Gymnast Hamm Comes Back and Wins Again

Paul Hamm fell, maybe just to prove he's human. Even that couldn't derail another remarkable performance Saturday night, as the defending Olympic champion breezed to a victory at the Winter Cup Challenge and again showed what a power he could be six months from now in Beijing.

He finished with a two-day score of 185.85, a full 7.25 better than runner-up Raj Bhavsar. Hamm's only error in the finals, the second phase of his first full meet since he won the all-around in Athens, was a bad landing on his vault.

He overcame it _ much like he did during his stunning comeback at the Olympics all-around four years ago _ and walked away leaving little question as to who America's best gymnast is.

After his last perfect landing on the floor, he knew he'd won and lifted both hands to celebrate, then waved to the crowd. Was he happy? Relieved? Probably both after winning in this, his first full gymnastics meet in 2½ years.

Yes, it's still very early, but the giddiness is palpable among the Americans, who now officially have Hamm as part of their 14-man team, which will be culled to six for the Olympics.

After watching him perform in preliminaries Thursday, 2006 national champion Sasha Artemev called Hamm the man to beat at the Olympics and said his presence pushes the U.S. team into gold-medal contention.

Granted, the Winter Cup comes very early on the schedule, and no gymnast comes to this event at the top of his game. But that includes Hamm, and the fact that he's this good at this point can only be viewed as a positive sign.

One of his biggest concerns was keeping his energy up through the grind of 12 events over three days. The new code of points in the sport has added about 30 percent to all the routines, and Hamm found himself a bit gassed at the end of Thursday.

He was helped this time because the biggest strength event, rings, and the one that tripped him up in prelims, pommel horse, both came early in the meet for him.

Hamm missed his pommel dismount in prelims, but not this time. His only minor hiccup was a pause as he scooted his hands across the horse, but he essentially nullified it because of the amazing strength and balance he showed to stay on and almost completely mask the error.

Later, he scored a 15.4 on rings, actually .15 less than in prelims, but the way he holds positions shows he's clearly stronger than he was four years ago. His increased difficulty on rings brings him that much closer to one of his main international rivals, Yang Wei of China.

Though maybe Hamm's most impressive set on this night came on parallel bars, a few minutes after his fall on vault. It was strong, filled with ramrod-straight handstands and seemingly effortless glides from one end of the equipment to the middle.

If he had given the competition hope with that fall on vault, that routine on parallel bars quickly dashed it.