Horton confident heading in to Worlds Gymnastics

When a 9-year-old Jonathan Horton first came to Cypress Academy in 1996, he was just a little kid wanting to improve his gymnastics. He stayed at the gym through high school, and then trained at the University of Oklahoma. Now, 12 years after he first arrived at that gym, he is back as one of the top gymnasts in the United States and the world.

This was never a surprise for Tom Meadows, Horton's longtime coach at Cypress. Horton always had the talent to be good, but even early on Meadows could see that he also had the intangibles-work ethic and desire, namely-to be great.

When Horton was in high school, gymnastics technical expert Mas Watanabe was visiting Cypress when he caught a glimpse of Horton on the parallel bars. When Watanabe looked back, Horton was gone.

"All of a sudden he was on another set of bars, then another, then another," Meadows remembered. "And Mas looks at me and says, 'Tom, I can't keep up with him! He is going so fast.'

"I said, 'Yeah, that's why he is going to be so successful.' "

Horton, now 23, is the grizzled veteran and unparalleled leader on the six-man Team USA squad that is heading to London for the World Gymnastics Championships October 13-19. He also has high expectations.

"I would love to push for that gold medal on high bar," Horton said. "I think I can definitely be a world champion on high bar, and I definitely think I can be top-three in all-around. There are some great all-arounders from Japan and Germany, but I want to go out there and fight for all I can."

That's the same old Horton that Meadows has always known, the one who worked the pants off everyone else as a kid and in turn made them try to keep up.

Horton showed that a little more than a year ago when he competed in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. There, when reigning all-around gold medalist Paul Hamm was a late scratch due to injuries, it was Horton took over. He competed in a team-high five of the six events in the team finals, helping propel Team USA to a bronze medal. A couple days later, he finished in the top 10 in the all-around competition, and a few days after that Horton took home silver in the horizontal bar.

After the Olympic Games in Beijing, Horton had one more semester at the University of Oklahoma before moving back to Houston and marrying his girlfriend, former Oklahoma gymnast Haley DeProspero.

And that's when he reunited with Meadows and Cypress.

"He is not that kid anymore," Meadows said. "When I had him, he was just that young kid, but now he is a mature, married man. He is more focused. [I'm] not saying he wasn't as a kid, but he is more tunnel-visioned on what the end is."

Beyond his still seemingly endless reps in the gym, that focus has grown to encompass an overall approach, including things like watching his nutrition and undergoing massage therapy to stay fresh.

"His work ethic is still the same, his desire is still the same," Meadows said, "but that's probably the biggest change: He is willing to go over every little detail now to achieve that last goal."

After tasting some Olympic success last summer, Horton is convinced he can lead Team USA back to the London 2012 Olympic Games and win a team gold medal. With the 2009 World Championships being an individual event only, however, his focus now is just on getting better and raising the profile of U.S. gymnastics.

"Right now, everything I do, training, competitions, international competitions, everything, it's stepping stones to my real goal at 2012, which is to be an Olympic champion," Horton said. "I would love to stand on top of that podium not only with my teammates, but as an individual as well."

Horton was meant to take on this leadership, Meadows said. The coach could see it in Horton as a teenager, when he motivated teammates with his endless work ethic. He could see it in college, where Horton was a three-time captain of one of the top college gymnastics programs in the country.

And it was abundantly clear that Horton had embraced that role in July at the Japan Cup in Makuhari, Japan. As the only veteran from the 2008 Olympic Games on that trip, Horton became the go-to guy for the younger gymnasts when they had questions about how to approach different situations.

After his gutsy performance in Beijing, it's no wonder why other gymnasts would look up to Horton. In an unheard-of move, Horton decided to change the high-bar routine he had been practicing for months in between prelims and finals.

"I knew I had no chance of winning the event if I didn't," he said, referring to the routine's level of difficulty. "I could have done the best event possible and still not medaled."

With the new moves in place, Horton wound up getting the silver medal. The risk had paid off.

"It was kind of just a shot in the dark, and I threw it and it was successful," he said. "People always tell me I was crazy, but it ended up all right and I ended up with the silver medal, so it was an awesome experience."

As the only 2008 Olympian on the World Championships team, Horton will again be looked at as the leader. He will also be looked at as one of the top gymnasts in the world. And that's how he likes it.

"Any time you go to a competition like the Olympic Games, you walk out of it with a different perspective on the sport, your career, everything you do," Horton said. "When I got home, it hit me like, 'I can't believe it's over already, I want to do it again.' That was the most incredible feeling, standing on the podium and getting that medal.

"I was like, 'You know what? Let's do it again, but let's do it better.' "

Horton learned from great U.S. gymnasts and leaders like Olympians Blaine Wilson and Hamm. Now, Meadows said, Horton's potential is "boundless," and it's his turn to shine.

"You could see the torch was being passed over the last couple years," Meadows said. "So when one man stepped down, you could see the torch being passed."

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc. Chrös McDougall is a freelance contributor for teamusa.org. This story was not subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee or any National Governing Bodies.