While his latest comeback hasn’t been without its challenges, Hamm is ready to take the next step by competing in the Winter Cup Challenge starting Thursday at the Las Vegas (Nev.) Sports Center.

Hamm, 29, plans to compete on four of the six apparatus: floor exercise, pommel horse, vault and parallel bars. He is not yet ready on the high bar and rings following surgery one year ago to repair a torn labrum and rotator cuff in his right shoulder.

“Keep in mind I haven’t competed in four years, but I think you’re going to see (the old) Paul Hamm on four events this weekend,” he said in a conference call Tuesday.

Hamm started the conference call Tuesday with a statement.

“First off, I want to address my ongoing legal situation,” he said. “Since my case has yet to be resolved, I have been advised by my lawyer not to discuss any details of what took place or the case in general.

“I would like to say that I sincerely regret what happened and I hope to regain my reputation by my actions going forward.”

“I want to be very clear that Paul is eligible to compete this weekend and in other competitions,” said Steve Penny, president and CEO of USA Gymnastics. “We believe Paul is accepting responsibility for his actions.”

Hamm said his ultimate goal was to help the U.S. men win team gold at the London Games this summer, but he didn’t rule out another shot at the all-around title.

“I’m looking at how I can help the team, first off,” he said. “If in three months rings and high bar are definite possibilities, then the all-around becomes an option.

“Whether I’m competitive with the top gymnasts in the world, we’ll have to wait and see.”

Hamm has been training at Swiss Turners Gymnastics Academy in West Allis. He spent the last 2½ weeks in Houston, training with Jonathan Horton, the 2010 world all-around bronze medalist.

“My shoulder isn’t ever going to be 100% again but as far as fully healed I would say yes,” he said. “I think it is still getting better. Certain skills are becoming a little easier every week, even a year after surgery.”

He added that he has been careful not to push the shoulder too hard.

“The sport is very tough on your body and you have to be smart with your training,” he said. “I’m trying to do things in a similar way but I have to be careful. Certain skills are more damaging to my shoulder and I’ll avoid them. The longer I do an event like rings, the better the chance of things breaking down.”

Hamm also won world all-around gold in 2003 but hasn’t competed since he broke a bone in his right hand at the 2008 U.S. championships. That injury forced him to resign his position on the Olympic team just days before the start of the Beijing Games.

He decided in the summer of 2010 to commit to training for one more shot at the Olympics.

“I have worked extremely hard my whole life and I know I am a contender,” he said. “I am solely focused on how I can help this U.S. men’s team. If there ever was a time for the U.S. to win (Olympic) team gold, this is it.”

The U.S. men last won team gold in 1984. The Americans won the bronze medal in 2008.

Associated Press

2004 Athens All-Around Olympic Champion Paul Hamm plans to compete at a U.S. men’s ranking meet next month, his first competition since breaking his hand at the 2008 National Championships.

Hamm hopes to earn one of eight spots on the national team available at Winter Cup, Feb. 2 and 4 at the Sports Center in Las Vegas.  Being part of the national team would put him in the pool for international competition and also make him eligible for training funds from USA Gymnastics.

Paul Hamm, the only American man to win the Olympic and world all-around titles, missed the Beijing Olympics after breaking his hand in 2008.  He came out of retirement for a second time in the summer of 2010 but missed last year’s National Championships while he recovered from shoulder surgery.

Like many in the sport, I was saddened by the Paul Hamm incident that led to his termination as an assistant coach at Ohio State. It only takes one slip-up in the Internet age, especially when video is involved. So Hamm, whose gymnastics brilliance had always shone brighter because of his humility, was humbled even further.

While I don’t condone his actions, I certainly will not judge him on one night of his life. As a writer, I have covered him since he and his twin, Morgan, dominated the age-group scene. When he showed up at the 2002 U.S. championships in Cleveland, he ran off with the first of three consecutive senior national titles.

At the 2003 Worlds in Anaheim, Hamm performed one of the best routines I’ve ever seen under the circumstances. After China’s Yang Wei had already finished his all-around performance with a solid floor routine, Hamm needed to nail the high bar set that had betrayed him more often than not in the past. That’s what I remember most. He went up and hit the best routine of his life, stuck his dismount, and became the first American male to win a world all-around gold.

“It was just an awesome feeling,” Hamm said at the time. “I was finished, and I finally beat high bar.”

A year later, at the Athens Olympics, he again completed his all-around with a clutch high bar routine. And even though his Olympic all-around title was clouded in controversy because of a scoring error, he carried on as best he could. He did nothing wrong, yet was robbed of the elation that usually comes with being Olympic champion. At his athletic peak, he disappeared from the sport after that.

Hamm, who turns 29 Sept. 24, was the most successful U.S. male gymnast ever, but I’ll always appreciate his demeanor off the apparatus. No matter the situation, he answered questions honestly, respectfully and thoughtfully. He was never too busy, or too full of himself. That’s what impressed me more than anything.

So when I think of Hamm, I will consider the total picture, not just one unfortunate evening. Because all we really learned from his incident with the police is that nobody is perfect. And nobody ever will be.

Paul Hamm was great for gymnastics. He was pivotal to the resurrection of a U.S. men’s program that had nose-dived after its 1984 Olympic team victory. And if his comeback stalls and he never returns to the sport, that’s how I will remember him.

Paul Hamm never stopped following gymnastics. Even as a financial trader in Chicago — and presumably retired from active competition — the 2004 Olympic men’s all-around champion kept tabs on who was who and what they were doing on the apparatuses.

Simply put, the sport was never quite out of his system.

“I realized I still wanted to do gymnastics and I didn’t like how my career had ended,” said Hamm, who had to withdraw from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games just days prior due to injuries. “I wanted to compete one more time and try the Olympics.”

So in July 2010, Hamm announced he was returning to the gym so he could end his career on his own terms. And his goal now is to be back on the U.S. Olympic team next summer in London.

This past holiday weekend, Hamm was one of several U.S. champions who was spreading the spirit of the Olympic Movement at the Fair St. Louis. Hamm appeared at the Budweiser Salute to Olympians booth in St. Louis along with fellow gymnast Shannon Miller, aerial skier Shannon Bahrke Happe, speedskater Chris Hedrick, long jumper Bob Beamon, diver Lou Vittuci and soccer player John Carenza.

And it was apparent that his Olympic spirit in St. Louis was high.

The comeback was going well for the Waukesha, Wis., native until January. While getting the labrum in his right shoulder mended, surgeons also found an injured rotator cuff and a bicep tear that was getting worse before it was getting better.

Hamm was supposed to shoot to resume training six months after his procedure. Knowing he wouldn’t have that kind of time, Hamm upped the ante.

“I’d say I’m ahead of schedule,” Hamm said. “Six months was the time period of when I could do gymnastics again and I’m five months out right now and I’m doing good gymnastics.”

Having undergone surgery before, he knows pushing through discomfort is the only way he’ll be able to get back to where he wants to be.

“Anytime you have surgery, it is going to affect you,” Hamm said. “… but you have to understand that and push through, knowing in the future, it’ll be much better.”

It’s still difficult for Hamm to figure out what might have been had the summer of 2008 gone just a little differently. Hamm, the first American male gymnast to win the men’s all-around Olympic title, was deep in preparation to defend his title in Beijing when he broke the fourth metacarpal in his right hand at the Visa Championships in May — less than three months before the 2008 Games.

Hamm still earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic team after he was able to prove his fitness in an intrasquad meet on July 19, despite still feeling pain in his right hand. But he suffered a strained rotator cuff in his left shoulder shortly after that meet, and as the Aug. 9 start date of the men’s competition came closer Hamm decided to withdraw.

And at the time, it looked like those 2008 Visa Championships would go down as the last competitive performance for arguably the greatest U.S. male gymnast ever.

Having just gotten his degree in accounting from Ohio State, and knowing that he couldn’t do gymnastics forever, Hamm got a job as a finance trader at Breakwater Trading in Chicago at the beginning of 2009. He had taken leaves from gymnastics in the past. But as he crept toward the time in his life that most in his field consider the “twilight,” he wanted to consider his options.

He spent 18 months at Breakwater putting his diploma to good use but then he got the itch to give gymnastics one last go at the Olympic title.

“If I had done really well in Beijing, I don’t think I would have been disappointed with how it (his career) had ended,” Hamm said. “So I feel I need to come back… I think I can still compete with the best in the world.”

Hamm put away his work shoes and suit for his competition gear.

His next stop will be back to his old stomping ground in Columbus, Ohio. Hamm trained and attended Ohio State with his twin brother Morgan following the 2004 Games. Three spots on the Buckeye coaching staff opened up recently, including the head-coaching job. When that spot was filled, Hamm was considered for one of the assistant’s position, as well as a similar job at Oklahoma.

The choice between the two was pretty easy for him.

“I went in there and saw a job at a place I’d rather be,” Hamm said. “I loved the town, liked the atmosphere and it was where I trained before.”

Hamm is looking to get the Buckeye program into the nation’s elite while pursuing his MBA and continuing his training for this last run.

“Since I’m getting to the point where my shoulder is better, I can prepare to compete, which is what my goal is,” Hamm said. “This is the big year and I have to be on my game because this is my last push.”