Word: hamme
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...have been because they were bad. Coach Larry Brown's team went 5-3 on its way to becoming the first NBA-stocked bunch not to win gold. For the most part, America's athletes were treated courteously, though geopolitics probably kept retiring medalists Rulon Gardner and Mia Hamm from getting the stadium-size love that enveloped Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj. When El Guerrouj, perhaps the greatest middle-distance runner ever, hauled in the 1,500-m gold medal that had eluded him in the past two Olympics, he fell to the track and bawled. His fellow runners hugged...
...really earn the silver? The evening's penultimate gymnast, South Korea's Yang Tae Young, could have put the gold out of reach. But while gripping the bar, Yang turned one hand the wrong waya "mixed grip"--an error that opened the door. Hamm swung through it, whirling through the routine of his life, soaring high off the bar three times before nailing the dismount. Hamm's winning margin, .012 points led South Korea to file a protest, and the International Gymnastics Federation admitted that a scoring mistake probably cost Yang the gold. But unless the Court of Arbitration...
...clock in the morning, after Paul Hamm won the first individual all-around gold medal in the history of U.S. men's gymnastics, after he waved the hardware for the cameras and took a long, drawn-out drug test, he finally talked to his parents from the athletes' Village. Mom was not in a coddling mood. "Paul," said Cecily Hamm, who raised three gymnasts, including Paul's twin brother and fellow Olympian Morgan, "you put us all through hell tonight." They had a laugh at that one. "Mom, listen," he responded. "I put myself through hell...
...gymnast and his family, the depths come when you work your whole life for a single moment only to clang off the runway and into the scorer's table like a tipsy frat boy. During the all-around final on the most crushing apparatus in gymnastics, the vault, Hamm's weary legs couldn't support his landing, and he stumbled off the mat. A lousy 9.137 score dropped him to 12th place in the competition, with only two events to go. "I thought maaaybe I could win a bronze," says Hamm...
Within 24 hours of Hamm's individual performance, his agent, Sheryl Shade, got calls from 10 companies asking about endorsement deals, including one that phoned her 20 minutes after he stepped on the podium. "That's unheard of for a male gymnast," says Shade. "I've got a lot of new best friends right now." But Hamm, who grew up on a farm in Waukesha, Wis., enjoys a low-bar profile. "He's not going to turn into a marketer," says Sandy Hamm, Paul's father. "His job is to compete, not promote." Although next time, he could...