For two years following the Sydney games, Morgan Hamm delt with painful injuries. 2001, he smashed a nerve casing in his left shoulder causing him to miss the 2001 Nationals and the 2001 Worlds, where the American men won a silver medal in the team event -- the best men's team performance ever at Worlds. He says his shoulder is not much of a hindrance, although it will always give him problems. He also had to deal with sprained ankles. But by the 2002 Nationals, Hamm said that he was "85 percent healthy."

He went on to win the floor exercise title -- his first senior U.S. title -- and placed fourth in the all-around. At the 2003 Nationals, he won another floor title and later that year, he helped the U.S. to another silver medal in the team competition at Worlds. At the 2004 Nationals, Hamm performed consistently, placing third in the all-around as well as third on vault, high bar and pommel horse and taking fourth on floor. He held his third-place position through the 2004 Olympic Trials, but opted to skip rings in the fourth rotation, waiving the possibility of catching up to Brett McClure to secure one of the two spots guaranteed on the Olympic team. The selection committee named Morgan, along with Jason Gatson, to the Olympic team that night, despite the plan to name only the top two all-arounders to the team. Hamm had already proven himself in several events, including high bar, where he stuck his double-twisting double layout dismount to score a 9.675. Morgan remembers watching the 1992 Olympics at age 10, awed by Vitaly Scherbo of the Unified Team winning six gold medals. Four years later, watching the Atlanta Olympics, the twins fantasized, about being in the 2000 games. "We'll be 17 at the next Olympics. Should we try for it?"

They weren't yet high school seniors when they made the Sydney team. On their 18th birthday, Morgan competed in floor finals while his brother Paul watched. They became the youngest members of the U.S. men's gymnastics contingent.

Paul's success has come slightly ahead of Morgan's. That's right! Paul made the national team in 1999 after an 11th-place finish in the all-around at Nationals. Morgan was not named to the national team until February 2000. But former coach Stacy Maloney recognized that the twins both had potential. By age 11, Paul and Morgan were working out five days a week at Swiss Turners. Morgan says Paul is daring about trying things, adding,
"Paul is a gymnastics genius and he's almost always the guinea pig in the gym."
In return, Paul says Morgan is more of a thinker and has a much better memory than he does.

Did you know that the Hamm brothers left former coach Maloney in October 2003, just two months after Paul won the all-around world title? In November, they announced they would move to Columbus, Ohio, to work with coach Miles Avery and train alongside their World Championships teammates Blaine Wilson and Raj Bhavsar. Paul says
"We didn't seem to be getting as much done in the gym [with Maloney]."
"We needed a spark, an atmosphere to train in that's very motivating. It is motivating to train with Blaine Wilson. He's a very high-energy guy."
The decision to leave Maloney two months after Paul won the all-around world title and less than a year before the Olympics raised eyebrows in the gymnastics community, but both twins have performed well since the move.

It was in the genes. Their older sister, Betsy, was a 1998 NCAA champion in balance beam (for Florida, before transferring to Iowa State) and their father, Sandy, was a nationally ranked diver. The twins grew up on a farm in Waukesha, Wis., and used makeshift equipment to train on. Sandy built a pommel horse from an old maple tree and foam and leather from automobile upholstery; rings were hung in the attic; a stairway railing was made into parallel bars; and they set up a trampoline in the barn.

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