Paul Hamm probably could have gutted through the pain in his broken hand. A bad shoulder that prevented him from doing some of his routines? With less than a week of training before the Beijing Games?
That was too tall an order, even for the reigning Olympic champion.
Hamm withdrew from the Beijing Olympics on Monday, saying he won’t be healthy enough to compete. He still is feeling pain in the right hand he broke two months ago, but the bigger concern could be the strained rotator cuff in his left shoulder that made training last week “a disaster.”
“For my comeback to be successful, I needed to make continuous progress and have no setbacks,” an emotional Hamm said. “The time frame I was given was extremely short. … This has been hardest decision I’ve ever had to make, but I have too much respect for the Olympics and my team to continue on when I know the best thing for everyone is for me to step aside.”
The loss of Hamm is a huge blow for the Americans, who were fourth at last year’s world championships and hoped his return — and that of twin brother Morgan — would get them back on the podium. Hamm is the only American to win the world (2003) or Olympic (2004) all-around titles.
Raj Bhavsar, who also was an alternate in 2004, will take Hamm’s spot.
USA Gymnastics also is still waiting for final clearance on Morgan Hamm, who received a warning July 3 from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for getting a prescribed anti-inflammatory shot without having filed the proper paperwork.
“Paul at his best is irreplaceable,” Bhavsar said. “(But) I believe in my heart the team goal is the same, and it’s definitely within our potential. … We’re not ever going to give up on that dream.”
Hamm’s withdrawal also clears the way for China’s Yang Wei in the all-around. Yang, the two-time defending world champion, is so technically superior that Hamm was co nsidered the only one who could challenge him.
“I was giving myself the chance to see how this past week went, to see if I could turn the corner at any point. That just never happened,” Hamm said. “When you go into the Olympic Games, you’re supposed to be in the best shape of your life. Not the worst shape.”
Hamm broke the fourth metacarpal — the bone extending from his right ring finger to his wrist — May 22 at the national championships, just 11 weeks before the start of the games. It’s a devastating injury for a gymnast, because every one of the six events the men do puts a heavy load of stress on the hand. Many moves require the hand to be twisted sharply or support a gymnast’s entire body weight.
Hand specialist Dr. Lawrence Lubbers stabilized the fracture May 27, inserting a titanium plate and nine tiny screws. Though Hamm was allowed to do strength and conditioning work, he wasn’t cleared to resume full gymnastics activity until July 3.
Hamm’s recovery appeared to be on track when he proved he was physically able to compete at a July 19 intrasquad meet. He did portions of all six events that day, estimating he was about 90 percent, but said he still had pain in the right hand.
He said his shoulder began hurting the day after that intrasquad meet. When he returned home to Columbus, Ohio, it was clear just what a toll the hard training had taken.
Time and again last week, he got up on the still rings only to have to quickly drop back off. Skills he had been able to do a few days earlier were now impossible.
“There came a point in the gym where I almost threw my arms in the air and just knew, this wasn’t working,” the 25-year-old Hamm said. “It was a really tough decision for me to make. You could drag this out even further. But what I know with my body and what I feel, there’s no point for me to do that. It’s not in the best interest of everyone involved.
“I pushed for the comeback, I did everything I possibly could,” he said. “There just wasn’t enough time. I feel like if I had another month, I would have been able to get the job done.”
But he didn’t have a month. The American men go through processing Tuesday and leave for China on Wednesday. Podium training — the one opportunity gymnasts have to train on the competition floor and in front of judges before the meet begins — is Aug. 6.
The men’s competition begins Aug. 9.
The Americans likely would have needed him on all six events in both qualifying and team finals. Because the scoring format in team finals is so unforgiving — three athletes compete on each event and all three scores count — Hamm didn’t want to hurt the Americans if he wasn’t fully ready to go.
“We were so close,” Lubbers said. “Without the shoulder, we probably would have made it. But the two were just too much.”
Hamm did talk with USA Gymnastics officials about going to Beijing and only doing a few events. But that isn’t realistic or fair, he said, especially considering rings is one of the events the Americans would have needed him on.
“What stopped us, I think, is the shoulder,” coach Miles Avery said. “It’s just from working hard. It’s just an overuse injury. If you rest and ice it, you’ll be fine and can pick back up. We don’t have the time.”
Hamm’s withdrawal likely ends the career of one of, if not the best gymnasts the United States has ever had. In addition to his world and Olympic titles, he led the Americans to a silver medal in Athens, their first at the Olympics in 20 years.
His comeback in Athens was one of the most spectacular ever in the sport. After a fall on vault dropped him to 12th place with only two events left, he rallied with two of the best routines of his career to win the gold.
Two days later, however, the International Gymnastics Federation said that bronze medalist Yang Tae-young of South Korea had been wrongly docked a tenth of a point on his second-to-last event.
Add that extra tenth, and Yang would have scored higher than Hamm. That assumes, though, that everything in the final rotation would have played out the same, something nobody can say for sure.
The Koreans did not protest in time, and the FIG said it couldn’t change results after the competition. But the Koreans took the matter all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, forcing Hamm to defend his gold medal. CAS eventually declared Hamm the rightful champion.
Despite taking 2 1/2 years off after Athens — an unprecedented layoff in the sport — Hamm had firmly established himself as a contender for another gold, winning every meet he entered this year, often by large margins. Even with his injury, he still finished the first night of nationals almost four points ahead.
“Enough cannot be said about the effort Paul has made over the last few months and the contributions he has already made,” said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics. “His decision is being made with the team’s best interests in mind. It’s a shame that it’s happening right now, and one of the world’s best gymnasts will not be able to compete at this summer’s Olympic Games.”
Hamm, a three-time U.S. champion, also was the cornerstone of silver medal teams at the 2001 and 2003 world championships. He has five medals from the world championships, and three from the Olympic Games.
He had said he planned to retire after Beijing, and said Monday that is still his intention. He graduated from Ohio State last year with a degree in accounting and plans to go to business school.
“It’s going to be tough, but I’m going to be cheering on the team, watching Morgan,” Hamm said. “I’m going to try and enjoy it from the spectator’s standpoint, I guess, this time around.”

by: By NANCY ARMOUR

source: mlive.com

Former world champion Chellsie Memmel and veteran Alicia Sacramone earned spots in the U.S. women’s gymnastics team for the Beijing Olympics on Saturday, joining reigning world all-around champion Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin.

A pair of 16-year-old girls Samantha Peszek and Bridget Sloan rounded out the team, with Jana Bieger, Ivana Hong and Corrie Lothrop named as alternates following the final selection camp held in Huntsville, Texas.

Johnson and Liukin, a winner of nine world championship medals, had already clinched the Olympic spots finishing top two at the U.S. Olympic trials last month.

“The U.S. team has been assembled to give us our best chance for success in Beijing,” Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics, said in a statement.

“This group of athletes has worked hard to position USA Gymnastics as a strong contender for medals.”

Memmel, 2005 all around world champion, finished third at both the nationals and Olympic trials while Sacramone kept proving her value on vault and Peszek finished a sturdy fourth at both nationals and the trials.

source: xinhuanet.com

World champion Shawn Johnson experienced her first hiccup in a campaign to become the next US Olympic gymnastics darling when she was beaten to the American Cup title by compatriot Nastia Liukin.
Yet United States coaches spun the surprise result as a win-win for the women’s team that expects to battle China, Russia and Romania for supremacy in August’s Beijing Olympics.
“The close competition is inspiring everybody to work hard and just shows that nobody has places nailed down to the ground,” Martha Karolyi, coordinator of the US women’s gymnastics team told reporters at Saturday’s international event. “You have to improve yourself.”
It was the first time that Johnson, 16, had tasted defeat since joining the seniors’ ranks in an all-conquering 2007 campaign in which she won the US nationals and the world all-round title.

US gymnast Shawn Johnson competes on the uneven parallel bars at the Tyson American Cup men’s and women’s gymnastics competition at Madison Square Garden in New York March 1, 2008. [Agencies]

Liukin, two years older and the winner of nine world championship medals, showed she was fully back in the frame after recovering from an ankle injury that held her back last year.
“It’s going to be a tremendous competition, particularly between these two,” Bela Karolyi, Martha’s husband and famed coach who is chief of the US team training centre at the couple’s Texas ranch, said about the Olympics.
Johnson’s coach, Qiao Liang, did not see the Cup result as a setback for his gymnast, who fell during the opening rotation in an attempt to land the difficult Yurchenko vault with two-and-a-half somersaults for her first time in competition.
“I think that’s a very difficult vault, only three people are doing it in the world,” said Qiao, a successful Chinese gymnast who settled in Iowa more than a dozen years ago after going to college there. “We are planning to do it in Beijing.
“She made a mistake on that but I think it was a valuable one, a great learning experience.
“Other than that, it was a great performance. She not only demonstrated she is a very powerful gymnast but, as far as mental strength and her attitude, she showed she’s a champion.”

from: chinadaily.com.cn

Powerful Russian captures individual all-round gold medal with ease

(BEIJING, December 07) — The final competition day of the 2007 Rhythmic Gymnastics International Invitational Tournament was primarily dominated by Olga Kapranova of Russia.

Thanks to her steady, high-caliber performance and transcendently difficult presentation as well as rhythmic elegance, the 2005 World All-Around Champion nailed the individual all-round gold Friday afternoon.
The Russian gymnast finished with a total score of 73.825, followed by her strong competitor, Ukrainian gymnast Anna Bessonova, with 70.250 and bronze medalist Aliya Garayeva of Azerbaijan (69.775).

The second rotation, the hoop apparatus, proved crucial in the overall final when the twenty-year-old Kapranova achieved a high score of 18.400 while her Ukrainian counterpart suffered with the lowest score of 15.625 due to two major faults.
Bessonova, the world champion and existing number-one-ranked world rhythmic gymnast for rope, club, and ribbon apparatuses, was edged out of contention for the gold medal after rotation 2. But she succeeded in catching up with the Kapranova in rotation 3 (club) and rotation 4 (ribbon) with 18.250 and 18.125, respectively, upgrading her temporary ranking from forth place to second place after the final rotation.
Kapranova kept her dominance in the two-day qualifications and won her rightful victory in the final, offering the audience a sense of artistic perfection and gifted talent.
Ding Yidan, who represented host team China, finished tenth with 62.925.
Powerful Russian captures individual all-round gold medal with ease
from: beijing2008.cn

(BEIJING, December 3) — The 2007 Rhythmic Gymnastics International Invitational Tournament will be held at Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium from December 5 to 7, the organizers announced today.

Altogether, 76 gymnasts from 16 countries will take part in two competitions: the individual all-around competition and the group all-around competition, with one gold medal for each.
The participating teams come from Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Spain, Estonia, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea, Russia, and Ukraine.

The venue - Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium

The individual competition consists of four apparatus exercises on rope, hoop, clubs, and ribbon. The qualification round lasts two days, and gymnasts will compete on two of the four apparatuses each day. The top 10 gymnasts from the qualification round on each of the four apparatuses will compete in the final competition. Scores from the qualification round are not carried over to the final competition, and the winner will be the gymnast with the highest score in the final.

The media service area

Groups of six gymnasts will perform two group exercises. One is performed with five ropes and the other with three hoops and two clubs. The eight best groups in both exercises will compete in the final competition. The group with the highest total score on the two exercises in the final will be declared the winner.
Based on the 2007 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships ranking, invitations were sent to select gymnasts and groups. One gymnast per federation was invited from the federations whose gymnasts were ranked in the top 10 at the championships, while the top 10 groups were invited to the group competitions.
With the arrival of the Azerbaijan team on Monday, all 170 participants, including the athletes, coaches, officials of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), judges, doctors, and translators, are ready for the tournament.

from: beijing2008.cn

BEIJING, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) — It’s an Olympic test event in which everything feels good, even great for the hosts China in the “Good Luck Beijing” Gymnastics International Invitational that wrapped up here on Monday. In medals table, China swept away nine golds out of 12 on offer with a backup squad in men’s events.
China’s veteran Lu Bin, 28, came back after being sidelined for 14 months to pile up four gold medals in rings, vault and pommel horse, including a gold for men’s team overall.

China’s Jiang Yuyuan jubilates after the women’s uneven bars final at the 2007 Artistic Gymnastics International Invitation Tournament held in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 2, 2007. Jiang Yuyuan took the second place of the event.(Xinhua Photo)

Chinese women ace Cheng Fei won gold in all the events she was in, including floor, vault and beam.
As a triple world champion at last year’s world championships, the Olympic test could be counted as only a training ground for Cheng, who won the vault world title three times in a row.
China’s teenager Jiang Yuyuan, 15, a team silver medallist at the Stuttgart worlds, grabbed the women’s all-around. Liang Mingsheng brought home the last gold in China’s haul on the parallel bars.
Japan’s Makoto Okiguchi claimed first place in men’s floor; South Korean Kim Jihoon captured high bar as world champion Fabian Hambuechen fell off on his back in his routine.
Ukraine’s Dariya Zgoba managed to lift the only gold medal slipped out of China’s hands in women’s apparatus.
The 2005 all-around champion Chellsie Memmel bounced back from a shoulder injury after being absent from international competition since last year’s world championships, but double bronzes are not enough to meet U.S. expectations for the former leading figure on the U.S. team.
Besides the competition outcome itself, China inaugurated its National Indoor Stadium, the venue for gymnastics, trampoline, handball and wheelchair basketball during the Olympics and paralympics, to worldwide athletes and spectators.
The National Indoor Stadium can seat 20,000 spectators, which is counted as the biggest indoor stadium nationwide.
Athletes, spectators and FIG officials responded well to organizations through the tournament.
The volunteers are well equipped here to serve the test tournament. Nearly 750 volunteers came to service the gymnastics event.
These volunteers have undergone several rounds of selections and professional training and acquired the skills and knowledge required.
Among them, professional volunteers have knowledge background in a certain specialty, such as in medicine, competition and language. The main sources are the Medical School of Peking University, Beijing Sport University and Beijing Foreign Studies University.
After training and rehearsals, the volunteers are basically meeting the needs of the tournament. Former gymnastics world champions Mo Huilan and Guo Linyue have been invited to the training site to cheer them in their training.
At present, the number of volunteers engaged in services for the audience is the largest, reaching 240. There are also a large number of volunteers for competition and media services.
In spite of being an Olympic trial, the event enjoyed a high rate of seating. With only 6,000 tickets on sale, it’s a sell-out almost every day.
It’s “feeling good” that is most frequently used here throughout the tournament. Hopefully ” feeling great” heard next year.

Ukraine’s Olena Movchan (C) poses with other medalists during the awarding ceremony of the women’s event at the 2007 Trampoline Gymnastics International Invitational Tournament in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 2, 2007. Movchan claimed the title of the event with 37.50 points. (Xinhua Photo)

China’s Lu Bin (R) and his teammate Yan Mingyong attend the awarding ceremony of the men’s rings event at the 2007 Artistic Gymnastics International Invitation Tournament held in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 2, 2007. Lu Bin claimed the title with 16.000 points. (Xinhua Photo)

From: xinhuanet.com 

Chinese gymnasts continued their dominance when Cheng Fei and Liang Mingsheng ruled beam and parallel bars on the last day of the gymnastics Olympic test. Cheng Fei, China’s No. 1 in women squad, dished out the beam title, her third after vault and floor victories. Lauren Michell of Australia finished second. U.S. veteran Chellsie Memmel, the 2005 world all-around champion, took the bronze.

Both Cheng and Michell got a difficulty valued 6.7, the best among the finalists, but Cheng’s quality score is 9.025, a slim 0.125 points better than her Australian opponent.
“Although I made little mistake today, there are more small problems in my routine than that in the qualification. I got a gold medal, but I believe my strong points lie in floor exercise and vault,” said Cheng, who dropped from beam at the Stuttgart gymnastic worlds.
“Since my routine in the world championships has reached a top level, there is little room to change my movement,” Cheng said.
“For winter training, I will focus on adjusting my psychological condition. My biggest pressure comes from the younger athletes. They are improving rapidly, and at the same time, there is little room for me to improve. I really feel anxious about it.”

Cheng Fei

Memmel, who is recovering from injuries, won her second bronze in the tournament after finishing third in floor.
Memmel won the all-around title and took silvers in beam and uneven bars at the 2005 world championships, but the shoulder injury bothered her at last year’s worlds, where she have to quit the all-around after finishing first in qualifications.
In parallel bars, China’s Liang Mingsheng and Fengzhe brought more glory to the Chinese squad as they pocketed both the gold and silver medals.
Both Liang and Feng are pre-game hopefuls for the gold. Feng, winner of the apparatus in the 2007 World Cup series of Shanghai and Paris, was the top qualifier, followed by Liang. In the final, Liang started with a 6.800 difficulty value. His smooth movements and stable landing earned him 15.800 points.
Feng, though performed with a 7.00 difficulty level, the highest among all competitors, his not so satisfactory execution and a major tumble in landing cost him the chance for a gold. He got the silver with 15.775 points.
“I felt good and did well today,” said Liang. ” My A score was lower than Feng Zhe’s, but my quality was higher than his and he made some mistakes, so I got the gold medal.”
The bronze went to Yaeyoung from South Korea. South Korea’s Kim Jihoon snatched horizontal bar gold as world champion Fabian Hambuechen made fell down to land on his back.
Germany’s Hambuechen, winner of horizontal bar at the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart, nailed the first position in qualifications. But he suffered a surprising drop when he lost grip of the bar and hit the mat face-up at the very end of his routine. He got 14.00 points and finished in seventh place.
Kim, who placed second after Hambuechen in qualifications, seemed to be quite in style. Shrugging of his teammate’s fall of Kim Soomyun, Kim Jihoon the gold with 15.425 points.
“It was slippery. I had wanted to do a double twist, but I didn’t land well,” said Hambuechen. “It was a new routine. I did it the first time. Japan’s Hoshi Yosuke and Tanaka Kazuhito took the silver and bronze, at 15.150 and 15.000.

from: xinhuanet.com