In the qualification round, four gymnasts from each five-member team will compete on each event, and the three best scores count towards the team’s score. Instead, Leyva was chosen as an alternate for Rio.
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Leyva is soaking up every moment.
“I feel like we did exactly what we need to do”, said Mark Williams, head coach of the USA team, after qualifying. “We’re like brothers. All of us”.
Rather than focusing on what those teams will do, the Americans need to focus on their own individual gymnastics, Leyva said. “It’s a hard position, but I understood the responsibility”. The gymnastic events go on throughout the day, ending at 5:30 p.m. ET.
Leyva says Orozco made him feel comfortable about what could have been an awkward situation, when he approached him soon after the injury.
“USA is in essence arrogant within itself just because of the fact that we tell ourselves that we can win because if we don’t believe it, who’s going to believe it”, Leyva said.
And ready he intends to be.
They defected from Cuba and landed in Miami when Leyva was still a toddler. According to Leyva, it didn’t go very well. “It’s humbling to know that I have an fantastic Latin community backing me”.
“It’s hard when they speak fast, but I kind of surprise (people) when I talk”, Leyva said. “I absolutely feel the connection”. “And when I land, that’s just like the exclamation mark”.
Japan’s Kohei Uchimura, the reigning Olympic all-around champion, fell off the horizontal bar but still earned the second highest combined score.
Among the American fans at the Rio Olympic Arena on Saturday was U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who congratulated the team afterward in a hallway and gave each gymnast a commemorative coin.
Leyva, whose big strength is the high bar, hopes to do even better in Rio.
“It still feels like the first time honestly”, Leyva said.
“I’ve been waiting for the Olympics for four years now and it’s finally here”, Leyva said. “And then I remind myself, and it’s like, ‘Wow, I’m here again.’ It’s even crazier”.
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US gymnasts, from left, Danell Leyva, Chris Brooks, Alexander Naddour, Sam Mikulak and Jake Dalton wait to enter the competition arena during the artistic gymnastics men’s qualification at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016.
