John Orozco finishes eighth while Uchimura’s score of 92.690 was more than 1.5 points ahead of Germany’s Marcel Nguyen as USA’s Danell Leyva wins bronze – Bronx’s.
LONDON — The arms of John Orozco went numb midway through the routine, and then the pommel horse, a specialty, became John OrozcoI’s undoing Wednesday once again, just as it had on Monday.
“I felt really tired during the routine,” the Bronx gymnast said, after finishing eighth in the men’s all-around. “I couldn’t feel my arms, everything was tightening up. I was praying to get off, and get some kind of dismount.”
He got off finally, clumsily. Orozco was nailed with a 12.566, yet another death sentence in yet another event. After a short cry and some consolation, he actually relaxed and became the athlete everyone recognized and remembered.
“I knew at the end I couldn’t make the podium even if I was perfect on all the other routines,” he said. He wasn’t perfect, yet he was much better. Orozco scored solidly enough in four more rotations, including a genuinely impressive vault, moving up 16 places from the very bottom.
After disappointing finishes in the team and all-around events, Orozco’s once-promising Olympics were done — though, at age 19, there should be plenty more to come.
John Orozco blamed a demanding schedule that required him to train on every apparatus this past week. Yet when he was done, Orozco said that all he wanted to do was go back to work, train some more. “I want to train like crazy, even though it won’t make any difference now,” he said.
Already, there is a big difference in Orozco’s life. He is making a living at this sport. The sponsors are calling, and he will start a gymnastics tour in September that will end back at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in November. “I wish I could have done better,” he said, modestly. “I wish I could go back home and have them proud of me.”
The family of John Orozco surely remains proud, more cognizant than ever of the physical demands on a multi-platform Olympic athlete. The very same fatigue problem nearly sabotaged U.S. teammate Danell Leyva on Wednesday, except that he received a somewhat better 13.500 on the pommel horse and ended up claiming the bronze — behind gold medalist Kohei Uchimura from Japan and Marcel Nguyen of Germany.
“I knew it was bad,” Leyva said, of his pommel routine. “But I knew my strongest events were last.”
Leyva scored a 15.833 in the parallel bars and then a 15.700 on the horizontal bar to cap his own remarkable comeback. He said he was happy with the bronze, not satisfied. Like Orozco, he plans to return in 2016.
As for Uchimura, the Japanese gymnast was brilliant throughout, except for a slip at the very end on the landing of a tumbling pass on the floor exercise. His lines were exquisite throughout.
“If I could speak Japanese, I would tell him he’s the greatest gymnast ever, for now. The way he makes gymnastics beautiful is effortless,” Leyva said. “I asked him if he’s coming back in 2016 and he said he wasn’t sure.
“I said, ‘You better come back.’”
