U.S. gymnast finally gets her gold

BEIJING — Shawn Johnson of the United States finally got her Olympic gold medal, blowing away the field Tuesday with her routine on the balance beam — the last event of the women’s gymnastics competition.

Johnson, bothered by a headache before the competition, nailed her routine that was full of difficult tricks, earning a 16.225.

“This is what we expected to see,” said her coach, Liang Chow.

“The thing I really am pleased with is she was a little under the weather and she still was able to do a wonderful routine.”

The world champion, who already had a silver behind fellow American Nastia Liukin in the all-around, and a silver on floor and in the team event, edged Liukin, who finished with a gold, three silvers and a bronze.

Cheng Fei took the bronze, giving China six women’s medals, two behind the Americans.

“This was the right ending to conclude the Olympic Games,” national team coordinator Martha Karolyi said. “We proved the supremacy of U.S. women’s gymnastics.

Johnson “proved she is absolutely a great balance beam gymnast,” she said.

“It’s crazy,” the 16-year-old Johnson said. “I remember seeing Nastia have hers from the all-around and it is so pretty.

Silver is really pretty, too.

The Chinese men swept two events Tuesday, with Zou Kai winning high bar and Li Xaiopeng winning parallel bars. In all, China took all but one men’s event, the vault — in which there was no Chinese finalist.

China’s men won the team title, Yang Wei took the all-around, and the Chinese also took the still rings, pommel horse and floor exercise.

Altogether, the Americans won 10 medals; the U.S women won eight to six for China. The 10 medals surpassed the U.S. total of nine in Athens.

The United States got its only men’s individual medal — a silver — when Jonathan Horton soared through an energetic high bar routine that drew almost as loud a roar as Zou’s performance. Horton also won bronze with the U.S. men in team finals.

2007 world champion Fabian Hambuechen of Germany won the bronze.

Behind Li on parallel bars were South Korea’s Yoo Won-chul and Anton Fokin of Uzbekistan.

Li overpowered the bars, and the competition, adding this gold medal to his Sydney title. The 2000 gold medalist and two-time world champion began with a sensational leap forward from one end of the bars to the other — using only his arms to catapult him.

When he stuck his landing, Li and his coach pumped their arms as if they were trying to touch the ceiling. Then again, the Chinese men already had blown off the roof of the National Indoor Stadium with their dominance.

Liukin got a gold, three silver and a bronze to tie the record for an American in one games.

“I’m really happy for her,” Liukin said of Johnson, her roommate in Beijing. “Three silvers is kind of hard to take. I couldn’t be more proud of her.”

Johnson occasionally touched the medal during interviews — as if to make sure it was really there. Of course, she beamed every timed she looked down at it.

“To finally have a gold and be an Olympic gold medalist is what everybody dreams of,” she said. “To finally have it around my neck, it’s amazing.”