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Paul Hamm

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Paul Hamm (born September 24, 1982 in Washburn, Wisconsin) is a US gymnast. He became the first American man to win the all-round title at the world championships in Anaheim, California in 2003. He competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, alongside his twin brother Morgan, taking gold in the individual all-around competition, becoming the first American man in modern Olympic history to win the gold medal in that event.

Hamm's gold medal would not have been possible without a significant amount of ill fortune by his competitors. After a disastrous fall on his dismount in the vault, which ended with him nearly into the judges' bench, he dropped to 12th place. However, numerous small and large faults by the other gymnasts, combined with a stellar performance by Hamm on the parallel bars, returned him to fourth place after the fifth rotation. A nearly flawless high bar routine gained him a score of 9.837, 12 one-thousandths of a point more than he needed to win the gold medal. His scores on the six disciplines were:

Controversy over gold

Hamm's gold in the Men's All-around event has been recently called to doubt.

The International Gymnastics Federation ruled that South Korean bronze medalist Yang Tae-young was unfairly docked a tenth of a point in the all-around final, costing him the gold medal that ended up going to Hamm.

The 0.100 points deducted from Yang's start value in parallel bars — the difficulty of the routine — was the difference between third and first. Without the mistake, Yang would have won gold, Hamm silver and Kim bronze.

The federation suspended three judges, but it said the results will not be changed.

When asked whether or not he still deserved the gold medal by a news reporter, Hamm replied that he, "shouldn't even be dealing with this."

It has recently been announced that regardless of the ruling by the IGF, Hamm will do no worse than share the gold medal.

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