By Jill Lieber Steeg, USA TODAY

For Paul Hamm, everything old feels new again.

The 2004 Olympic gold all-around champion officially begins defense of his title at the Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas this weekend. The event, held Thursday and Saturday, will be Hamm’s first all-around competition since the Athens Games.

“I’m putting the final touches on my routines,” says Hamm, 25, attempting to make his third Olympic team along with his twin brother Morgan, who has been sidelined since October after surgery to repair a torn right pectoralis. “I’ve been focusing more so on all six events in the last month, pushing my body to get used to doing longer routines and doing them all in one day.

“My body feels good. It should be fun. I am ready.”

Hamm will be joined in competition by 2007 U.S. all-around champion David Durante and 2006-07 Tyson American Cup champion Jonathan Horton, who finished fourth in the all-around at the 2007 world championships.

Since announcing his comeback in February 2007, Hamm says he has worked hard to get back and has turned rings, one of his weakest events, into one of his strongest. He won four of six events, including rings, in a U.S. men’s senior national team intrasquad competition in Colorado Springs on Jan. 18.

There are reasons for this development.

First, there’s a controversial new International Federation of Gymnastics (FIG) Code of Points, the document that regulates scoring. Hoping to promote more objective judging, the code rewards more difficult skills (and a lot more of them in each routine) rather than artistry and creativity. It also seems to reward individuals (and teams) who are strong on rings.

Second, Hamm understands he will need to be spectacular on rings if he wants to challenge, and ultimately defeat, China’s Yang Wei, the 2006 and 2007 world all-around champion.

“I’ve just changed my focus,” Hamm says. “I knew I had to have enough difficulty to catch up to Yang Wei. I’m getting stronger because of it.”

The winner of 10 national titles, five world medals and three Olympic medals in his illustrious career, Hamm admits he’s on a quest for a second consecutive Olympic all-around title. This time, however, instead of employing tunnel vision, he intends to relish — yes, enjoy — the journey every step of the way.

“I know it’s the last time,” Hamm says. “I’m enjoying the process. I catch myself saying, ‘Hey, this is kind of fun.’ “

Although he has narrowed his focus, Hamm says he feels a lot less stress. He’s well into the Beijing build-up mode, meeting all sorts of media, marketing and sponsorship demands.

“I can spew off a list,” says Hamm, who is documenting his and Morgan’s comebacks on their website (www.makingtheolympics.com). “I’m glad I’ve gone through it before. It allows me to anticipate what’s coming. It takes away some of the stress.”

“(Iowa’s) Shawn Johnson, the reigning women’s world all-around champion, has no idea what will come at her. I’ve been there, done that. I know I can handle it all.”

So far, Hamm is representing Visa, as one of the corporation’s select few Summer Olympic athletes, and he and Morgan are endorsing Adidas, Hilton Hotels and Johnson & Johnson (through the cable TV and online docudrama “Family Room,” emphasizing family relationships on their journey to make the Beijing Olympic team). They recently shot a ‘Got Milk!’ ad. And there are plenty more deals in the works.

“It’s their biggest and busiest Olympics ever,” says their agent Sheryl Shade. “This is the first Olympics since the 1996 Atlanta Games with so many individual athlete endorsement opportunities. Corporations are interested in getting a foothold in China, so they’re going all out. Paul and Morgan are getting lots of calls. Theirs is a unique story. Twins. Coming out of retirement for a third Olympics.”

Hamm’s competition schedule will be relentless. After Las Vegas, he’ll compete in the Tyson American Cup on March 1, the Pacific Alliance in March, then head to Europe for a competition to get acclimated to traveling, time zone changes and the equipment that will be used in Beijing. Then it’s onto the U.S. men’s championships May 22-24 and the Olympic trials June 19-22.

He can’t wait to get started.

“Going into Athens, I was reigning 2003 world champion,” Hamm says. “Now, I’m the reigning Olympic champion, but people don’t think of me as the top dog. It lets me gun for them, instead of being the guy everybody is shooting for. It’s a new and different position for me, and I like it.”

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