CHICAGO (AP) — Taylor Phinney remembers watching the 2004 Olympics and spotting gymnasts Paul and Morgan Hamm.

“I was like, ‘Oh, they have red hair, and they’re from Wisconsin,’” Phinney said Monday. “‘That’s interesting.’”

Little did he know.

Turns out, the cycling phenom and two of the world’s best gymnasts have a bit more in common than their Olympic ambitions. Like their family tree.

Though the three met for the first time Monday at the U.S. Olympic Committee summit, they’re related. And not in that “83rd cousin of an aunt twice removed” way that Barack Obama and Brad Pitt are related.

Phinney’s great-great-grandfather on his mother’s side, Russell Carpenter, and the Hamms’ great-grandfather on their mother’s side, Elbert Carpenter, were brothers, revealed Connie Carpenter-Phinney, herself a 1984 gold medalist in cycling.

Which makes the three Beijing hopefuls cousins, even if it’s a bit on the distant side.

Yeah, some pretty good genes in that family.

“It’s interesting when some other family member, even if it’s far off, you feel some type of a bond even if you don’t know them or talk to them all the time,” Morgan Hamm said.

The first family of taekwondo aside, it’s rare for a family to have multiple Olympians.

The 25-year-old Hamm twins have competed at the last two Summer Games and led the Americans to the silver medal in Athens, the team’s first Olympic medal in 20 years. Paul also won the all-around gold, a first for a U.S. man. The 17-year-old Phinney, who has all but qualified for the Beijing Games, is the son of Carpenter-Phinney and Davis Phinney, an Olympian and the first American to win a stage at the Tour de France.

Consider that one family can claim all of them, and it’s more than a little astounding.

“It is amazing,” Carpenter-Phinney said.

Carpenter-Phinney grew up in Wisconsin, just as the Hamms did. Her cycling career had taken her out of Wisconsin long before the Hamms were born, so there were no yearly family reunions or holiday get-togethers. But the twins always knew they were related to a big-time athlete. When Carpenter-Phinney was inducted into the Wisconsin Sports Hall of Fame in 2001, Morgan and his older sister, Betsy, went to the banquet to meet her.

“It was an honor,” Morgan Hamm said. “It was pretty remarkable to see her get that award, and it was really cool. We got to just talk a little bit, and I got to know about her a little bit more.”

Carpenter-Phinney followed the Hamms’ careers, and the family connection came up again in the last few weeks when Phinney and the Hamms realized they’d be at the summit together. They planned to finally meet, and the twins spotted Taylor as he was getting his picture taken Monday morning.

“We’re like, ‘Oh, hey!’” Morgan said.

“He’s tall,” Paul added. “We didn’t get those genes.”

At 6-foot-4, Phinney is 10 inches taller than his cousins.

“It’s definitely cool,” Phinney said. “I would consider gymnastics if I was a little bit shorter. And more coordinated. … I don’t think I got any gymnastics genes. Except for I do have a trampoline at my house. So I can jump on it and do flips on it.”

Athletes always say one of the best parts of the Olympics is getting to meet athletes in other sports.

Few, though, can say they met their relatives.

“It is strange,” Paul Hamm said. “We were hearing about Connie as kids, and how she had won a gold medal and there was a connection. But I never thought anything would come of it that we would be here today.”

Posted in: Gymnastics, Morgan Hamm, Paul Hamm, Press |