Paul Elbert Hamm (born September 24, 1982 in Washburn, Wisconsin) is a retired American artistic gymnast. He is the 2004 Olympic all-around champion, a three-time Olympic medalist, and the 2003 World all-around champion. Hamm is the most successful American male gymnast in history, one of only two American gymnasts (along with Simone Biles) to win the all-around title at both the Olympics and the World Championships, and the only male American gymnast to do so. Personal life Hamm is the son of Sandy and Cecily Hamm. His twin brother, Morgan Hamm, is also a gymnast and Olympic medalist. His older sister, Elizabeth (Betsy), is a former member of the USA Gymnastics Senior National Team. Career Hamm is a three-time, consecutive U.S. National all-around champion, winning the titles from 2002–2004. In 2003, he became the first American man to win the all-around title at a World Championships. At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Hamm competed alongside his twin brother Morgan Hamm and finished 5th in the team competition and 14th in the individual all-around competition. 2004 Summer Olympics Hamm competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens once again with his twin brother Morgan Hamm. He won the silver medal in the team competition and won the gold medal in the all-around. He also nearly won the gold medal on high bar but was awarded the silver medal after a tiebreaker. In the all-around competition, Hamm was in good position after the first three rotations, but a disastrous fall on the vault, in which he nearly fell into the judges' bench, dropped him to 12th place and he looked to be completely out of the running for a medal of any sort. Indeed, had a judge and the bench not been able to break Hamm's fall, he might have fallen from the podium and sustained injury. However, numerous faults by the other gymnasts, combined with Hamm's performance on the parallel bars, returned him to fourth place after the fifth rotation. His high bar routine in the final rotation earned a score of 9.837, winning him the gold medal by a margin of .012, the closest in Olympic gymnastics history. His scores on the six disciplines were: Floor: 9.725 (1st) Pommel Horse: 9.700 (4th) Rings: 9.587 (8th) Vault: 9.137 (12th) Parallel Bars: 9.837 (1st) Horizontal bar: 9.837 (1st) Overall: 57.823 (1st) Gold medal controversy Almost immediately after the competition, Hamm's gold