can the US Men win the Olympics?

Ohio State coach Miles Avery:

“We’re going to win,” Avery insists. “That’s why we’re going. We want to win. We don’t want to finish third, or second.”

AVERY: U.S. TEAM IS IN IT, TO WIN IT – Inside Gymnastics

Everyone thinks China is going to run away with it, but everyone thought that in ’04 [too]. …

I do think the USA does have an outside chance of winning the Olympics. They certainly will make the Team Final (top 8 of 12 teams). At that point any team that hits 18 of 18 routines has a chance.

We will know better after this weekend’s VISA Championships and first trial in Houston.

source – Getty Images – M. Hamm’s comeback – NBC Olympics

Fans are hopeful Morgan Hamm looks good. The team could really use him in Beijing.

Shannon Miller poses the most important question for Olympic Team selectors:

“Should the men focus on forming a team that will be sure to qualify to the finals or focus on putting together a team that will excel once in the finals?”

These could be two completely different teams.

In the qualifying round it’s a 6-5-4 format. Six men on a team, 5 men compete on each event and 4 scores count. In the final round it’s a 3 up 3 count format. Three athletes compete on each event, all scores count. For the qualifying round you would likely need athletes that can do more events, thus more all-arounders. This would mean the less events you compete (no matter how good), the worse your chances of making the team. However, if you want to focus on the final round and assume you’ll make it there, you would need only 3 men on each event that can throw huge scores. This means a ringman like Kevin Tan or a specialist like Sean Golden may have a much better chance to make the team.

From the Podium

If they are in it to win it, the USA must choose the best team 3 up 3 count for team finals.

That’s a no brainer.

China will do exactly the same thing. Team preliminaries will be low priority.

This is NOT the case for every nation, however. Canada, for example, will likely send their best apparatus specialists as opposed to those who would contribute to the highest possible team score. Canada does not have a chance for a team medal. But could certainly medal on an apparatus as they did in 2004 Athens.