The Games begin in six months. Or maybe they’ve begun already.
Hard to know how quickly his words will filter across international waters, but American gymnast Sasha Artemev made a splash Friday when he proclaimed the U.S. men to be serious gold medal contenders and teammate Paul Hamm, not two-time world champ Yang Wei, as the man to beat at the Beijing Olympics.
“He doesn’t have a weakness,” Artemev said of Hamm, the defending Olympic champion. “He’s strong on all six events. Yang Wei has a high bar weakness. He’s not too good on high bar. But Paul doesn’t have a weakness. He’s strong on all events. He’s the man to beat, in my opinion.” …
I love it.
Them’s fightin’ words, no doubt repeated today at the National Training Centre in Beijing. I would enjoy hearing what Yang Wei has to say.
Suddenly “Olympic Gymnastics” no longer means “Women’s Olympic Gymnastics”. The general public is going to be tuning in to the Men, as well.
Certainly Paul himself and the rest of the team are not nearly so enthusiastically outspoken, but we really do have another strong contending team.
Hamm with coach Miles Avery (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) – ESPN
Gymnastics Coaching.com 