Worth Her Wait for Gold

Johnson Stops Fretting Over Scores, Earns the Medal She Coveted on Beam

BEIJING, Aug. 19 -- With three silver medals tucked away in her room at the Athletes' Village, Shawn Johnson had one last chance to win Olympic gold Tuesday.

But after she failed to complete one solid balance-beam routine in seven warmup attempts, her coach ordered her to stop. Maybe a pause would help calm the nerves of the 16-year-old who, until now, had always thrived under pressure.

As it turned out, all Johnson needed was for her final Olympic competition to begin. The moment she hopped on the balance beam at Beijing's National Indoor Stadium, Johnson felt right at home.

She didn't think about the scores awarded to the gymnasts who preceded her. She didn't worry about the scores she might get herself. And she tumbled her way to gold -- flipping up and down the beam as if it were as wide as a diving board instead of four inches across.

"For the first time in this whole experience, I really let everything go," Johnson said afterward, with the longed-for gold medal draped around her neck. "It's the perfect ending to my Olympic experience."

Teammate Nastia Liukin, who won the all-around gold last week, turned in a less difficult yet more elegant routine to claim silver, completing another 1-2 finish by the stars of U.S. gymnastics.

Johnson's routine earned 16.225 points; Liukin, 16.025. China's Cheng Fei (15.950) took bronze.

Roommates at the Athletes' Village, Johnson, 16, and Liukin, 18, have been largely responsible for the success of American gymnasts in Beijing. They went to bed Tuesday night with nine Olympic medals between them.

Luikin's five tied her with Shannon Miller (1992) for the most medals won by an American in a single Olympic Games. And the debate has already started about where to place her among the sport's greats.

But the most stunning performance on the final day of gymnastics competition was delivered by Jonathan Horton, 22, who drew gasps and cheers from rivals and spectators alike for his silver medal-winning horizontal bar routine.

Fully aware that he wasn't a medal contender, Horton decided just days before to ramp up the difficulty of his standard routine -- which on his best day might have landed him fourth among the world-class field -- adding two new skills worth an extra five-tenths of a point.

Horton had done these skills separately during practice. But he had never attempted them in a full routine -- not even in a workout.