Jonathan Horton uses mental gymnastics for team final
By on
August 11th, 2008
In an effort to break the Olympic gymnastics meet down to its smallest common denominator, Jonathan Horton is trying to link the gigantic events of today with a big moment from his past.
Horton, who joins the USA Gymnastics team for Tuesday morning’s (9 p.m. CDT Monday, 7 p.m. CDT Monday) team final, said he tried to cope with the pressure of team qualifying Sunday by reminding teammate Raj Bhavsar of their days at Cypress Academy of Gymnastics in Houston.
“I said to myself, ‘What is going on her? Am I really at the Olympics?’” he said. “So I turned to Raj and said, ‘This is a state meet. We’re gonna go and compete at state.’”
Horton likely will need the same sort of mental gymnastics for the team final. The U.S. men qualified sixth, nine points behind China and just over a point behind third-place Russia. In the team final, three men compete on each event, and all three scores count.
Coached by Kevin Mazeika of Houston, the U.S. team will put up Bhavsar, Horton and Kevin Tan of Fremont, Calif., on rings; Bhavsar, Horton and Justin Spring of Burke, Va., on vault and parallel bars; Joey Hagerty of Rio Rancho, N.M., Horton and Spring on high bar; Spring, Hagerty and Horton on floor; and Tan, Bhavsar and Sasha Artemev of Highlands Ranch, Colo., on pommel horse.
If that group performs at the same level as in prelims, it would produce 276.125 points, 15.34 per routine. That would fall well short of the 281.9 China scored to win the 2007 world title, but it would have been good enough for third.
However, the other teams are stepping up their games. China’s top three on each event scored 284.675 in prelims, Japan totaled 278.829 and Russia scored 277.3.
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