for it I want more. I'm going home to work on my uneven bars (her weakest apparatus) and hopefully that will boost me into the all-around medals. I just need to make everything clearer and sharper and more crisp." -- Mitchell on her inspirations (The Australian)