Even Paul Hamm’s coach figured it was over: “I thought he had no odds.”
A fall on his vault landing sent Hamm stumbling into the judges’ table and all the way down to 12th place in the all-around gymnastics final. “I thought, ‘That’s it. I’m done,”‘ he said.
Far from it. In one of the most amazing comebacks in Olympic history, Hamm performed the two most spectacular routines of his career Wednesday to win the gold medal by the closest margin ever in the event.
He’d been first in the event, and fell — literally – back to last. While he was assisted to some degree by lots of niggling little errors by his competitors after his own horrible mistake, he still needed a 9.825 on the high bar. He did a spectacular 9.837.
I’m not a big follower of sports. But, damn, that was fine stuff.