Gymnast Jonathan Horton wows crowd, judges at Olympics

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LONDON – When he stuck the dismount, a gorgeous double-twisting, double-layout off the horizontal bar, Jonathan Horton knew the proper gymnastics protocol was to salute the Olympic judges.

This time he hesitated slightly to take it all in. The crowd. The moment. The bounce back.

And he flashed a wide smiled.

After a so-so day of competition, with a "stupid" mistake on the pommel horse and an "all-around bad routine" on the parallel bars, Horton wowed the crowd at Greenwich North Arena with an array of impressive release moves as part of a superb routine in his final event of the evening.

The strong finish from Horton, who trains at Cypress Academy of Gymnastics, helped the United States post the highest score in the qualifying round of the team competition, which resumes on Monday.

"That's John Horton," said Olympic Team coach Kevin Mazeika, who also coached the team in 2008, when Horton won a silver medal in high bar. "He had a rough go on pommels and parallel bar, but when his team needed him he stepped up and he hit an amazing high bar routine. That's John Horton."

It is also like Horton to be nervous before a competition. And he certainly was that on Saturday. The first out of the box for the U.S. Horton fell off the pommel horse. That is his worst event, but the veteran, who is the lone returning Olympian on the U.S. squad, still described the mistake as a bad one.

"What I need to work on is not putting so much pressure on myself," Horton said. "I think I've built up expectations instead of just going out there and having a good time, having a blast. I think that's why I've had some mistakes.

"(In 2008) that was just me doing what I love to do and now I think I'm taking it a little too seriously. I need to just have some fun and soak it all in. This is the Olympic Games and this is what I live for. I just need to enjoy it and have a good time."

Jonathan Horton celebrates with coach Tom Meadows after his performance on the horizontal bar during the men's gymnastics qualifications at the 2012 London Olympics on Saturday, July 28, 2012. Jonathan Horton celebrates with coach Tom Meadows after his performance on the horizontal bar during the men's gymnastics qualifications at the 2012 London Olympics on Saturday, July 28, 2012. Photo: Smiley N. Pool, Houston Chronicle Photo: Smiley N. Pool, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 33 Caption Close Gymnast Jonathan Horton wows crowd, judges at Olympics 1 / 33 Back to Gallery

The U.S. team has been talking about winning a gold medal for the last couple of years and entered the competition with what many believed was their deepest team since they claimed gold in Los Angeles in 1984.

They lived up to the hype, as youngsters Danell Leyva of Miami, 20, and John Orozco of New York, 19, were first and fourth atop the individual all-around tally. For now, a team gold is first on the agenda.

"I think we made a very big statement," Horton said. "We let 'em know we're not all talk. I think we showed the world that we are capable or reaching this goal.

"This is all that we care about. Every single one of us, all five of us, have one thing in mind, and that's winning a gold medal."

The U.S.'s total of 275.342 put it ahead of Japan in Subdivision 2. Great Britain (272.420), bolstered by a raucous home crowd, topped a favored Chinese team in the morning session and finished second overall for the day. The scores are for starting positions only, as all teams start at zero on Monday.

The U.S. will need another solid all-around performance to take the gold. Jacob Dalton was the team's top scorer in the floor exercise, Samuel Mikulak in vault, and Horton tops in rings to go with his second-best score, behind Leyva, on the horizontal bar.

One of the many motivational sayings the team likes to repeat, might have made a slight difference in the preliminary round.

"Fight to the end."

"I was a little frustrated early, but what's great about this is it's a team event, it's not about my individual performance," Horton said. "It's not about one individual. It's 'What can I do on the next event to help out the team?'

"For this you just keep on trucking through. Every routine counts."

Jerome.Solomon@chron.com

Twitter.com/JeromeSolomon