Olympics
One heck of a gym dandy for gold medalist Hamm

By Michelle Kaufman
Miami Herald

DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES American Paul Hamm celebrates his improbable comeback victory in the men's gymnastics all-around competition with U.S. team trainer Don Rackey, right, and coach Miles Avery, behind. Hamm became the first American, male or female, to win an all-around gold medal in a non-boycotted Olympics.

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ATHENS — Paul Hamm thought what everyone else thought the instant his feet gave out on his vault landing, sending him to the ground and rolling into the foot of the judges table: It's over. No Olympic gold medal. No medal at all. A missed opportunity of a lifetime.

All those years hanging from the rings in the attic back in Wisconsin, the countless battles with identical twin Morgan on the pommel horse their father made from an old maple tree and leather car upholstery, the trampoline contests in the barn — it all seemed to crash down when judges posted a 9.137, dropping the defending world champion from first to 12th place after four of six apparatus.

But this is the Olympics, where sappier-than-Hollywood scripts unfold, where a 12th-place dejected gymnast can nail the best high bar performance of his life on the final routine of the evening and wind up with a gold medal around his neck and a wreath of olive branches perched atop his head, Star Spangled Banner blaring through the speakers, family members weeping in the stands.

Hamm's back-to-back 9.837s on the parallel bars and high bar, coupled with Chinese gymnast Yang Wei's fall off the high bar and a mediocre high bar routine by the Korean Yang, provided the storybook ending for American gymnastics.

He became the first U.S. gymnast, male or female, to win an all-around gold in a non-boycotted Olympics. His clean-cut, freckled face is probably headed straight to the Wheaties box.

Dae Eun Kim of Korea won silver, and Tae Young Yang of Korea took bronze.

"I thought, 'That's it, I'm done,' " Hamm said. "I thought I had a small chance of winning a bronze, and that's what I was fighting for. When it was all done, and my score went up, I was shocked to be in first place. I didn't think I had a chance of winning gold, even after I did the best high bar performance of my life. When the score went up, my coach (Miles Avery) yelled, 'Olympic champion!' and I couldn't believe it."

STARS OF THE DAY Natalie Coughlin: She led the quartet that broke swimming's oldest world record, the 800 freestyle relay. Tyler Hamilton: He now has something Lance Armstrong doesn't: a gold medal. Paul Hamm: A comeback for the ages in the all-around.

It will go down as one of the most dramatic stories in Olympic gymnastics history.

"I've been in this sport for 30 years, either competing or watching, and I've never seen a comeback like that," said Vidmar, now an NBC commentator. "He is the greatest U.S. gymnast in history, and now he has the medal to prove it."

Bela Karolyi, legendary women's coach, also called Hamm's comeback one of the greatest moments he had witnessed. "Such drama, it was amazing. We have been waiting so many years to win an all-around, and to win it in the very last chance, after such a big mistake, it is a golden moment for our sport."

Hamm entered the competition as the gold medal favorite after becoming the first American world champion last year and posting the top qualifying score in the opening round at the Olympics. He opened with a 9.725 on the floor exercise, which put him in a tie for first place.

Today on TV 9 a.m. (CBUT): Swimming, softball, boxing. 12:30 p.m. (5): Beach volleyball, canoeing, rowing, swimming. 8 p.m. (5): Women's gymnastics all-around, swimming. Complete listings

He slipped to second after his 9.700 horse routine, but regained the lead with a 9.587 on the still rings. All was looking good halfway through the competition, and Hamm felt great heading into his vault routine, which he had never missed in a competition. He took a deep breath, sprinted down the runway, catapulted into the vault, went flying into the air, and then...

"I was a little short and off to the side, and couldn't stop my momentum as I was going to the side," Hamm explained. "It was very tough to get over that mentally. I was very upset and depressed. I felt like I had let myself down after so much hard work. I knew I was still in the competition to win a medal, but I thought I was shooting for bronze."

So did his competitors.

After five rotations, Hamm's teammate, Brett McClure, of Mill Creek, was in third place and Hamm was fourth. McClure grabbed his camera from his gym bag and took a photo of the scoreboard, figuring his score would go down after the rings, his worst event. They did, and he wound up in ninth.

Yang, who led after the fifth rotation, was especially shocked with the night's ending. He did the second-to-last high bar routine, just before Hamm, and looked upset with the judges when they gave him a 9.475. The Korean fan contingent whistled. Yang's mistake opened the door for Hamm, who needed a 9.825 to win the gold. He wowed the judges with his trademark triple blind release moves, and was motionless after sticking his landing. His score — 9.837 — was the second-highest of the entire competition.

Vidmar hopes Hamm's medal will boost men's gymnastics, which has suffered with the declining number of college programs.

"A lot of little kids watched this, and will tug on their dad's sleeve and say, 'Dad, I want to be a gymnast,' " Vidmar said. "They'll go out and try tricks, and join a gym, and 10 years from now, we might be writing about them. I was preaching gloom and doom for men's gymnastics when the college programs started folding, but things are looking great right now."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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