Morgan Hamm Out, Artemev In

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Team USA’s lone Olympic medalist, Morgan Hamm, withdrew from the Games Thursday, two days before competition is set to begin.

Hamm, who has been struggling with a left ankle injury for months, made his decision after limping through podium training on Wednesday, performing only one pass on floor and a single, simple Kas-full vault. Though he underwent extensive last-ditch treatment efforts on Wednesday night, Hamm was unable to perform on floor on Thursday and made the emotional announcement to his teammates during practice. (With Hamm unable to perform on floor and vault, and teammate Kevin Tan who doesn’t compete on floor and vault, the U.S. squad would have been forced to compete four-up, four-count in Saturday’s prelims on those two events had Hamm, who was still able to do pommel horse and p-bars, not withdrawn.)

“I have been dealing with this for the last year, and it recently has gotten worse here in Beijing,” Hamm said in a statement released by USA Gymnastics. “Right now I am unable to perform my tumbling skills at the level that I need to. This has an impact on my ability to contribute to the team’s goals and I believe by continuing I would be putting myself at further risk. There are two very capable athletes who can step in and help this team more than I can right now.”

“This has been an extremely hard decision for me to make,” Hamm added for the Associated Press (AP), “I’ve given everything I can to be ready to compete at this Olympic Games. … This is something for me that's very tough because it's end of my career, and it's not the way I had planned it."

As he did when entering the gym as preschoolers, but in a much more melancholy way, Hamm is following in twin brother Paul’s footsteps, who also withdrew due to a hand injury sustained in May, just a day before the team left for China.