Jonathan Horton Is A Star On The Bar

Jonathan Horton, the star of the 2008 U.S. men's gymnastics team, went big for his last routine in Beijing and it paid off with an individual silver medal on the high bar. At 5'1", Horton disproves the claim that everything's bigger in Texas, but making up for it with great skill, big personality, and effusive language, he showed that American spunk could triumph even while the Chinese men were dominating the sport.

Going into the event Horton knew that his usual high bar routine would not score high enough for a medal, so in the three days preceding the competition, he planned on how to add the extra difficulty that would give him the added points that he felt he needed to make it to the medals stand. Amazingly, when he did his more difficult routine he did it superbly and actually received higher scores from every judge than the gold medalist did. Unfortunately, the difficulty of the gold medalist's routine was still .3 higher and that was enough to give him an overall .025 edge over Horton.

Earlier, in the all-around competition, Horton placed 9th, but was only 4/10 of a point from the silver medal.

The gold medal on the high bar went to Chinese gymnast Zou Kai (left), who had previously also won the gold for the floor exercise. Zou is a very fresh-faced 20 year old. He's cute but I don't think I find him attractive enough to say I really want his wonton.

The stud of the event was of course Jonathan Horton. The Olympics coverage has made him a popular figure with the television viewers, who have admired his big muscles and his little baby maker bump. He looked pretty good in both the white and the red team shirts, although I really like the blue one he wore for the high bar. On the other hand, it does kind of make him look a little less like a junior Super Friend and more like someone who is just ready to crawl into their race car shaped bed.

The third man on note is bronze medalist Fabian Hambuechen of Germany. I wouldn't have minded if he had won the gold, but that would be just so the Aryan in me could hear and sing along with "Das Lied der Deutschen". The thing I have no explanation for is why Fabian Hambüchen kept embracing and touching Jonathan. Fabian apparently wanted to get close but Jonathan's attitude seemed to be more "Can't we just be friends?"

*** I want to add a statement here that I don't understand why people on the internet are so critical of Tim Daggett. Sometimes he has to be the messenger of news that viewers don't want to hear, but he's just giving an honest assessment. He's a sweetheart and I like him.

Inexplicable reference to being gay and shirtless inserted here.

Jonathan Horton enjoying the afterglow (of winning the medal, not from being with Fabian)

Jonathan ritualistically praying to the chalk bucket

Jonathan ready to be disappointed again from finding a "You must be this tall to use this apparatus" sign