The team competition was also the qualifying competition for the all-around and apparatus events. Eighty-six gymnasts competed in the vault event during the compulsory and optional rounds (of the team event) on September 19 and 21. In the compulsory round each gymnast had one vault, while in the optionals, each had two, with only the best one to count. The gymnasts best optional vault was added to her compulsory vault to give the total preliminary (prelim) score (maximum 20.00). The eight highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on September 25. Each country was limited to two competitors in the final. Each gymnast carried over half of her preliminary points to the final. This constitutes the "prelim" score. In the final each gymnast had two vaults which had to be different, with the gymnasts score being the average of the two. This final score was then added to her prelim score to give the final result.
Svetlana Boginskaya (URS)
Gabriela Potorac (ROU)
Boriana Stoyanova (BUL)
Brandy Johnson (USA)
Dagmar Kersten (GDR)
Wang Xiaoyan (CHN)
