Men's Olympic Lineup Announced

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The U.S. men's gymnastics team lineup was announced with Oklahoma assistant coach Guard Young set to compete on four events during the preliminaries. The team will work out once on Friday before competition on Saturday. The lineup was announced last Thursday after a training session. Due to the Opening Ceremonies starting later in the evening on Friday, the men's team will not participate and will instead use the time to rest for Saturday's competition. The lineup is listed in event order and in the order in which each individual will compete.

PB	HB	FX	PH	SR	VT	AA
Young	McClure	McClure	Wilson	McClure	Wilson	Wilson
Wilson	Gatson	Wilson	Gatson	Young	McClure	McClure
P. Hamm	Wilson	Young	M. Hamm	P. Hamm	Young	P. Hamm
McClure	M. Hamm	M. Hamm	P. Hamm	Gatson	M. Hamm
Gatson	P. Hamm	P. Hamm	McClure	Wilson	P. Hamm

General comment from Guard Young:
"I think we are all excited to get everything started and we are prepared for Saturday. Our conditioning level is much higher than any other team I have been on in the past. I am proud to be a part of this team and to represent the United States."

*All information listed above is courtesy of the USAG home page. For more information on Young and the Olympics visit the Guard Young Olympic Central page.

Gymnastics' Schedule
The action begins on August 14 for the men with the qualifying rounds inside Olympic Indoor Hall. The team final will be held on August 16 followed by the medal ceremony. Click here for the full television schedule on NBC.

Young's current time over in Athens is dedicated to training for the competition and he will offer more to SoonerSports.com once the gymnastics' competition is concluded. For the meantime, his personal coach and head coach at the University of Oklahoma, Mark Williams, offers up another Q&A session.

>>SoonerSports:
How was the practice day on the arena podium?

Young on the parallel bars

Mark:
The podium day is fairly significant to preparing for the Olympic Games. This is the one opportunity for the athletes to train on the actual meet equipment. There is no other day that allows the athletes to practice on the podium in the main arena. The day begins with a timed practice in the back gym. This gym has all the same equipment and is on a podium but in a much smaller gym. The athletes take their warm-up turns there before going into the arena. Once everyone is marched into the arena, the practice there is run just like the competition. The guys had 17 minutes on each event. A majority of them did full routines and others just did parts of their routines. I think the USA team did a good job with it's time on the floor and we are excited about the prelims.

The arena is tremendous. Everything has Olympic rings and Athens 2004 banners on them which really gives the venue the feel of an Olympic atmosphere.

>>Soonersports:
What happens the next two days before the competition?

Mark:
We will have practice in the practice gym the next two days where everyone works on the final details of their routines. These will be relatively light training days. Friday morning, former President Bush will be visiting the Olympic village. I think we'll be at practice at that time. Friday night is the opening ceremonies which the team will not be taking part. There would be too much walking and standing while being out in the heat before having to compete the next day. We'll probably watch the television coverage somewhere in the village.

>>SoonerSports:
Anything else interesting happening?

Young on vault

Mark:

I walked by Yao Ming (Houston Rockets) today in the dining hall. He is practically twice my height. I also talked to a couple of Italian softball player in the weight room this morning and both of them attended college in the USA. Their first game is against the USA team on Saturday. Lisa Fernandez (USA Softball) was riding the bike next to me a couple of days ago, they think the Japanese team is their biggest rivals for the gold medal. I also talked to a baseball player on the Greek team. He is with the Pittsburg Pirates organization and grew up in the states. Their team is mostly Americans since baseball isn't played much over here. And finally I also bumped into a USA weightlifter that is from Mustang, Okla., Shane Hammans, and he is also twice my size, just in width.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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