Danell Leyva Fails to Medal in 2012 Olympic Men's Gymnastics Horizontal Bar

American gymnastics star Danell Leyva failed to medal in Tuesday's men's horizontal bar final at the 2012 London Olympics.

Leyva finished in fifth place with a score of 15.833. Dutch gymnast Epke Zonderland took home gold with a score of 16.533, while Germany's Fabian Hambuechen and China's Zou Kai earned silver and bronze with scores of 16.4 and 16.366, respectively.

Men's Horizontal Bar Final—Full Results

Place	Name	Country	Score
1	Epke Zonderland	Netherlands	16.533
2	Fabian Hambuechen	Germany	16.4
3	Zou Kai	China	16.366
4	Chenglong Zhang	China	16.266
5	Danell Leyva	USA	15.833
6	Jonathan Horton	USA	15.466
7	Emin Garibov	Russia	15.333
8	Jihoon Kim	Korea	15.133

Leyva, the bronze medalist in the men's individual all-around competition, had high hopes coming into the horizontal bar final, where he was expected to thrill the judges with impressive high-flying maneuvers. 

In the end, though, it was just another hefty dose of disappointment for the United States men's gymnastics team to swallow in London. 

The Olympic squad, which had dreams of racking several medals this summer, will go home with very little to show for all of the hype. 

Leyva's podium whiff is that much more shocking because he had dominated the event coming into the Olympics. He posted the third-best score on the bar during qualifying, landing a 15.866.

For the defending world champion on the parallel bars, Tuesday's result in the men's horizontal bar final was nothing short of a failure. 

Leyva won't leave London empty-handed, but he'll walk away from the 2012 Games knowing that he and his American teammates didn't live up to expectations this summer. 

Follow Bleacher Report Featured Columnist Patrick Clarke on Twitter For More Reaction on the 2012 London Olympics This Summer.