U.S. gymnastics men would welcome bronze

BEIJING – Go for the bronze.

As the U.S. men’s gymnastics team bounces, flips and vaults in the National Indoor Stadium tonight it will be a surprising medal contender, even after weeks after losing Olympic veterans Paul and Morgan Hamm to injury.

But as much as they have talked about winning the team competition, their best chance now is for a third-place finish.

“China and Japan will fight for gold and silver and it is up to the rest of us to fight for a bronze medal,” said Germany’s Fabian Hambuechen, who finished second behind China’s Yang Wei in the all-around qualifying.

Four teams finished qualifying within 1.025 points of one another – Russia (third), South Korea (fourth), Germany (fifth) and the United States (sixth). The eight-team final starts from zero today with an intense format in which three gymnasts are scored on each of the six apparatus. In other words, all the scores count, so there the margin of error is razor thin.

“To make a major team personnel change, compete in the first subdivision and qualify for the team finals is a huge accomplishment,” U.S. coach Kevin Mazeika said Saturday after his team performed well. (In fact, the Americans probably were scored low because they went in the first group, when judges tend to hold back on awarding high points.)

Jonathan Horton and Sasha Artemev advanced to Thursday’s individual all-around competition, and were the only Americans to qualify for event finals. Horton advanced on the high bar, Artemev on the pommel horse. Kevin Tan, fourth at last year’s world championships, just missed advancing in the still rings after taking a stumble on his landing.

“We just need to keep doing what we’re doing,” Tan said. ”We’ve started something great.”

Said Justin Spring: “This is exactly what we needed to do. A lot of people wondered if we could emotionally handle the ups and downs. There’s a lot of room for improvement, but that final day is going to be the day we put it all together.”

Horton said he spent some of his free time reading Internet reports of his team’s demise. “I know we’re not supposed to be doing that,” he said, sheepishly. “But I couldn’t believe what people were saying. It fired us up.”

Raj Bhavsar, who replaced Paul Hamm two weeks ago, agreed.

“The American heart is huge,” he said. “I think we’re gaining momentum.”

It will take more than heart to medal today. The team will need a repeat of the consistency they showed Saturday.

“The three-up, three-count (format), you can’t replicate it in the gym in practice,” alternate David Durante said. “You can’t have any mistakes.”