Paul Hamm out with a broken hand

Watching from the stands, I was hopeful it was a minor finger “jam”, a very common occurrence on P Bars. Especially on Stutz to one bar.

Sadly, it was worse than I thought.

HOUSTON — Reigining Olympic all-around champion Paul Hamm has a broken right hand and will miss the U.S. Olympic Trials in June, his coach Miles Avery announced Friday.

“He won’t be able to do the Olympic Trials,” Avery said. “The course of action for that is to petition him to the team. And try to prove his readiness later in the summer, closer to the Games.”

Hamm suffered the injury on parallel bars in the final rotation of the first day of the U.S. Championships for men in Houston. During a stutz to one bar, his finger shifted on contact with the rail and he felt something pop, he said.

X-rays on Friday showed a fracture in the fourth metacarpal. Hamm will likely undergo surgery to put a pin in, and he will take four to six weeks to heal.

read more on International Gymnast

original – flickr

If it was any other gymnast, they might be off the team right now. But here is how Paul did last night under the official “point program” for selection:

Paul Hamm – 46
David Sender – 29
Joseph Hagerty – 25
Jonathan Horton – 24
Morgan Hamm – 24
Kevin Tan – 23

David Durante – 22
Raj Bhavsar – 22

Justin Spring – 15
Kyson Bunthuwong – 15

(Leave a comment if you know how they arrived at these “points”.)

Certainly from the point of view of the athletes, they simply want to have a good competition on day 2 (Saturday) and qualify in the top 14 through to Olympic Trials in Philadelphia.

Everyone expects Paul to be given every possible opportunity to compete in Beijing. He has 77 days before the start of the Games.