By Gil Lebreton, McClatchy Newspapers –
SAN JOSE, Calif. — They circled, they soared and, at times Saturday, Danell Leyva and John Orozco even seemed to defy gravity.
Together, they emphatically punched their early tickets onto the U.S. Olympic men’s gymnastics team.
But for the selection committee, now comes the hard part.
(PHOTO: Glen Ishino performs a floor exercise during the final round of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trails for men’s gymnastics at HP Pavilion in San Jose, California, Saturday, June 30, 2012.)
The selection procedure allowed USA Gymnastics officials to immediately name Leyva, who finished first in the trials with a four-round cumulative score of 368.35, and Orozco to the team.
The remaining three roster spots, however, won’t be announced until today, after selectors crunch the numbers and weigh the algorithms.
After Saturday’s finals, men’s team coordinator Kevin Mazeika of Houston explained, “We’ll go into our selection committee meeting shortly and we’ll look at all our scenarios.
“The No. 1 goal is to produce the highest possible team score when we get to London.”
Mazeika declined to name any names or reveal any formulas beyond that. But clearly, the committee does not feel it’s under any mandate to pick the trials’ five highest all-around finishers.
Houston’s Jonathan Horton, a 2008 Olympian, survived two frustrating errors but finished third, nearly six full points behind Orozco. Another Houstonian, Chris Brooks, ended up tied for fifth place with Reno, Nev., native (and Oklahoma Sooner) Jake Dalton.
But it’s complicated.
Horton can bring leadership and Olympic experience to the team, but two major mishaps in two days on the high bar could dampen his chances in the committee’s eyes.
And then there is Sam Mikulak, the NCAA champion from the University of Michigan. Mikulak led the 15-man field in Thursday’s round of the Olympic trials, but injured his left ankle while landing his final event, the vault.
Mikulak’s father, who happens to be an orthopedic surgeon, examined his son and pronounced him ready to try at least four of the six events in Saturday’s finals. But officials and doctors from the U.S. team reportedly advised Mikulak to just stick to one event, the pommel horse.
By competing in at least one event on all four days — the trials’ scores were added to the two-day scores from June’s U.S. championships — Mikulak was spared the politics of having to petition his way onto the Olympic team.
Instead, his fate, like Horton’s, was to be determined by the committee.
“I’m frustrated with myself right now,” a downcast Horton declared.
“Final impressions are really important, right?”
Maybe. But maybe not.
If it’s all about the scores, the selectors have seven years of Horton high marks to consider. And what do they do about Mikulak, who had no scores in five events Saturday?
“If I was Jonathan Horton, I’d feel pretty comfortable right now,” said Shannon Miller, whose résumé includes six Olympic medals in the women’s events and who serves as a radio commentator during national gym events.
“He won still rings tonight, and he has consistently shown himself in that third or fourth position in the all-around. Someone with his leadership and experience, I think, is really good for Team USA.”
Exactly. Somewhere in the computer number crunching Saturday night, Majeika and his committee have to interject some team chemistry.
Mikulak’s injury, meanwhile, is not considered serious enough to keep him from competing in London, and so he, too, should be a solid choice for one of the remaining three roster spots.
“Sam, I think, is in 8really good position,” Miller said. “After all, he ‘won’ the opening night of the Olympic trials.”
The fifth spot could go to a so-called “specialist” in an otherwise weak U.S. event — Alex Naddour on the pommel horse has been mentioned — but Dalton, a consistent all-around performer, would appear to be a safer choice.
At the end of Saturday’s events, however, only two things seemed certain:
This could be the deepest and most talented men’s team the United States has ever dispatched to an Olympics on foreign soil. And Leyva and Orozco have a chance to win a lot of medals.
Deciding on the rest will be the hard part.
