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John Orozco: Full Gymnastics 2012 Schedule for Olympic Star

Jessica MarieMay 31, 2018

John Orozco's Olympic journey hasn't gone quite as planned, but there's still time for him to redeem himself.

The Bronx native was supposed to be one of the saviors of the men's gymnastics team. Instead, it was his performance during Monday's team final that cost the Americans a medal—never mind a gold.

Orozco ran into plenty of problems during his two events on Monday: On the vault, he "'fell on [his] butt,'" as he told the Associated Press, and on the pommel horse, he submitted an uncharacteristically poor performance despite placing third in the event at this year's Olympic trials.

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This sort of unraveling certainly wasn't expected—not from Orozco. He shined during the trials, finishing second all-around, and he was even better at the Visa Championships a month earlier, earning first place all-around and second place on the high bars.

Yet he, and the rest of the U.S. team, floundered when their performances really started counting. The Americans finished fifth with a score of 269.952, well behind China's gold-medal-winning score of 275.997.

Like any fierce competitor, Orozco isn't shirking any of the blame. He knows he didn't perform up to expectations—or up to his own standards—and as a result, he told the AP that he's fully willing to take the blame: "'I feel personally responsible. I did five events and I botched two.'"

According to the New York Daily News, the 19-year-old also admitted that the immense pressure of the Olympics got into his head, despite his best efforts to block it out.

And yet, Orozco still has an opportunity to redeem himself in the men's all-around final. In the qualification for the all-around competition on July 28, he finished fourth with a score of 90.597. Teammate Danell Leyva finished first (91.265), Russia's David Belyavskiy (90.832) finished second and Germany's Fabian Hambuechen (90.765) finished third.

Even if Orozco can't triumph over his U.S. teammate in the all-around final, he only needs to perform slightly better in order to medal. That is redemption enough. If the Americans win two of the three all-around medals, there are going to be a lot of very happy U.S. campers.

The happiest of which, of course, will be Orozco.

Maybe it's a good thing that Orozco got the worst out of his system prior to the all-around individual competition. He realized that he's been letting the pressure get to him, and now, the worst is over with. He's seen what happens when he lets expectations destroy him, and now, hopefully, he knows how to avoid it.

Here's everything you need to know about when and where you can watch Orozco in the all-around final:


Men's Individual All-Around

Finished 4th in Qualifier (90.597)

When: Wednesday, August 1 at 11:30 a.m. ET

Watch: NBC, 8 p.m.-12 a.m. ET (Tape-Delayed)

Live Stream: NBCOlympics.com, 11:30 a.m. ET

You can see the full gymnastics schedule here

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