Sender has hope amid frustration

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PHILADELPHIA -- David Sender limped into the media interview area after today’s first round of Olympic gymnastics trials and made his case for why he should be selected to the team even if his sprained ankle keeps him from competing again in Saturday’s finals.

Sender was the all-around winner at the U.S. nationals last month. Then in an unhappy accident that Sender said he has replayed in his mind ‘hundreds of times, over and over,’ since it happened Wednesday, he fell off the high bar. That didn’t hurt him. It was when he jumped up to quiet the twanging bar and landed awkwardly that he sprained the ankle.

‘A hundred different things had to go wrong at that moment,’ Sender said.

The selection committee can choose to put injured athletes on a roster of six starters and as many as three alternates that it must submit to the U.S. Olympic Committee on July 1. But it is a foregone conclusion that 2004 Olympic all-around gold medalist Paul Hamm will be on that team. Hamm is sitting out the trials while recovering from a broken bone in his hand. Even Sender admits it is unlikely the committee would choose two injured athletes.

Sender said he suffered the same ankle injury before and it healed in two weeks. He argues that his steady performance at the nationals should be good enough for the selection committee.

‘It’s not going to do me any good to go out there on Saturday if my ankle keeps me from doing good routines,’ Sender said. ‘That wouldn’t help me either. I hope the committee saw what I did in Houston because I’ll be able to do that again in a couple of weeks.’

-- Diane Pucin