Committee needs to keep options open

PHILADELPHIA -- Now, comes the hard part.

Paul Hamm and Jonathan Horton were named to the U.S. men’s Olympic gymnastics team Saturday, appropriate nods to the injured Hamm’s golden resume and Horton’s impressive performances at the national championships and Olympic trials.

USA Gymnastics men’s program committee today will name four team members and up to three alternates or, to buy time to consider all the what-ifs, will announce six or seven names and leave their roles open until July 1.

Allowing flexibility makes sense because many questions remained unresolved after Saturday’s men’s finale.

Athens all-around champion Hamm, rushing to recover from a broken bone in his hand, and Horton, tops in the all-around with a weighted score of 90.75 at the nationals and trials, clearly deserved spots.

“Jonathan looked great to me today. It’s not a surprise they put him on the team,” Hamm said. “He’s one of those all-around gymnasts that’s solid on a lot of events that you can build a team around.”

The key word there is “team,” because winning team gold is the ultimate mission.

To achieve that, the committee might omit Joseph Hagerty, who was solid at the championships and trials -- his weighted 89.94 was second to Horton -- but isn’t spectacular in any event.

It might take Hamm’s twin, Morgan. Though hobbled by a sore ankle and unable to compete in every event, he ranked fourth on floor exercise, pommel horse and vault and could earn big points for the team. The same reasoning applies to Kevin Tan, a rings specialist who is worth carrying because he can score a point higher than any of his teammates.

Justin Spring merits a spot as the most dynamic performer and for ranking second on vault and third on high bar. Athens alternate Raj Bhavsar could also get a berth as the only man to crack the top three in three events -- rings, vault and parallel bars.

Hamm’s surgeon said last week that vault, rings and horse would cause Hamm’s hand the most stress. Bhavsar could fill in for him capably, if not brilliantly.

Alexander Artemev, a 2006 pommel horse world medalist who fell off the horse in three of four routines, is on the bubble. So are David Durante, fourth in the all-around standings, and crowd pleaser Sean Golden, who ranked first on vault, third on floor exercise and fourth on rings.

Dennis McIntyre, head of the men’s program, said the committee will ignore gut feelings and go with empirical evidence.

“We’re looking at what they’re doing now, not what they did two years ago,” he said.

Otherwise why have trials?

“Correct. Very correct,” McIntyre said. “We’re really looking at results. Sometimes when you’re doing that, scenarios come up and an athlete that you might not think about comes up. And from the outside looking in it’s ‘How did he make the team?’

“But it really is about crunching numbers and making sure you give the team the best possible chance for success.”

If Paul Hamm is healthy, the Hamms, Horton, Spring, Tan and Bhavsar might win a medal. Durante, Artemev and Hagerty would be solid alternates. Today we’ll know at least that much.

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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.