TODAY in London - bronze-medal

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Aug

2012

10:05am, EDT

U.S. gymnast's lucky towel gains fans, helps him take bronze

By Scott Stump

After a disappointing performance on the pommel horse at the start of Wednesday’s all-around finals, U.S. gymnast Danell Leyva draped his lucky blue towel over his head in silence.

A few hours later, he replaced it with a bronze medal around his neck. Meanwhile, his towel was busy gaining thousands of new Twitter followers.

Leyva appeared on TODAY Thursday alongside his stepfather and personal coach, Yin Alvarez, and U.S. gymnastics teammate John Orozco to talk with Savannah Guthrie about his good luck charm.

What started out as a joking superstition five years ago has become a mechanism for Leyva to focus when his mind tends to wander. The old blue towel with a star pattern has become a celebrity in its own right, as its parody Twitter account, @LeyvasTowel, now has 10,000-plus followers, rapidly gaining on the 50,000 on Leyva’s account.

TODAY

Danell shows off his lucky towel.

“At first it was just a lucky towel, but it has turned into so much more than that,’’ Leyva told Guthrie. “It has turned into something that really helped me get into the zone and into the concentration of my routine because I tend to get distracted way too easily. It really helps.’’

The towel celebrated all the attention surrounding Leyva and his good luck charm after Wednesday's performance by tweeting, "OMG! It's a fluff piece all about meeeee!"

OMG! It's a fluff piece all about meeeee!
— Danell Leyva's Towel (@LeyvasTowel) August 2, 2012

Leyva, 20, has had the lucky item by his side since 2007. While one aunt went to buy a towel, another aunt went to retrieve one from her house, and they both came back with the same exact type of towel. He kept both of them, and one of them ripped later in 2007. The remaining one has been his constant companion at competitions for the past five years.

Another constant at his competitions has been Alvarez. His rhythmic clapping, ritual kissing of Leyva’s forehead and other routines have become a regular part of Leyva’s performances.

“It’s something that I do every day,’’ Alvarez told Guthrie. “I do it with all my athletes since Danell was a little kid, and I still do it with the little kids. It’s something that I do. That’s me. That’s my routine.’’

“I’m very, very lucky to have him there with me the whole time,’’ Leyva said. “It’s amazing. We have such a huge connection since I was really young, since I started. To have not only him but also my mom here…I feel very, very lucky.’’

Alvarez and the lucky towel helped Leyva focus on Wednesday after he struggled on the pommel horse at the beginning of the all-around finals and had to recover on the other apparatus in order to earn a medal. His score of 90.698 was good enough to make him the first U.S. men's gymnast to earn a medal in the all-around since Paul Hamm won gold in 2004.

“I didn’t have the best pommel routine,’’ Leyva said. “I kind of messed up. (Alvarez) came over to me and said, ‘Don’t worry, nothing happened. Just relax and do what you do every day.’ We both knew that my strongest events were at the end, and I just have to show off and do what I do.’’

Orozco didn’t fare as well, as he ended up finishing out of medal contention in eighth place in the all-around competition. He and Leyva both told Guthrie they plan on competing in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“This whole experience, it’s been a real journey for me,’’ Orozco said. “I didn’t quite have my big dream moment like I was hoping for, but just making it here and competing at the Olympics, I know that there’s thousands -- if not millions -- of kids that wish they can compete at the Olympic Games just like I did here in London. I’m grateful for the opportunity and I’m still glad that I got to go up there and compete for Team USA.’’

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Get the latest Olympic news on TODAY in London

Jul

2012

9:17am, EDT

Natalie Coughlin: I could swim again in London

By Scott Stump

Natalie Coughlin may not be done making history just yet.

Heading into the Olympics, sports media had reported that the 4x100-meter freestyle relay would be Coughlin’s only London race. After tying the record for the most medals of any female Olympian in U.S. history with a bronze on Saturday, Coughlin told Matt Lauer on TODAY Monday that there is a chance she could swim another race. With a 13th medal, she'd set a new record.

Coughlin, 29, said that there is a chance she could be part of another relay team before the conclusion of the Games, as she did not qualify for any of the individual events. The 4x100-meter medley relay is on Friday. In 12 races over the course of her Olympic career, Coughlin has medaled in all 12.

“There’s a lot of factors that play into that,’’ Coughlin said about a potential race. “One of the great things about Team USA in swimming is we have so much depth and so much talent so we have options for the medley relays. That being said, I’m not trying to force myself on a relay. I’m there, and it’s 100 percent the coach’s decision.’’

The U.S. swim team coach, Teri McKeever, also is Coughlin’s personal coach. It was McKeever’s decision that resulted in an unorthodox medal for Coughlin on Saturday. Though Coughlin did not swim in the 4x100 relay final, she swam in the preliminary round, which by rule still earned her a medal. McKeever decided to leave her out of the final in favor of Missy Franklin, Jessica Hardy, Lia Neal and Allison Schmitt, who swam an American-record time of 3:34.24 to finish third.

“I had a very, very fast relay takeoff (in the preliminary round), so I think that made them a little nervous, I don’t really know,’’ Coughlin said. “I was very supportive of the four that were up there and they did a fantastic job. I think a lot of it is (McKeever) wants to err on the side of being conservative being that she is my personal coach as well as the head coach.

“She told me and I was fine with it. A lot of the coaches were really supportive of me. It’s a hard thing, but I’m glad for the four girls.’’

Because she wasn’t part of the team that swam in the final, Saturday also marked the first time that Coughlin did not stand on the podium.

“I still haven’t had time to really process it, and I earned this medal in kind of a strange way,’’ she said. “This is the first time that I haven’t been on the medal podium myself, so very unceremoniously Teri gives it to me in a meeting, of course, but it’s a little strange.’’

While the assumption coming into London was that this would be the conclusion of Coughlin’s brilliant Olympic career, she did not completely rule out a potential run at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

“My thoughts change on a daily basis,’’ she said. “I absolutely love swimming. I’m going to continue to train and be fit, so my thing is, if I’m healthy enough to compete, why not, because I love it. But I go back and forth, and right now I’m just trying to focus on this week.’’