U.S. men earn rare gymnastics medal

ATHENS, Greece — Twenty years later, the boys are back on the medal stand.

The American men's gymnastics program, long overlooked and often unappreciated, won Olympic silver Monday, capping a four-year rebuilding project to take home a medal for the first time since the boycotted 1984 Games.

After faltering in the middle two rotations, Paul and Morgan Hamm led a rally. The Americans hit their last six routines, on parallel bars and high bar, to push past Romania and finish with 172.933 points.

The Japanese went last and needed to average about 9.5 over three sets on the high bar to win. They did it with ease, winning by 0.888 points.

The Americans applauded the clutch effort, but they also celebrated their own.

"It doesn't get harder than that. It doesn't get more dramatic than that," USA Gymnastics president Bob Colarossi said. "To come back out and hit the last six routines like that is unbelievable."

This was only the third team medal for America, and its first at a non-boycotted Olympics since 1932, back when the club toss and rope climb were still part of the sport.

Yes, it has been awhile since the men were this good. They long languished in the shadows of the more successful women's program, to say nothing of so many other Olympic sports.

"A team medal at the Olympics is huge," said Bart Conner, a member of the winning 1984 team. "I know they wanted gold, but this is an enormous accomplishment."

Like the rebuilding project itself, the crowning meet was anything but easy.

Guard Young and both the Hamms took big steps on their vault landings to cap a bad stretch on rings and vault, dropping the Americans from first to a precarious third.

The parallel bars changed that.

Paul Hamm, Blaine Wilson and Jason Gatson all scored higher than 9.7. Gatson closed the act with a routine that includes a move named after him — in which he grips the bar with his left hand and swings upside down while turning himself completely around.

He did it perfectly, prompting coaches Kevin Mazeika and Miles Avery to start high-fiving. When the score of 9.825 came up, Gatson slapped hands with his teammates and the crowd started yelling "U-S-A, U-S-A," a chant heard all too infrequently over the years with the men on the mat.