It’s been nearly four years, but gymnast Danell Leyva is still getting around to believing he won an Olympic medal.
He doesn’t go to YouTube to relive that performance in London that led him to an all-around bronze medal, in part because he’s looking forward and but also because he’d have to devote time to watch the entire competition.
For years, the Olympics seemed like an unattainable competition. Then he got there and it was a gymnastics meet, one in which he excelled.
“I still haven’t fully processed the fact that that was the Olympics and that actually happened,” Leyva says before a training camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in April.
As he tries to make a second Olympic team, Leyva finds himself in a different place. At 24, he’s older and more mature although the same could be said about his teammates. The young team that was in first in qualifying before finishing fifth has four gymnasts in contention for the five roster spots in Rio.
But Leyva is more accomplished this time around.
A three-time world championship team member before 2012, Leyva collected three worlds medals in two championships in this quad.
“I feel like it might just be the fact that I’m older and when you’re older, you just notice everything a lot more. I feel like I notice how good everybody is now more so than I did a couple years ago,” Leyva said.
One thing hasn’t changed for Leyva since London — he relies on Yin Alvarez, his step-father and coach, as much as ever. While 10 members of the national team are based in Colorado Springs, Leyva continues to live and train at home with his family in Miami.
Leyva has matured in the sport, but he still follows the plan Alvarez sets for him faithfully.
“I’m always like, ‘Well, maybe…’ but then he always explains and he’s like you need this because of this and I’m like all right,” Leyva said. “But I’ve always been one to talk back and ask why. I’ve always wanted to know the reason why.”
Gymnast and coach will need to do some work to make the Olympic team this time. Leyva struggled to a 16th-place finish at the U.S. championships earlier this month, but got one of the at-large berths to this week's U.S. Olympic Trials in St. Louis, where he'll make his case for Rio.
To automatically make the team, gymnasts must finish in the top two at both trials and championships and be in the top three in three events. After that, the selection committee fills out the final spots.
Leyva has some making up to do, but the veteran — a gymnast who is the country’s first all-around Olympic male medalist since 2004 — knew it would be a tough process given the USA’s depth.
“That’s gonna suck for the selection committee because our job is just to go up, do our events and worry about doing our own performance well,” Leyva said. “They’re the ones who have the hard job of actually picking who’s going to be on that team.”
