Many know the United States is a strong team on gymnastics, but not many like to deliver credits to the men's part after they ended up 13th in the team's event at last edition. On Tuesday, the men proved they are back on track and still capable of something.
The spring for the humiliating 13th place to the preliminary four at the Stuttgart gymnastic worlds helped the U.S. men's team raise head in front of their women peers, who led the qualification round ahead of defending champions China.
After Paul and Morgan Hamm's era, the U.S. men pulled off some sluggish performance and went astray from the striking moment of winning silver medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004.
A qualifying chance here for the Beijing Olympics just reminds them that moment three years ago and pulls them back to the sport.
Although it's a fearsome gap to span facing the powerhouses China and Japan, the U.S. at least secured a place in the final and further away a berth next year in Beijing. The top 12 finishers from the championships are guaranteed a position in Beijing, which is the most important mission for all teams.
The hunger for Olympics is a remedy to "turn ugly duckling into swan". Besides the U.S. case, it's a fairy tale for the hosts Germany to reach the top three from nothing. Germany stayed away from the team competition for a lack of sufficient line-up last year, but it's a snafu along with boisterous cheers on Tuesday's night.
The 20-year-old German genius Fibian Hambuechen, the bronze winner in all-around and vault at Aarhus worlds, fired up the minnows all through the way.
"We are home, so we can do what we like," said Hambuechen. "We are going to Beijing and that's a place I dream of."
"For years I put my eyes there. Now my teammates and I bridged up here and Beijing.
"It's a day to give thanks and to take in applause. Thanks to my family, to my coach, to everyone here cheering us all through."
The German team came to the center of floor pad and bowed to spectators and was awarded with an applause seeing-off.
Back to the U.S., nailing one routine after another, the young squad finished fourth in the qualifying round behind China, Japan, and sensational Germany, comfortably ahead of Russia, Romania, Spain, South Korea, all of whom finished better than the U.S. in 2006.
"It was a true team effort," said the U.S. men's team coordinator Ron Brant in exhilaration. "We've been waiting for them to come together for the past year, and today they stepped forward towards the Beijing Olympic Games. This group was very motivated. They knew they were better than they showed last year."
The top U.S. performer was the 21-year-old Jonathan Horton, the 2006 NCAA all-around champion from the University of Oklahoma, who stood ninth in the all-around and scored a team-best in high bar and parallel bars.
"The motivation (for Olympics) made the difference today," said Horton. "Last year was a disaster and we had a whole year to train and think about it everyday. People's skepticism, the comments about this team, that stuff really pushes a gymnast.
"When people tell the team they can't get it done without the Hamms, that eats at you. There was a little anger in everyone's heart today."
"You saw a lot of emotion from us out there tonight," said the 27-year-old David Durante, U.S. all-around champion.
Durante was competing in his first world championships and had been an alternate in 2006.
"We felt like we really deserved to be here and deserved to be Beijing, and not like we were just competing with the big boys. We're going to beat you guys this year."
"We stepped that up to another level. Look, the Hamms can help us, but if they're not here, we've got to do it on our own," said Sean Golden, the U.S. favored vaulter.
"This team has been living together for the last year, so it's more than a team now. It's a brotherhood."
Russia, a traditional powerhouse, suffered two significant injuries during qualifying. Mikolai Kryukov blew out his knee landing on a vault and wasn't even able to attempt his floor exercise, and Anton Golotsutskov is doubted to inflict a broken right foot.
Source: Xinhua
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