Rings specialist Raj Bhavsar has again narrowly missed the U.S. men’s gymnastics Olympic team for the second Games in a row:

USA Gymnastics officials took two hours longer than expected to determine the lineup, working through 49 different scenarios — 40 generated by computer, nine of their own… Perhaps the most difficult fates befell Artemev, who led the trials scoring after the first day, and Bhavsar, who was in the top three in the parallel bars, the rings and the vault. “I didn’t practice my whole lifetime to be an alternate,” Artemev said. [WaPo]

Bhavsar again was left off the six-man team, despite finishing third in the all-around scoring and placing among the top three scorers here in the vault, rings and parallel bars. A similar high finish at the trials four years ago also ended with him being selected an alternate. [Star-Telegram]

“Your dreams have just been crushed,” Bhavsar said… [NYT]

Not making the team in ‘04 sent him into a tailspin of depression, which he repaired with mindfulness and yoga:

In 2004, Bhavsar seemed sure his name would have been on the final Olympic roster. When it was not, he ran from the conference room where the Olympians had been named, then sprinted to his hotel room. For a full hour, he wept… “Why we didn’t take one of the best guys in the world on the rings, in our weakest event, I still don’t know,” said Miles Avery, Bhavsar’s former coach at Ohio State. “After that, he shut down. He kept saying: ‘I didn’t make the Olympic team. I’m not an Olympian. What did I do wrong?’ That was the despair he went through for two years…”

Bhavsar, a fiery 27-year-old from Houston, did not make [the ‘04] Olympic team, but he came close. He was named an alternate… The sport is judged subjectively, and the Olympic team is chosen mostly the same way… “Life wasn’t too bright for me for a few years after that…”

Then one day, it hit him: his self-worth was not defined by what he could accomplish in gymnastics. He simply loved the sport because it was fun. [NYT]

After traveling with the Olympic team to Athens but ultimately watching from the stands as his teammates won a silver medal without his help, Bhavsar lost the motivation he’d had for the sport he began at age 3… Using everything from The Success Principles, by [the] co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books, to Bikram yoga and meditation, Bhavsar stopped identifying gymnastics with who he was and instead simply equated it to something he did… When he was staring at the floor before his parallel bars routine, he was using “a technique to bring present awareness back…” [ESPN]

This year’s decision was close:

The only arguable omission is Raj Bhavsar, who finished in the top three in three events and is an exciting performer. The committee already took a calculated risk in giving a spot to Paul Hamm, who must demonstrate that his broken hand has healed. In addition, Morgan Hamm and Justin Spring are each hampered by injuries. Bhavsar competed well and ended up an alternate for the second successive Games, a cruel fate…

“I went up to my hotel room laughing at the hilarity of the situation… I know there’s much more to life than making an Olympic team. I’m going to set goals again and go after them with the same tenacity I went after this one.” [LAT]

Bhavsar’s choice as an alternate also reflected the committee’s tough choices. He was in the top three in three events and could have clinched an automatic spot had he also been in the top two in the weighted all-around scores. But his score of 89.86 was third to Horton’s 90.75 and Hagerty’s 89.94. “My No. 1 principle is to accept 100 percent responsibility, so I’m not going to point fingers or wonder why this or why that”… [Houston Chron]

The ESPN story closes with this cheesy New Age take on a common Indian greeting, complete with Francophilic accent mark:

Namasté, Raj. [ESPN]

By which the journalist means, of course, ‘I honor your spirit’ or some such crap, as opposed to ‘hello.’

Bhavsar will be in Beijing, ready to compete in case any of his teammates are injured or fall ill. If you’re on the team, and he invites you out for some Indian, you might want to avoid the ‘Surat surprise’

Fellow American gymnast Mohini Bhardwaj retired after her silver medal in the last Olympics:

Mohini joined the other members of the Olympic team on a national tour after Athens, and unlike the other five she did attempt to continue… She attended training camps and was originally selected for the American Cup in January 2005, but had insufficient training time to be ready and withdrew. She eventually retired from competitive gymnastics later in 2005…

She has been romantically linked to economist Hammad Siddiqi… She recently got married to Jeff Barry of Oregon. [Wiki]

Related posts: Brown people can jump: Bhardwaj and Bhavsar’s chances at the Olympic team, Desi gymnasts in the U.S. Olympic trials: Mohini Bhardwaj and Raj Bhavsar