NEWARK, N.J. — John Orozco’s trip to the top of the podium wasn’t to build back up his confidence after a third injury that could have ended his gymnastics career, although it certainly can help there.
Rather, it was about healing, part of the process Orozco continues as he tries to overcome the toughest year of his life while making a second Olympic team. Every good day in the gym, each good competition he has, Orozco finds himself better after a year that included the death of his mother, Damaris, followed by a second torn Achilles tendon.
“I think emotionally and mentally, I’m still mending myself,” he said, “but it takes, I think, competitions like these to get there. Every competition I go to, it’s another step toward being a little more mentally healthy. Not in terms of how confident I am and go compete, but in terms of just like life. I still struggle with it a lot that I don’t have control over, but I have to kind of find the light in the darkness.”
For a guy who won the U.S. championship in 2012 and competed in London, Orozco’s win in the inaugural Elite Cup at the Prudential Center on Saturday will rate down the list of his career accomplishments. The event paired a senior elite team member with regional groups of junior gymnasts.
His score of 89.100 gave him the win by 2.75 points. It was better than the international field that competed in the American Cup earlier in the day, where teammate and roommate Donnell Whittenburg finished second and Sam Mikulak finished fourth.
“Everyone was watching,” Orozco said. “They want to see what you’re up to, if you’re healthy.”
For the most part he is, thanks to a remarkable recovery. Orozco tore his Achilles in June and said doctors told him it would take a year to recover. That’s not the right answer, he told them.
After previously tearing his Achilles in 2010, he knew what it would take to get back and he and the staff at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, where he lives and trains with several members of the team, worked to accelerate his rehab. A year’s recovery time got cut to six months.
Being unable to walk for six weeks was frustrating, so he went out and bought a knee cart so he could push around his casted foot on the scooter-like contraption. Even with limited mobility, he worked in the gym to maintain his strength.
His first steps in a walking boot drew celebration and sadness. He wanted to call Damaris, who died in February before Orozco was injured.
“It was hard because I usually wouldn’t like call her that much,” he said. “I was 22, doing my own thing. And this one time, I really felt like I wanted to call my mom and tell her, ‘I took my first step and they’re letting me walk again.’ Because she would be ecstatic for me. There’s just been a lot of moments like that, especially my first competition back and the Winter Cup. That was another time when I was like, I wish I could tell her I made it back.”
Orozco’s recovery has been as emotional and mental as it has been physical. Losing the woman who had supported his dreams, drove him to practice from their home in the Bronx and been his biggest supporter, that was hard enough.
But after the injury, Orozco took the time feel sorry for himself. In addition to his previous Achilles injury, Orozco had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in 2012. Any one of the three could have ended his career, and for a while he asked why me?
“It was like, ‘Wow, where is my life headed right now?’” he said. “And I was in a pretty dark place for a while, and I think it’s OK to acknowledge that sometimes life isn’t fair and you want to cry and curl up in the corner and disappear.
“But after the two or three weeks where it’s necessary to take that time to sulk in your sadness, you have to be like, ‘OK, I’m done with my little pity party. Let’s get to it. Back on track. Got an Olympics to prepare for, or Olympic trials.’”
He credits his willpower and the support he gets from family, teammates, friends and coaches for helping him through that. With Saturday’s competition so close to the family’s home, Orozco’s father, Will, and two brothers were able to see him compete for the first time in more than a year.
The challenges have caused him to turn inward, asking himself why he’s sad and reminding himself of the things he’s grateful for.
“I have a lot of things to be happy about,” he said. “Coming from where I came from, it’s not easy to be here now so I have a lot of blessings that I’ve been counting.”
His recovery has also prompted the 23-year-old to work smarter. If his Achilles feels tight, he backs off. While he wants desperately to improve his vault, he and his coach opted to stop training in a session before this event because he had shin splints. Quality over quantity matters now.
It’s helped him. Orozco won the Houston National Invitational in January, and he finished fourth at the Winter Cup last month. None of those competitions is on par with those ahead — nationals, Olympic trials and hopefully a trip back to the Games — but they’re helping him move forward.
Orozco doesn’t need the results for his confidence but for his recovery, one that while difficult has been so beneficial to helping him heal that he never considered stepping away from gymnastics despite the heartbreak of the past year.
“I worked way too hard to let that stop me, especially knowing that I got through it before,” he said. “There’s times I felt like I wanted to, but I know in the back of my mind I would never let myself do that. I worked way too hard, way too many years in the gym, coming to these competitions and I cannot let that go to waste. So I had to get back. I had to give it one more shot.”
