Replies

It is. After he fell, he also fell from 1st to 12th. Every announcer was talking about how it would be a miracle if he even won a bronze medal. They had pretty much written him off.

Which is strange, because announcers like to try to and create as much drama as they can, and usually they'll sell what chance a person has instead of writing them off.

What Paul Hamm did is like being behind 42 to 7 in the last 10 minutes of the super bowl and pulling out a 43-42 win.

Hope he gets on a wheeties box. As a plus, if he ever gets tired of doing personal appearances, he could have his twin brother step in for him.

The announcers were writing him off after the fall for the same reason Paul himself was writing off the gold for quite a while (read the stories at the links above). In the sport of gymnastics, usually a big hit on just one routine is typically enough to take a competitor out of contention. At the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Huang Xu was in the LEAD for 5 straight events, until he had flub after flub on the Floor Ex.

BUT - those of us who have been around this sport know exactly what Paul was quoted as saying in the interview shown on NBC immediately after he won - and that is to "never give up" because it IS the sport of championships typically being one by TENTHS of points. In this case it was (amazingly!!!!) HUNDREDTHS of points - something that hasn't happened at the Olympics since, like, 1912 or something. My son's coach who was on the Ukrainian Olympic squad in Atlanta and the World Championship team in 1994 keeps telling the guys to fight for EVERY tenth. Now we all know why ;-).