Shakedown of the Men's Olympic Trials Finals

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Selecting this Olympic team will be a very difficult process. The Selection Committee has a few tools to help make the decision, including a computer program that analyzes every possible situation for all of the athletes in contention, such as: the best possible five-up, four-count score (prelims format at the Games); three-up, three-count score (team finals); and who has the best chance to medal individually. Here, I will give you my take not on number-crunching, but rather on the impressions I think several athletes left for the Selection Committee after last night’s competition.

Before the competition last night, I predicted five locks of who would make the team.  After an incredible competition filled with much drama, two of my picks are no longer locks—in my mind, at least. We now know that Jonathan Horton and Paul Hamm will be Olympians in 2008. Mistakes from Morgan Hamm and Sasha Artemev opened the door for others to pull ahead, while David Durante and Raj Bhasvar showed why they could help make up a great team. 

Durante appeared very confident and calm out there on the floor. “Honestly, what do you have to lose?” he said. “Just go out there and leave it all on the line.” I train with Dave at the Olympic Training Center. The Dave out there competing last night is the one I saw six days a week in the gym. I am used to seeing him go out there and hit routines like the one we just saw on pommel horse. Dave accomplished exactly what he needed to in order to give himself the best chance to be named to the team.

Raj told me he “put my heart out on the line again, and that was so tough to do.” It has been a difficult road to get to this point for Raj. He has done everything possible to put himself in a great position to make this squad. I asked Raj how he felt about his performance. “Twelve for twelve,” he said. “I am one of the happiest people in the world.” Not only did Raj look confident, but he appeared to have a great time out on the floor as well.

Morgan commented on why he didn’t compete at full strength. He injured his left ankle Thursday when he landed short on his last pass on floor. Last night, Morgan took out his popular double layout dismount and the new “air flare” to protect that injury. He explained that he has to put his foot in an awkward position to get enough power to make the “air flare” and it caused too much pain to keep it in. Morgan has already been to two Olympics, and has a ton of other experience under his belt. He will make for interesting conversation during the selection meetings.

Sasha, who fell on his signature event, explained that he needs to get his old pommel horse routine out of his head. (He performed a different one here.) In my experience, it is very difficult to go back and forth from new to old routines and vice versa. Sasha proved he could hit his old set the first day of these Trials, but could not seal the deal by hitting back-to-back routines. He provides potential for an extremely high score on the pommel horse, with little risk; even if he falls, he can get a pretty good score. With last night’s fall, he still finished fifth in the competition.

Justin Spring’s stock continues to rise after another stellar performance. Justin was tough and showed consistency in his routines throughout the Trials. He told the media he felt he had nothing to lose, particularly on floor. With big-time potential to put up high scores on several events, it may be difficult to leave Spring off the Olympic roster.

Some other great performances came from Yewki Tomita and Sean Golden. Yewki appeared light and confident. When Yewki is ‘on,’ he has some of the best execution of any gymnast in the world. It was great to see his trademark two-hand fist pump after hit routines. During training for this event, he would use it only when hitting a great routine followed by a stuck landing, but he brought out the celebratory finish during the competition. Sean Golden rocked all three of his events last night, including a near-perfect Yurchenko 2-1/2 on vault. Golden was very pleased with his performance and felt like he did what he could control: hitting his routines. 

I chatted with my brother Sean Townsend after the competition. “It’s good to stick the dismount [on floor],” he told me. “To end on that note, it felt good. That was the high point of the day.” As for his post-Trials plans, Townsend said, “Now it’s time for sandy beaches and clear waters.” He competed the only 17.0 start value vault of the entire Olympic selection process. 

Selecting the Olympic team is a tedious job, but I have full confidence and faith in the process, as well as in the members who will make the decisions.

The Olympic year is here! Subscribe or Renew now so that you don’t miss a single issue of Inside Gymnastics! Plus, subscribe for 3 years and receive a FREE poster of Nastia Liukin!