Jonathan Horton plans return at U.S. Championships

Jonathan Horton
0 Comments

Jonathan Horton is coming back from a “gnarly” two years, hoping to make a statement in his first gymnastics competition since the London Olympics.

“My No. 1 goal is to compete well and regain confidence in my own mind that, hey, I’m doing the right thing by training again, that I’m an important member of this team,” Horton, a two-time 2008 Olympic medalist, said in a phone interview Friday. “I think there are a lot of people who are counting me out. They’re saying, ‘He’s had a good run. He’s washed up. He’s finished.'”

Horton plans to compete in all six events at the U.S. Championships from Aug. 22-24 in Pittsburgh. It would be his first meet since a disappointing London Games, where the U.S. was expected to win a team medal at a third straight Olympics but finished fifth.

That result motivated Horton, now 28, to pursue a third Olympic berth in 2016. No U.S. gymnast has made three Olympic teams since Blaine Wilson in 1996, 2000 and 2004.

Horton was the oldest member of the 2012 U.S. men’s gymnastics team, the only returning Olympian, and in 2016 would be the oldest U.S. men’s gymnast since 1956, according to sports-reference.com.

“I feel like I’ve got a lot of gas still in the tank,” Horton said. “I’m still learning. I’m still getting stronger. You can probably ask anybody who is close to me if I was happy with how things went down in London. No. I can’t end my career like that. Whether I make another Olympic team or not, I’m going to do everything I can and hopefully help Team USA redeem itself a little bit.”

Horton took sixth in the London Olympic high bar final with a right shoulder that would require nearly complete reconstructive surgery. He waited until after the Olympics to get an MRI, which revealed tears in two parts of his rotator cuff, his labrum and his bicep.

“We don’t know how you did what you just did [compete in the Olympics], because your shoulder’s torn to shreds,” a doctor told him.

He had the surgery in December 2012, after a painful post-Olympic tour, and needed nine months to recover.

“It was worth every bit of the surgery and pain I went through,” Horton said. “It’s like a brand-new shoulder.”

Horton then tore a pectoral muscle at a National Team camp in December 2013, requiring another surgery and three more months of recovery.

“I lost pretty much all my strength,” said Horton, a married father of an 11-month-old son, David, who is showing early gymnastics promise. “I was skinny and nothing.”

Horton said he feels healthier now than at any point in the last two years. He’s in the gym four to six hours per day and putting routines together. The most difficult apparatus to regain full strength on has been still rings, where he says he’s at about 50 percent after performing his first iron cross skill two weeks ago.

Horton, the U.S. all-around champion in 2009 and 2010, petitioned onto the U.S. National Team for this year.

He’s aiming for a top-three all-around finish at the U.S. Championships in August, where the favorites ought to be the last two U.S. champions, 2012 Olympic teammates Sam Mikulak and John Orozco.

“In the past I would have said, ‘I’ve got to win [the U.S. all-around title],'” Horton said. “I have a very realistic goal for myself. Compete, do a good job and be confident.”

Horton isn’t optimistic about his chances to make the six-man team for the World Championships in October in China, even though a top-three U.S. all-around finish would probably merit a spot.

The U.S. depth has only increased in Horton’s absence. Four different American men won individual apparatus medals at the 2013 World Championships.

“I think there’s a slim chance to make the worlds team,” Horton said. “Unless I’m in tip-top shape on every event, I’m just not sure it will happen.

“I’m kind of keeping my hopes low and trying not to get too crazy. My No. 1 goal is Rio.”

Gabby Douglas to return to U.S. National Team camp

French Open: Iga Swiatek rolls toward possible Coco Gauff rematch

Iga Swiatek
Getty
0 Comments

Iga Swiatek reached the French Open third round without dropping a set, eyeing a third Roland Garros title in four years. Not that she needed the help, but Swiatek’s immediate draw is wide open after the rest of the seeds in her section lost.

Swiatek dispatched 102nd-ranked American Claire Liu 6-4, 6-0 on Thursday, the same score as her first-round win. She gets 80th-ranked Wang Xinyu of China in the round of 32.

The other three seeds in Swiatek’s section all lost in the first round, so the earliest that the world No. 1 could play another seed is the quarterfinals. And that would be No. 6 Coco Gauff, who was runner-up to Swiatek last year.

Gauff plays her second-round match later Thursday against 61st-ranked Austrian Julia Grabher. Gauff also doesn’t have any seeds in her way before a possible Swiatek showdown.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Swiatek, who turned 22 on Wednesday, came into this year’s French Open without the invincibility of a year ago, when she was 16-0 in the spring clay season during an overall 37-match win streak.

She retired from her last pre-French Open match with a right thigh injury, but said it wasn’t serious. That diagnosis appears to have been spot-on through two matches this week, though her serve was broken twice in the first set of each match.

While the men’s draw has been upended by 14-time champion Rafael Nadal‘s pre-event withdrawal and No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev‘s loss in the first round, the top women have taken care of business.

Nos. 2, 3 and 4 seeds Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, American Jessica Pegula and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan also reached the third round without dropping a set.

Though all of them have beaten Swiatek in 2023, the Pole remains the favorite to lift the trophy a week from Saturday. She can join Serena Williams and Justine Henin as the lone women to win three or more French Opens since 2000.

She can also become the youngest woman to win three French Opens since Monica Seles in 1992 and the youngest woman to win four Slams overall since Williams in 2002.

Swiatek doesn’t dwell on it.

“I never even played Serena or Monica Seles,” she said. “I’m kind of living my own life and having my own journey.”

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Penny Oleksiak to miss world swimming championships

Penny Oleksiak
Getty
0 Comments

Seven-time Olympic medalist Penny Oleksiak of Canada will miss July’s world swimming championships because she does not expect to be recovered enough from knee and shoulder injuries.

“The bar that we set was, can she be as good as she’s ever been at these world championships?” coach Ryan Mallette said in a press release. “We just don’t feel like we’re going to be ready to be 100 percent yet this summer. Our focus is to get her back to 100 percent as soon as possible to get ready for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”

Oleksiak, who owns the Canadian record of seven Olympic medals (across all sports), missed Canada’s trials meet for worlds two months ago due to the injuries. She was still named to the team at the time in hope that she would be ready in time for worlds.

The 22-year-old returned to competition last month at a Mare Nostrum meet in Barcelona, after which she chose to focus on continued rehab rather than compete at worlds in Fukuoka, Japan.

“Swimming at Mare Nostrum was a checkpoint for worlds, and I gave it my best shot,” Oleksiak said in the release. “We reviewed my swims there, and it showed me the level I want to get back to. Now I need to focus on my rehab to get back to where I want to be and put myself in position to be at my best next season.”

Oleksiak had knee surgery last year to repair a meniscus. After that, she developed a left shoulder injury.

In 2016, Oleksiak tied for Olympic 100m freestyle gold with American Simone Manuel. She also earned 100m butterfly silver in Rio and 200m free bronze in Tokyo, along with four relay medals between those two Games.

At last year’s worlds, she earned four relay medals and placed fourth in the 100m free.

She anchored the Canadian 4x100m free relay to silver behind Australia at the most recent Olympics and worlds.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!