INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Morgan Hamm's spot on the U.S. Olympic team is secure.
  
USA Gymnastics said Wednesday that a warning Hamm received earlier this month for getting a prescribed anti-inflammatory shot without proper clearance from anti-doping authorities did not affect his qualification to the team.
  
"It's really a relief," Hamm told The Associated Press from Colorado Springs, Colo., where he is at a training camp with the rest of the U.S. team. "Now I can concentrate on gymnastics without having any other distractions.
  
"Everything is going really well, and now I can really focus on my gymnastics and helping the United States get back on the podium."
  
As part of his punishment, Hamm's results from the second day of the national championships -- the day of his positive test -- were thrown out. Those results, as well as those from the first day of nationals and two days of Olympic trials, were used to help determine the U.S. team for Beijing, so the men's selection committee had to rerun its numbers.
  
The results were the same, said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics.
  
"There were two questions," Penny said. "One, would he have advanced on to the trials? And the answer was yes. And two, would he still have been selected to the Olympic team? And the answer again was yes."
  
The U.S. Olympic Committee agreed with USA Gymnastics after its own review.
  
"We fully support the findings," said Steve Roush, the USOC's chief of sports performance. "We appreciate USA Gymnastics' efforts to respect and consider the interests of all of the athletes potentially impacted by this decision."
  
In picking the U.S. team, the selection committee looked for the mix of athletes that would not only give the Americans three big scores on each of the six events, but be counted on to hit under pressure. Unlike preliminaries, where five athletes compete on each event and the top four scores count, only three athletes compete on each event in team finals, and all three scores count.
  
After the four days of competition at nationals and trials, Hamm had the second-highest score on high bar and fourth-best on floor, pommel horse and vault. In 2004, he was the only U.S. man to make it through the team competition without a botched routine.
  
"To have it confirmed and official that the USOC and USA Gymnastics certainly support Morgan being on this Olympic team, which I certainly think he deserves to be, it's a great thing," said Miles Avery, Hamm's coach.
  
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announced July 3 it had given Hamm a warning for his May 24 positive test for glucocorticosteroid, a cortisone-like anti-inflammatory. The drug is allowed if an athlete gets a therapeutic use exemption, but Hamm had failed to do that.
  
Hamm said he got the shot May 2 from his doctor after taping, ultrasound and other therapies failed to reduce the pain and swelling in his left ankle. After being notified of the positive test, he sent USADA his medical records and letters from his doctor and physical therapist, and USADA said it had "absolutely no concern" the shot was for anything but medicinal purposes.
  
"It's definitely a distraction," Hamm said. "You feel in your heart that you just made an honest mistake. ... But the selection process was followed. I still qualified onto the team even without the results from the second day of championships. I'm really happy with the decision, and now it's just on to the Olympic Games."
  
International federations have the right to appeal a USADA decision, and USA Gymnastics told the International Gymnastics Federation about Hamm's warning. But Penny said he was confident the FIG would accept USADA's verdict.
  
"My impression is that everyone understands that this occurred as a paperwork error and not, in any way, shape or form, was it intended to be a performance enhancer," Penny said.
  
"There's no cheating going on here, and my impression is everyone recognizes that and feels the sanction and USADA decision is the appropriate decision."

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