U.S. men: Fill in the blank

Gymnastics Coaching and others did this exercise with the U.S. women’s team a few weeks ago. Thought it might be productive to do it with the men’s team as well.

In Olympic team finals:

Vault — The U.S. men’s most solid event. No dearth of talent here. Could be used: Sean Golden, Paul Hamm, Morgan Hamm, David Sender, Joey Hagerty, Jonathan Horton, Justin Spring. Gymblog’s choices: Golden, Spring and either Hamm twin.

P-Bars — Raj Bhavsar, P. Hamm, M. Hamm, Kevin Tan, Spring, David Durante. Gymblog’s choices: Hamm, Spring and Durante. Bhavsar and M. Hamm or Tan could be used in prelims.

Floor — Hagerty, Sender, P. Hamm, M. Hamm, Golden, Horton. Gymblog’s choices: Sender, Golden and P. Hamm. M. Hamm and Hagerty or Sender could be used in prelims.

Rings — Horton, Tan, P. Hamm, Bhavsar, Golden. Gymblog’s choices: Tan, Golden and Horton. P. Hamm and Bhavsar could be used in prelims.

Pommel Horse — Paul Hamm, blank, blank. Sheesh. Durante did well in day two of the Olympic Trials here. There’s far more choice of who you absolutely would not put in this situation, including Bhavsar, Sender, Horton and Spring. This might be an event M. Hamm should start focusing on.

High Bar — P. Hamm, Spring (inconsistent), Horton (inconsistent), Sender, Hagerty, Durante (inconsistent). Gymblog’s choices: Hamm, Spring and Hagerty. Durante and Hagerty and/or M. Hamm could be used in prelims.

What the men’s selection committee has to grapple with is a bit different than that of the women’s. There might not be too much difference between, say, Ivana Hong and Shayla Worley and Bridget Sloan on bars and beam, but at least they’ve both proven they can hit in competition.

Not so with the guys. Best example: Sasha Artemev. He’d be helpful on every event except rings, and should be the U.S.’s ace in the hole on pommel horse. He’s a world pommel horse medalist (bronze, 2006) who will score big when he hits, but whenever he mounts an apparatus I feel like shaking a Magic 8 ball and shouting, “Will he fall on this routine?”

So Artemev, world-class as he is, is exempt from this exercise. The guys who have hit time and again are the only ones being considered here.

In this analysis, Bhavsar is the one who gets screwed, again. Not being a particularly good event specialist (except on rings) he’s not a particularly good all-arounder, either, simply because he doesn’t have a great event (except rings).

And he doesn’t point his toes. At all. Watch his press to handstand on floor at the U.S. Championships. Seriously. At all.

As exciting as the whole Hagerty/Sender surge is, neither has especially difficult gymnastics, and it’s hard to picture either really contributing in team finals.