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August 18, 2004 10:41 pm

Hamm rallies for closest win in Games history

By JILL LIEBER

USA TODAY

ATHENS, Greece - When he walked over to the high bar at Olympic Indoor Hall, the final gymnast in the final event of the men's gymnastics all-around competition Wednesday, Paul Hamm had no idea he needed to score more than 9.825 to pull himself out of fourth place and take home the gold medal.

What he had in his mind after he crash-landed on the vault two events earlier was that he needed to pull off the performances of his life to even get the bronze.

So Hamm took a deep breath and began swinging powerfully through the air, executing his technically difficult routine and then nailing his landing.

When his score came up - 9.837 - he still wasn't sure if it would be enough. And even after the arena scoreboard retabulated the scores, and his coach, Miles Avery, screamed, ``Olympic champion!'' Hamm couldn't quite compute what had just happened.

``I looked at Miles and said, `Olympic champion? No way!' `` a still-stunned Hamm said an hour later. ``I really had thought gold was totally out of the question.''

In one of the most dramatic comebacks in sports, with the closest margin of victory, .012, in Olympic history, Hamm, 21, of Waukesha, Wis., became a U.S. men's gymnastics legend.

He won the Olympic gold medal with a total score of 57.823, edging two Koreans in what could be described as a gymnastics home run. Kim Dae-eun won the silver (57.811) and Yang Tae-young the bronze (57.774).

Brett McClure of the USA finished ninth.

Hamm became the first U.S. man to win an Olympic all-around title and joined 1984 silver medalist Peter Vidmar as the only U.S. men ever to win Olympic all-around medals.

He became only the second male gymnast in history to win both world and Olympic all-around gold medals; the other is Alexander Dityatin of the Soviet Union, who won the 1979 world and 1980 Olympic golds. Last summer Hamm became the first U.S. man to win a world all-around title with a victory at the World Championships in Anaheim, Calif.

An hour after the event was over, Hamm was still trying to fathom what had just happened.

``After I missed the vault, I thought there was no chance for gold,'' he said. ``I thought maybe a bronze. I was very upset and depressed, because I knew that all-around was my best chance for winning the gold. When the score came up and Miles yelled, `Olympic champion,' I was still shocked, because I just didn't think it was possible. How could it be possible?''But if Hamm couldn't quite get his arms around the moment, others sure could.

``Paul will go down as the greatest male U.S. gymnast we've ever had,'' said Vidmar, 43, who was in the arena for Hamm's performance, as a radio commentator.

Said three-time Olympian Blaine Wilson, silver medalist with Hamm in the men's team final Monday night: ``This is huge. He won the Olympic gold medal on international soil in a non-boycotted games. It makes a statement to other countries, along with our silver team medal, that the U.S. is now becoming a powerhouse in men's gymnastics.''

Hamm had come to Athens as the reigning world champion, filled with high expectations, billed with lots of media fanfare. He showed strength, power, creativity and consistency throughout the qualifications and team finals. All along he had said if he hit all six events, there was no question the all-around title would be his.

On the night's first event, the floor exercise, Hamm made a statement, his solid tumbling earning 9.725 to put him into first place, tied with China's Yang Wei, the 2000 Olympic and 2003 world silver medalist. He followed with a 9.7 on the pommel horse, although Wei edged past him on the still rings to take a .037 lead.

Next it was Hamm's turn on the rings, his weakest event, and he scored a solid 9.587, celebrating with a pinpoint landing and pumped fists. Wei dipped on the vault (9.512), and Hamm took over first by .038.

And then disaster struck. Hamm didn't rotate enough on his vault, which caused him to sit down on the landing and almost fall off the podium, nearly hitting a judge. He appeared to have fallen out of medal contention in one fell swoop, scoring 9.137 and dropping to 12th.

``I just didn't get enough power off the vault,'' he said. ``I landed to the side and couldn't withstand the impact, and I fell over.''

A collective gasp, then murmurs, swept through the hall. Hamm sat on a chair on the sideline adjacent to the vault runway, stunned and forlorn, staring silently into space, figuring his shot at U.S. men's gymnastics immortality was gone.

First up on the next event, parallel bars, Hamm pulled off a great routine - his handstand positions were solid and very extended. His double-pike dismount was the period at the end of his never-say-die sentence.

Some of the leaders who followed him on the parallel bars had problems, but the last man in the event, Korea's Yang, stuck a 9.775 and took over first place.

Elsewhere in the arena, the gymnasts in sixth through 11th place started faltering, too. All of that helped rocket Hamm into fourth place - and put him in striking distance on the high bar, his strongest event.

``I'm very happy right now,'' Hamm said. ``I was so angry at myself after I'd missed the vault. I had worked years for that moment, and it all went down the drain.

``And then I had the best performance of my life on high bar. I'm proud of myself. I realized my dream. And I never, never, never gave up.''

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