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While we're used to lauding the pixies, success for the U.S. men is less familiar. Just compare the reactions: after the U.S. men's team won its first team medal--a silver--in a nonboycotted Olympics, the guys were bumping chests. Second place. Wow! At the end of their team final, the silver-medalist women sat glumly on the bench, glaring at Romania's Catalina Ponor as she shimmied for her clapping teammates, knowing the gold was a lock.
Within 24 hours of Hamm's individual performance, his agent, Sheryl Shade, got calls from 10 companies asking about endorsement deals, including one that phoned her 20 minutes after he stepped on the podium. "That's unheard of for a male gymnast," says Shade. "I've got a lot of new best friends right now." But Hamm, who grew up on a farm in Waukesha, Wis., enjoys a low-bar profile. "He's not going to turn into a marketer," says Sandy Hamm, Paul's father. "His job is to compete, not promote." Although next time, he could do his mom and the judges a favor by staying on the mat.