Gymnast Paul Hamm announced his retirement on March 27, 2012, because his body was struggling to complete the necessary training, he said. Hamm's retirement effectively ends an era in American gymnastics.

Who can forget the Hamm twins, who burst onto the international Olympic scene at such a young age, and consistently defied the odds to perform well at big gymnastic meets?

Paul Hamm helped to usher in a new era for men's gymnastics in the United States -- an era in which the American men vaulted from obscurity to prominence on the world scene. With his performances at the 2003 World Championships and the 2004 Olympic Games, Hamm became the first American male gymnast to ever win a world or Olympic all-around title -- and he did both.

In addition, he helped to lead the U.S. team to its first Olympic silver medal in 20 years in 2004, and Hamm was an integral part of the 2001 and 2003 American world championship teams that also won silver.

"Becoming the first world and Olympic all-around champion from the U.S. is a huge statement about his talent," Steve Penny, the director of USA Gymnastics, said in a statement. "It's also made a difference in USA gymnastics emerging from a team that struggled to make the podium to a team that's consistently on the podium. Paul Hamm raised the bar in men's gymnastics in this country and worldwide, and we're continuing to benefit from the role he played."

Hamm's Olympic career is a storied and turbulent one, which includes a judging controversy in 2004 and an injury that kept him from competing in 2008. Hamm hoped that a comeback in 2012 would allow him a strong performance to cap off his Olympic career, but his retirement announcement, just four months before the London Olympic Games, proved that the comeback wouldn't happen.

Hamm returned to the sport in 2010, and by January of 2011, the gymnast had to undergo surgery to heal a torn labrum and rotator cuff. In the end, the injuries simply became too much to handle, Hamm said.

"It's come to that time," Hamm told The Associated Press on March 27, 2012 "Your mind wants an outcome a certain way, and it used to be a certain way, but you can't get your body to perform that certain way. And I can see it."

Hamm added: "I'm able to just look back at the gymnastics and the performance and remember it for a great thing. I understand the things that happened in my life, it's just a part of the whole story. But overall, I feel the journey I had in the sport of gymnastics was a tremendous journey and very productive for me and my life, and the person I've become."

Sandra Johnson is an avid Olympic fan. While working for the United States Olympic Committee and living in the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., Johnson had the opportunity to immerse herself in the Olympic Movement. Follow her on Twitter: @SandraJohnson46

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Paul Hamm Announces His Retirement from Gymnastics