The traditional American spirit of "get there or die trying" was alive and well in the Olympic high bar silver medal winner.  Jonathan Horton performed a routine he had never done before, a tremendous risk for the venue, the pinnacle of achievement in the sport.  His attitude was as American as poker, as American as a classic movie.  He wanted that medal so badly he probably had its metallic taste on his tongue, and he had to have been prepared to risk losing miserably.

Luckily, Jonathan did not have to eat mat in the finals.  Even in his pre-finals workouts, he stunned his competition into silence in the practice gym as he filled his routine with wild difficulty.  The man who went on to beat Horton for the gold, Zou Kai, even called Horton’s routine "stunning."

The smile on Horton’s face when he finished was more priceless than the medal itself.