HELENE ELLIOTT

U.S. men’s gymnasts do themselves proud

The U.S. men’s gymnastics take the bronze medal even without Paul and Morgan Hamm.

Helene Elliott

August 12, 2008

 

Beijing

 

Yet, their effort Tuesday was a revelation. Separately and together they took their potential to another level by performing admirably under duress, ending with a superb pommel horse routine by the wildly inconsistent Alexander Artemev.

“That was a huge performance. Boy did he knock it out of the park,” Mazeika said, a cross-sports reference that could be excused in his giddiness.

“We really needed that pommel horse routine and he hit it big-time.”

They were all nervous, and who wouldn’t be? “It’s not every day you’re put in this position,” said Kevin Tan, who’s from Fremont, Calif.

For them to have channeled those jitters into a confident energy on the floor was a good omen for a program that endured tough times after Athens — including a 13th-place finish at the 2006 world championships — and can now look forward with hope instead of looking wistfully back at the Hamm era.

“After all we went through to get here, we did amazingly well,” assistant coach Miles Avery said. “All we said was, ‘Be consistent. Be consistent.’ They did a tremendous job.”

On the medal stand, lined up side by side, they celebrated their achievement with wide smiles. Tan got his medal first, and an instant after the beribboned prize placed around his neck he pulled it upward for a closer look, almost in disbelief.

“It’s kind of heavy,” he said, “but I’ll wear this for a month.”

Spring, Horton and Hagerty got their medals next. Then Raj Bhavsar, an alternate four years ago and seemingly consigned to the same fate until Paul Hamm withdrew. Finally, Artemev, another alternate who got a place on the team only after Morgan Hamm was hurt but made the most of his opportunity Tuesday.

Bhavsar was the glue. A veteran of the 2001 and 2003 teams that won silver at the world championships, he brought a confidence his teammates drew upon.

“Raj was tremendous,” Avery said. “We kept saying this was a team of nine and we almost needed them all. [Artemev] and Raj really came through.”

The men had little margin for error and didn’t commit many. A 12.775 by Tan on the pommel horse hurt, but that was a hit the team had to take because of the Hamms’ absence. But their other sins were minor, mostly small hops on their dismounts.

Enough errors, certainly, to ensure they wouldn’t win gold. The Chinese men were too good, too precise, their skill levels too advanced to leave anyone else any hope. Their every move was greeted with thunderous applause, every decibel of it merited.

“They did a great job and I have lots of respect for them,” said Tan, whose father was born in China and gave him the name Kai Wen, which appears on Tan’s Olympic documents here.

“They had a lot of pressure on them and they were able to come through. Japan was great, too. It was wonderful just to be part of this competition.”

They weren’t just part of it — each member of the team will take home bronze medals. If that’s a surprise to outsiders, it wasn’t to them. “I’ve been with this team this entire quadrennium,” Tan said. “I know what kind of guys we have.”

Now, so does the world.

Horton won’t hear a “Who?” again. Spring has been sprung on the gymnastics world.

“I think this group, we’ve got a lot of good athletes out there that want to stay with it and do what we can do,” said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics.

What they did Tuesday wasn’t golden, but it was gutsy and gritty and worth every bit of sweat they put into it and every moment of anxiety that went along with it.

For the U.S. men, the bronze age will be one to enjoy.