Paul Hamm not going to Beijing
July 28, 2008 The reigning Olympic gold medalist announced Monday that he is
withdrawing from the U.S. team because his broken right hand is not
sufficiently healthy enough for him to compete in Beijing.
He also hurt his rotator cuff in his accelerated recovery
effort.
"I have put my heart and soul into my comeback and done
everything I could to get ready in time to compete in Beijing,"
Hamm said in a statement released by USA Gymnastics.
"After returning home from the preparation camp, I had a few
physical setbacks, and it became clear to me that my physical
preparations would not be sufficient to properly represent the
United States and contribute to the team's efforts to win a medal.
"At this point in time, the success of the team and fairness to
the team, and the alternates, is most important. While I am very
disappointed, I feel I can wait no longer to make this decision."
The U.S. men are scheduled to leave Wednesday, and competition
begins Aug. 9.
One of the alternates - Sasha Artemev, David Durante and Raj
Bhavsar - will take Hamm's place.
Hamm's injury clears the way for China's Yang Wei in the
all-around race. Yang is the two-time defending world champion, and
the all-around gold was expected to be a two-man contest between
him and Hamm.
Hamm broke his hand May 22 at the national championships, just
11 weeks before the start of the games. He had surgery five days
later and pushed his recovery in hopes he'd be healthy enough to
help the Americans get back on the podium and defend his gold
medal.
Hamm's withdrawal likely ends the career of one of the best
gymnasts the United States has ever had. He is the only American
man to win the world (2003) and Olympic (2004) titles, and he led
the United States to a silver medal in Athens, their first at the
Olympics in 20 years.
Hamm, who graduated last year from Ohio State with a degree in
accounting, plans to go to business school.
"We admire Paul for making this difficult decision," said
Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics. "Paul's comeback this
year has been phenomenal, made even more impressive following the
injury to his hand. He has raised the level of determination among
the entire team to put forth a medal winning effort in China. We
respect his decision at this time, which is being made to serve the
best interests of all of the athletes involved."
Hamm appeared to be on track at a weeklong training camp two
weeks ago, where he proved he was physically able to compete at a
July 19 intrasquad meet. Hamm did portions of all six events that
day, looking particularly good on floor exercise, and estimated he
was about 90 percent healthy.
But he struggled with some of his skills on parallel bars and
acknowledged he still had pain in the hand. Every one of the six
events puts a heavy load of stress on the hand.
When Hamm returned home to Columbus, Ohio, it was clear just
what a toll the hard training had taken. Hamm struggled with
practice and pain all last week, and he decided over the weekend
that it was better to let a healthy athlete take his spot.
The Americans would have needed Hamm to compete on all six
events in team qualifying, and likely would have put him up on all
six in team finals, too. The scoring format in team finals is
unforgiving, with three athletes competing on each event and all
three scores counting. Make a mistake or struggle, and it costs the
team dearly.
Despite taking 2½ years off after Athens - an unprecedented
layoff in the sport - he had firmly established himself as a
contender for another gold, winning every meet he entered this
year, often by large margins. At nationals, he was practically
perfect through his first five events before breaking the fourth
metacarpal in his right ring finger in the closing minutes of his
parallel bars routine.
Even with the injury, he still finished the night almost four
points ahead.