Thursday, July 31, 2008

Olympic news ---a big disappointment

Unfortunately for gymnast Paul Hamm, his dreams of making it to the Olympics to defend his all-around men's gymnastics title have vanished.

After making such a quick comeback from the broken bone in his hand, Hamm has had to drop out, he announced Monday.

One of the team's three alternates will take his spot in the squad.

In a statement, Hamm said, “I have put my heart and soul into my comeback and done everything I could to get ready in time to compete in Beijing. 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 teams efforts to win a medal.”

We give him credit. At least his team will have a better chance of winning this way.

Miles Avery, Hamm's coach, says “Two weeks ago, he was great, he was awesome and did everything he needed to do to be at the Olympics. But I was saying all along that he needed to rest. But he pushed it.”

Hamm broke the fourth metacarpal in his right hand back in May. As a result, he needed surgery and had a plate and nine screws inserted.



I find this sad in two ways--one, he has a twin brother Morgan who will be competing without him, and two, what is a really short dude who has to retire at this age going to do with the rest of his life?

Poor guy, I am sad for him, but I do hope the alternate that takes his spot is that dude that got screwed out of making the team for the second straight Olympics





5 comments:

Holly said...

that is sad. To work so hard and come so close is heartbreaking.

Anonymous said...

Raj Bhavsar indeed was selected to replace Paul. Raj missed being automatically selected to team by less than a point at the Olympic trials. Raj didn't necessarily get screwed, but it certainly has been a long wait for him to finally get a chance to compete for gold. Unfortunately for Paul, his body gave out. After the 9-day training camp in Colorado Springs, his teammates were able to ramp down their training, but Paul was forced to ramp his up. The pain and subsequent shoulder injury prevented him from going on. What a shame!

Paige said...

I read that Raj got it after I posted and I am so glad-- and you are right, "screwed" was the wrong term. I was pulling for him though, knowing how close he had been before

Yay to him, that is so great for him now even if it had to happen at Hamm's expense.

Only one more week til the opening ceremonies! WOO HOO!

Anonymous said...

Sad for Paul----but an inspiration of class, dignity, "true sportsmanship" for others.

He will be sorely missed. I can "see" that performance of the last Olympics. Oh my!

And yes, the date is getting close.

Enjoy Carol

*Sarah* said...

Oh poo :( And after that emotional promo video about how he finally got to hang out with friends, eat whatever he wanted and have fun after the last Olympics, but then he wanted to do it all over again and so he started training again and gave all that up again just to go back to the Olympics!!!!!!!!! :'( On the other hand it's great that Bhavsar is getting in on the Olympics, I mean, Hamm did already go once before, so yay for the other guy!

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