Paul Hamm fulfills his dream in Athens

It was the day for Paul Hamm, who has been dreaming of taking an Olympic gymnastics gold, as he rallied from a fatal error on vault to claim the title in the last second of the men's individual all-around final Wednesday.

Athens champion album: US Hamm, men's gym individual all-round

Hamm, 22, also became the second American who clinched the all-around gold in the Olympic history. The first one named Anton Heida won the glory for the United States in 1904, a hundred years ago.

Paul Hamm and his twin brother Morgan Hamm began gymnastics at age seven, following in the footsteps of older sister Betsy. They were surprise qualifiers for the 2000 Olympic Games but spent most of their time in Sydney stunned.

Hamm performed a stunning high bar routine on the last rotation in last year's World Championship at Anaheim to snatch the all-around title from China's Yang Wei, the silver medalist in Anaheim but finished only seventh in the all-round duel in Athens tonight.

"I'm sure these Olympics will feel a lot different," Paul Hamm said before coming to Athens. "There is not only more pressure on us as a team but more pressure individually.

"Hopefully that won't distract us from getting the job done."

Boasting an intricate routine including three releases on high bar, Hamm did not add any more tricks in his routines for the Athens Olympics. He just worked hard to reduce any possible deductions, even a tenth.

In today's all-around final, Hamm fell from the vault, the fourth apparatus for him in the competition. And the score of 9.137 made spectators think that his tour of the final was over.

However, Hamm rallied in the following two apparatus. He scored 9.837 on parallel bars and completed a beautiful routine on his strong event of high bar. His stuck landing earned him another 9.837 which sealed his victory.

Hamm said after the competition that when he committed that big error on vault, he talked with his coach about maybe only getting a bronze.

However, his coach Miles Avery shouted back, "No way."

Hamm said, "Then I concentrated on the parallel bars and high bar. I told myself to just go ahead. and I made it."

Source: Xinhua