Hamm Using "Every Trick in the Book" to Heal

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“Three weeks and one day” post-surgery to repair his broken right hand, Paul Hamm is hopeful he’ll be back and 100 percent healthy by Beijing. Hamm, who is wearing only a small elastic glove to prevent swelling, already has full range of motion back in his hand.

“I’m gonna’ go after this with everything I’ve got,” Hamm said of his recovery process.

“I push the limits as much as I possibly can,” he added of his rehab. “I’m doing cross pulls [in straps], leg exercises, dips, push-ups; basically everything I can think of that really doesn’t use your hand. I’ve been able to keep my body in good shape for the most part … so the transition to full gymnastics will be relatively smooth.” (Brother Morgan does him one better saying that Paul has been doing so much strength he might even return stronger on rings than when he left.)

Hamm expects to be able to do what he calls, “more normal gymnastics,” in another two or three weeks. “My plan of action is going to be, in two weeks or so, I’ll be doing moderate gymnastics, certain skills on the apparatus,” Hamm told the press. “After that, I have two to three weeks to start gradually building up into routines to prepare for that [pre-Olympic training] camp.”

It’s a near certainty that the Selection Committee will name Hamm to the team this Sunday, with the final hurdle coming when Hamm must prove his readiness to compete in Beijing by the pre-Games team camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, which will end on July 22.

Hamm’s surgeon, Columbus-based hand specialist Dr. Lawrence Lubbers, said they’re using “every hand surgery trick in the book” to speed Hamm’s healing, including bone grafts and bone stimulation.

“Sports medicine is a calculated risk,” Dr. Lubbers explained. “We’re doing things sooner than we’d like to do them. Normally, we’d want 6, 8, 12 weeks to a put a high load on a metacarpal fracture, but we don’t have that much time. … By the time we need him to compete, it will be stable to where he shouldn’t have a problem with it. The dangerous time will be when he starts loading it [to prepare] for the Olympic Games.”

Still, Dr. Lubbers remains optimistic about Hamm’s recovery potential. “In terms of competition, I’d expect him to be back to how he would compete on any other day, any other time,” he said.

Hamm, too, is hopeful about his return, but admits his immediate reaction wasn’t quite as positive. “After I was injured it was tough, mentally and emotionally, for me,” he said. “I was really in the best shape of my life at Nationals. I was on my last event and I had an unfortunate slip-up. It meant I was going to have to take a step back, drop down a level. That was a tough feeling for me. The possibility of not being able to return was also there.

“That moment didn’t happen that night, as much as it happened the next morning.,” Hamm added of the fear his dream of a third Games might not come true. “Immediately after I did it, I thought, ‘My hand hurts,’ and I thought I’d, maybe, dislocated a finger. I thought that it hurt, but that I’d be back in competition in two days. … The next morning, I got an x-ray, and it’s broken. I started to think, to ask the doctors, how long will this take—be honest with me now. That’s when I started to think, ‘Am I going to be able to make a comeback?’ “

Close to a month later, Hamm’s answering that question himself with an unequivocal yes. “There’s a good chance I’ll be able to get back into Olympic shape by the Olympic Games,” Hamm said of his own expectations. “I don’t think I’ll be in Olympic shape when I have to raise my hand and show the Committee at the camp at the end of July.  It will take me three weeks, at least, training all events. That’s what I had before Nationals—I usually do three weeks of training on all events before a [meet]—and that will put me in a position to be back to [full strength].”

And, while Hamm isn’t worried, he has considered the possibility that he won’t be ready for Beijing and, in that case, would gladly step aside. “If I get to that point, that I’m six days out from the time I need to show the committee I’m ready, and I haven’t done a single thing, I’m done. I can’t make it. I’m willing to accept that, but I don’t think that’s gonna’ be the case. I think I’m going to be progressing along.

“I think by the time the Olympic Games roll around I’ll definitely be able to do all six events, no question.”