Former Golden Gopher gymnast and current volunteer administrative assistant Guillermo Alvarez is taking part in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials later this week in Philadephia. He is being accompanied by Minnesota head men's gymnastics coach Mike Burns, who will be blogging about the experience here on GopherSports.com. Check back here each day for the inside scoop from Coach Burns about Guillermo's quest for a spot on the Olympic Team.
The final day at the Olympic Trials was one of incredible emotions and efforts on the competition floor. With so much riding on the meet, everyone was
extremely focused on getting the job done. Jonathan Horton won the all-around competition today with a score of 91.65. Minnesota's Guillermo Alvarez scored an 88.80 to finish in 5th in the all-around today.
Today's scores were tabulated into the results from the last three days of competition in a weighted formula that gave more weight to the 2 days of competition here at the Olympic trials. The VISA Championships were worth 40% (20% for each day) and the Olympic Trials are worth 60% (30% each day), so when the entire four days of competition are factored in, Guillermo finished the all-around competition in 6th place with an adjusted score of 88.735. The highlight of the entire process is the fact that Guillermo went 24 for 24 over the four days of competition. He hit every routine with no falls. That's a pretty amazing statistic in light of the fact that this is the most nerve-wracking competition of the entire four-year quadrennium.
After the competition was over, two gymnasts were named directly to the 2008 Olympic team, in accordance with the Olympic Selection Procedures. The two
gymnasts named were Jonathan Horton and Paul Hamm. Hamm is in a very precarious situation - now that he has been named to the team he will have to show readiness at the Olympic camp to be held in Colorado Springs from July 13-22. He broke his hand at the VISA Championships four weeks ago and had surgery
to put a plate and nine pins to secure the bone and speed up the healing process. If he is able to show competitive readiness at the camp, then he will stay on
the team. If he is unable to show readiness, then he will most likely be removed from the team.
There is a Selection Procedure meeting taking place as I write this to determine the remainder of the team and two or possibly three alternates to join Hamm and Horton at the camp next month. The committee will make the announcement tomorrow at a National Team meeting at 1:30 p.m. and then will announce to the media their final decisions. They may name the other four Olympic team members or they might name a squad of seven more gymnasts to make up an Olympic Squad. The decisions are in the hands of the committee now, so the work has been done by the gymnasts and the scores are in the books. So now it's just a matter of waiting for the final decision on who will compete at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in just under seven weeks.
The final results can be viewed at the following link:
http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/Portals/0/PDFs/Results/OT08MenDay2AA-Final_20080621_085626.pdf
As well as:
http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/Portals/0/PDFs/Results/OT08MenDay2AA-Comb_20080621_092300.pdf
They are going to name the team/squad tomorrow at 3 pm.
-Coach Burns
