U.S. Gymnasts Begin Process

It’s the chance for unknowns to catch a coach’s eye.

It’s the chance for the wounded to find out if torn muscles, sore backs, ripped Achilles’ and cracked bones are healed enough to stick a full-twisting double-back landing off the still rings.

It’s the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, a hybrid competition that is part audition, part actual scoring for the U.S. Olympic trials later this month at the Pond in Anaheim.

For the men, who began their routines Wednesday night at Gaylord Entertainment Center, what happens here will count as 40% of their final Olympic trials score. For the women, who begin competing tonight, the top 12 finishers here automatically advance to the Anaheim trials -- plus any of the walking wounded who are granted a pass into the trials.

Then there will be the gymnasts who will ask for a dispensation from these nationals and who will show up at the trials too.

After all this competition and petitioning, the top two men who score best over this week’s nationals and the official Olympic trials are guaranteed a spot on the Olympic team.

The top two women are guaranteed only an invitation -- to the final selection camp, which will be held in July after all the competition. That’s when the Olympic team will be announced.

Confusing?

Bob Colarossi, president of USA Gymnastics, was asked why the organization is even holding Olympic trials.

“Every step of the process is an important step,” Colarossi said. “You want to see kids compete, and you want it to be on the podium in front of a large crowd. We have to put together a selection procedure that gives as much advantage to the athletes as possible and lets us know that we’re fielding the best team we can.”

There seems no doubt that Paul Hamm will be the linchpin of the U.S. men’s team.

Hamm, who won the world all-around championship last year in Anaheim, was the most dynamic and strongest performer in the all-around preliminaries here Wednesday.

With a score of 57.70, Hamm, 21, grabbed a commanding lead of 0.875 over Brett McClure, 23. Hamm’s standout routines included a steady performance on the high bar, which rated a 9.8, and a confident pass over the pommel horse, where he earned a 9.725 on an apparatus on which the U.S. often struggles.

Hamm’s twin brother, Morgan, was in third place and Raj Bhavsar fourth. The Hamms left their Wisconsin training center earlier this year to train with U.S. Olympic Coach Miles Avery at Ohio State. Bhavsar and Blaine Wilson, two other members of the 2003 U.S team that won a silver medal at the world championships, also work out there.

Wilson, who will turn 30 in August, is aiming for his third Olympic team. Wilson’s plans seemed ruined when he suffered a torn biceps tendon earlier this year. But 13 weeks after surgery, Wilson came here hoping to compete on two apparatus Wednesday and maybe all of them Friday.

Yet, in order to petition his way into the Olympic trials because of his injury, he needed to withdraw from all this week’s events.

“It stinks,” Wilson said. “I don’t like watching gymnastics.”

In addition to Wilson, Jason Gatson and Hollie Vise withdrew from the championships because of injuries.

Gatson and Vise were runners-up in the 2003 national all-around competition. Vise, 16, had complained of a sore back during Tuesday’s media session, then suffered back spasms at a Tuesday evening practice. Gatson also complained of a lower back injury. Both will probably petition into the Olympic trials.