Wilson plans to compete at nationals

Don't plan that retirement party for Olympic silver medalist Blaine Wilson just yet. Wilson said Friday he plans to compete through the U.S. Gymnastics Championships next August.

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"I'm competing through August," he said, "and then I'll be retired."

Many expected Wilson would quit after the Athens Games, where he finally got the Olympic medal that had eluded him for so long by helping the U.S. men finish second. Most of the 30-year-old's peers left the gym years earlier, and training kept him from his wife and young daughter for long stretches of time.

He'd also had seven operations, almost all on his shoulders, and he competed in Athens only six months after tearing his left biceps completely off the bone.

But the sport's code of points, the extensive guide to the difficulty value assigned to every gymnastics move, isn't changing the way it normally does the year after the Olympics, so gymnasts don't have to come up with new routines.

New codes generally increase the level of difficulty, forcing gymnasts to retool their routines to get the most value out of them. But the International Gymnastics Federation has decided to overhaul the code in hopes of avoiding another debacle like the one that had Paul Hamm still defending his all-around gold two months after he won it.

"I have nothing to lose," Wilson said. "The code after the Olympic Games usually changes and it's not changing until after August, so I'm going to stay around and compete."

Wilson is doing more rehab than training right now. After doing the Rock & Roll Gymnastics tour with Hamm and his twin brother Morgan after the Olympics, he had another operation on his left shoulder last month, this time to remove some bone because of arthritis.

"Even picking up my daughter hurt, so that was enough for me to say I'm going to get this taken care of," he said.

He has three exhibitions scheduled in the next two months, then plans to go to the men's national team training camp in January. He doesn't know if he'll do any international competitions before nationals, which are Aug. 10-13 in Indianapolis.

While there's a "slim" chance he could compete in the all-around, the five-time U.S. champion said it's more likely he'll do three events: still rings, parallel bars and high bar.

Then it's time to enjoy retirement and savor the many accomplishments in his career, particularly that Olympic medal.

"It's something I'm always going to cherish," Wilson said. "Because I worked so hard to get it and it took so long."