ATHENS – A few times in an athlete’s career, if he’s lucky, he has the chance to make amends for allowing a terrible goal, letting a ball roll through his legs, dropping a catch in the end zone.
A few times in an athlete’s career, if he’s lucky, he’s given the chance to perform what he does as well as he’s ever performed it, with all the money on the table and no margin for error. Make the shot. Throw the touchdown pass. Get the run in from third.
Last night, in a remarkable daily double, Paul Hamm got to do both.
Last night, the United States’ finest men’s gymnast endured one of the worst moments of his life, followed by one of the grandest minutes.
One moment, he was landing heavy off the vault, colliding with the judge’s table, seemingly throwing his chances for a men’s all-around gold medal into the Aegean Sea.
The next he was bringing the crowd at the OAKA Indoor Hall to its feet as he flew above the horizontal bar.
Taking its breath away.
Redeeming himself and crowning himself, all at the same time, winning the all-around title by .012 over silver medallist Kim Dae-eun of South Korea, the narrowest margin in the event’s history.
“I’m really excited that I did it, especially the way I did it,” Hamm said. “I made a big mistake on the vault and I thought that everything was over for me. I gave the performance of my life on that horizontal bar.”
There was little reason to believe in this fairy tale two-thirds of the way through the competition. Hamm looked to be in terrific position after his first three events: floor exercise, rings and pommel horse. Halfway home, Hamm held a .038-point lead over China’s Yang Wei, his chief rival.
Then came the vault – and unimaginable disaster. Leaping backward, Hamm executed 1 ½ somersaults in the air, but he never did get high enough on the twists. He hit the mat crouching and never could establish balance. That’s when he stumbled into the table, when the glazed look of horror washed over his face. The score of 9.137 probably should have finished him. He tumbled into 12th place.
“When I was in the air, I thought my attempt was good,” Hamm said. “But it wasn’t, obviously. I really don’t understand what went wrong.”
Hamm needed to be perfect now, and he needed help, meaning what he needed most of all was a miracle. Yang was the first to help, muffing his high-bar routine. So did Japan’s Isao Yoneda. Ioan Suciu of Romania botched a handstand. Marian Dragulescu couldn’t execute a difficult trick on the parallel bars.
Hamm helped himself on the parallel bars, posting a 9.837 that gave him one chance to nail his high-bar routine and complete his astounding comeback. He needed a 9.825, and from the moment he grabbed the high bar, he was virtually flawless. Three times he released himself over the bar, and three times he caught it on the way down, and each time the crowd held its breath for a second, then emitted a roar you could hear back in Hamm’s hometown of Washburn, Wisc.
“I thought I’d taken bronze,” Hamm said.
When the final score flashed – 9.837 – the crowd nearly blew the roof off the place. Which, in these Olympic buildings, wouldn’t be so unusual.
“What a surprise,” Hamm said. “What an amazing, amazing surprise.”
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Golden moment
American Paul Hamm defeated South Korean Kim Dae-eun by .012 points, the smallest margin of victory in Olympic history, to become the first U.S. male gymnast to win the all-around gold medal.
Here’s a look at the scores for Hamm and Dae-eun:
HAMM — DAE-EUN
9.725 Floor 9.650
9.700 Horse 9.537
9.587 Rings 9.712
9.137 Vault 9.412
9.837 Parallel bar 9.775
9.837 Horizontal bar 9.725
57.823 Total 57.811