Injured Hamm to miss Beijing
His broken right hand didn’t have enough time to heal.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paul Hamm had the best medical care there is, and the drive and determination to make yet another spectacular comeback.
What he didn’t have was enough time.
With only about a week of training time left, the reigning gold medalist and Ohio State graduate withdrew from the Beijing Olympics Monday because he won’t be healthy enough to compete. Besides persistent pain from the right hand he broke two months ago, he strained his left rotator cuff in his accelerated recovery effort.
“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.”
The American men go through processing today and leave for China 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.
“We were so close,” said Dr. Lawrence Lubbers, the hand specialist who operated on Hamm May 27. “Without the shoulder, we probably would have made it. But the two were just too much.”
Alternate Raj Bhavsar will take Hamm’s place in Beijing.
USA Gymnastics also is still waiting for final clearance on Hamm’s twin brother Morgan, who received a warning July 3 from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for getting a prescribed anti-inflammatory shot without having the proper paperwork.
Paul Hamm’s withdrawal is a huge blow for the Americans, who were fourth at last year’s world championships and hoped his return — and that of Morgan — would get them back on the podium. Hamm is the only American to win the world (2003) or Olympic (2004) all-around titles.
It 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 considered the only one who could challenge him.