Hamm Claims Men’s All-Round Crown

ATHENS, 19 August 2004 — Paul Hamm became the first American man to claim the Olympic gymnastics men’s all-round gold medal.

Hamm overcame a fall from the vault to grab a last gasp victory with the final routine of the day for a total score of 57.823.

Mounting the horizontal bar trailing in fourth place, Hamm completed his gravity defying routine to perfection and threw his arms up in the air in victory even before the judges had declared their verdict.

South Korean duo Kim Dae-eun and Yang Tae-young had to settle for silver and bronze respectively.

Hamm’s title hopes appeared to have ended in spectacular fashion in the fourth rotation when he mis-timed his vault and ended up flat on his side before rolling off the mat.

With his disappointment clearly etched on his face, the American walked slowly back to his seat thinking his title aspirations had vanished even before his score of 9.137 flashed up on the screen. However, after his rival Yang Wei’s gold medal hopes suffered a similar fate less than 20 minutes later when he inexplicably lost his grip from the horizontal bar, Hamm knew he was in with a chance to drag himself up the field and complete a memorable night for the Americans.

Rhode Closes Golden

Circle in Double Trap

• Kim Rhode of the United States won the last Olympic women’s double trap competition yesterday, just as she won the first in Atlanta in 1996.

The event, in which competitors shoot at two bright orange clay targets fired into the air, is being removed from the program after only three Olympics as part of efforts to trim the number of competitions at the Games.

Maria Grozdeva of Bulgaria won the other shooting gold of the day in the women’s 25-meter pistol, retaining the title she won in Sydney four years ago. Rhode, a high school student who had just turned 17 when she won the first Olympic women’s double trap title, said it was a great honor to win the final gold. “But I think it’s sad,” she added. “It’s really sad to see (this happen) to a sport that’s so much fun.” The 25-year-old from Whittier, California, who restores old cars as a hobby will have to specialize in another shooting event if she wants to be back at the Olympics in four years. “Hopefully next year I’ll switch to some other event and hopefully make it,” she said.

Rhode won with a score of 146 after a tight battle with Lee Bo-na of South Korea, who scored 145 to take silver. Gao E of China won the bronze in a shoot-off with compatriot Li Qingnian. Rhode, a bronze medalist at the last Olympics, edged ahead of her Korean rival in the 14th round of the competition held in blazing sunshine at the shooting complex outside Athens. She stayed in front to the end of the 20-round final.

Grozdeva won the pistol event with a score of 688.2, a record for the Olympic final. Maria Lenka Hykova of the Czech Republic and Irada Ashumova of Azerbaijan took silver and bronze respectively.