They used to run on rafters 15 feet above the ground in an old barn near their home in Waukesha, Wis.
Paul and Morgan Hamm showed no fear. Stacks of hay caught them if they fell, but the identical twin brothers always climbed back up for another chase.
They weren’t even 7. Their daring games were an introduction to gymnastics.
By the time they were enrolled in gymnastics classes, they were giving their parents glimpses of their potential and devotion to the sport. Still, Sandy and Cecily Hamm could not imagine their sons would make their first Olympic team at 17 or lead the U.S. to a silver-medal finish, as they did Monday night. The U.S. had not won a medal since a gold-medal run in 1984.
Paul, who became the country’s first world champion in all-around last year, could leave another indelible mark on the sport Wednesday when he attempts to win the nation’s first men’s Olympic all-around championship. He also will contend for individual championships next week in high bar, parallel bars, floor exercise and pommel horse.
Morgan is a finalist in high bar and floor exercise.
“It’s amazing to have two boys make the Olympics two times,” Cecily Hamm said before the Games. “We just look at each other and say this is a miracle. They are both healthy at the right time.”
Years ago their sons’ dedication became increasingly clear when Paul started using a boulder as an apparatus. With two hands on it to support himself, he would turn circles around the rock until he tired and began scraping his legs against it. But he continued, bloody legs and all.
“This isn’t such a good thing,” his mother remembered thinking.
It prompted their father to find a tree stump and pad it to keep his son from hurting himself.
That was one of many times Sandy Hamm constructed or refurbished equipment for their sons and daughter, Betsy, who recently completed her gymnastics career at Iowa State. A playground bar become their high bar. An old pommel horse was restored with new leather.
Sandy Hamm’s craftiness led to legendary tales among gymnastics followers. Some believed he built the boys a state-of-the-art gym. In fact, their makeshift equipment was spread among the barn and the back yard.
More Top Picks Best Fall Protection Harnesses
The Hamms trained competitively at Swiss Turners Gymnastics Academy about 10 miles from their Waukesha home until last December. Their decision to leave Swiss Turners sparked a minor controversy.
They left longtime coach Stacey Maloney to train under Ohio State coach Miles Avery. The brothers have said they were looking for a more competitive environment, and they certainly found it in Columbus, where three-time Olympian Blaine Wilson and two-time world championship team member Raj Bhavsar train.
“Obviously it was a decision that was difficult to make, but we felt it would be the best thing for us in an Olympic year to have some of the benefits of having other athletes to train with,” Paul said.
Their arrival in Columbus brought even more intensity to Avery’s gym.
“In the Hamm brothers you see an efficiency in training that not every gymnast has,” Avery said in an interview in June. “The attention to detail that they have . . . Yes, Blaine has that. Yes, Raj has that. Together as a group, every tenth of a point we can pick up in that gym, the better the U.S. team will be.”
The results speak for themselves.
“Right now we feel like it definitely paid off,” Paul said. “We’re both training at a great level.”
The brothers are inseparable. No trace of sibling rivalry is obvious, though there is plenty of bantering.
“They’re like an old married couple,” Wilson said of the bickering. “One without the other wouldn’t work.”
The latter statement is true on many levels. As a duo, the brothers have turned around a U.S. gymnastics program that had floundered since 1984.
But Paul always has been a slight step ahead. In 2001, Morgan was on the verge of catching up to his brother’s skills when a freak accident on the parallel bars left him with permanent nerve damage in his left shoulder. He has backed off from still rings and parallel bars because of the injury.
Consequently, Morgan’s achievements are usually overshadowed by Paul’s dominance in all-around.
“Everyone is always comparing us,” Morgan said. “I know that I’m a good gymnast and that we’re going to try to win an Olympic medal together.”
One medal down. Between them is the potential to win seven more.