John Orozco fights his way back, in life and in gym

— -- ST. LOUIS -- No one has to tell John Orozco there are no guarantees in life. If he didn't find that out in London in 2012, he was brought to his knees with the grim reality last year.

Determined to make 2016 the year he emerged from what he called "a pretty dark place," to secure a place on his second consecutive U.S. Olympic gymnastics team Thursday night, the Bronx native faces yet another challenge after the first day of the Olympic trials Thursday night at Chaifetz Arena.

With scores from the U.S. Championships earlier this month in Hartford combined with the first day of the Olympic trials, Orozco sits in 17th place in the all-around standings at 236.950. Fellow 2012 team member Sam Mikulak is in first place at 272.15, Chris Brooks, an alternate on the London team, is second at 269.025 and Jake Dalton, a '12 Olympian, is third at 267.325.

Those scores, however, are misleading, as Orozco elected to compete on just four of the six events, hoping the selection committee, whose stated priority for Rio is the team competition, will recognize the value in his specialist roles on high bar, parallel bars, rings and pommel horse.

"That was my strategy going in and I think that will be my biggest worth to the team for the Olympic games," Orozco said through a U.S. Gymnastics spokesperson, declining not to meet with the media Wednesday or Thursday. "Hopeful the committee will see that and see my worth in those four events."

For Orozco, it would be another dramatic chapter in what has already been an intense last few years. The 2012 all-around U.S. champion was on the London Olympic team that finished fifth in the team competition, a tumble on his vault landing one of several key miscues on the day.

Three years later, he vowed a second tear of his Achilles would not stop his pursuit for another Olympic run in 2016. His determination was a poignant show of courage with the death of his mother, Damaris, in February 2015, making the pain and frustration of recovery all the more difficult.

A return from the injury well ahead of schedule after just seven months seemed to portend one of the great storylines going into Rio.

His teammates believe it will happen.

"His P-bars were phenomenal. His high bar, he didn't have any large errors. The horse, he stayed on, he hit. Rings, he stuck his dismount," Mikulak said. "I thought he did great. There's nothing you can really tell off these standings as much as what it takes to be a competitor in this moment right now, and I think John did very well in performing today."

On individual events Thursday, Orozco was first on high bar, fourth on parallel bars, sixth on rings and seventh on horse. Vitaly Marinitch, head coach of the men's resident program at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., said Orozco's four events would "bring strength" to the team.

"I did way better today than the national championships on all of my events," Orozco said. "I'm glad. I've been really actually enjoying it for the first time in a while, so I think I'm going to keep that frame of mind going."

Enjoyment has not come easily, particularly after he picked up the phone one winter day in 2015 and received the worst news of his life.

"I remember I had a great practice that Saturday morning," Orozco recalled in an interview earlier this spring. "I was feeling good, getting ready for the 2015 Winter Cup ... I went to my locker and I saw that I had 16 missed calls and 10 messages and my heart just dropped. I know what that means because my mom and my dad have always been in very bad health growing up and they were always landing in the hospital and we never knew what to expect."

His mother died after having recently undergone complex follow-up surgery to a knee replacement. Though she had not been well, her death still left the family in shock. And for her youngest son, confused and scared.

"I was kind of like, 'Well, what am I going to do with my life now?'" Orozco said. "You think you have it all figured out. I'm 23 years old and I'm thinking, 'Yeah, I'll go to the next Olympics and then I'll see what I'll do after,' and then all the sudden it's like boom, my biggest fan, my mom, my everything, is gone.

"I was in a pretty dark place for a long time and it was discouraging because all that I ever tried to do in any part of my life, in or out of the gym, was to try as hard as I can to achieve my goals."

Orozco's story is well-known to gymnastics fans. At 14, he handed over his first paycheck to his father, Will, after he was forced into retirement from his job as a supervisor with New York City's sanitation department following a stroke.

His mother would drive her son, one of five children, an hour and a half from their home in the Bronx to gymnastics practice in suburban Westchester County. For his part, John sacrificed not just the freedom of most kids his age, but endured their relentless bullying for competing in what they considered a girls' sport.

"My mom and dad did everything they could with the little that they had to raise a family, and that's honestly where I get most of my willpower and that's what kind of keeps me going," he said. "Because they had been through so much, they had to work overtime and had to put food on the table and a roof over our heads. And all the while, they were sick while they had kids to take care of and bills to pay. They still made it happen."

Did he ever consider giving up, he was asked? Either as a youngster being teased or as a young man following a personal tragedy and serious injuries?

"No. I mean, I felt like I wanted to," Orozco said. "But one of my mantras is, 'I didn't come this far to only come this far.' I apply that to all facets of my life, especially the gym. So I couldn't let this injury hold me back from my goal or at least striving to achieve it."

Orozco's teammates say they are inspired by his attitude.

"You look at him as someone who can take on anything," Dalton said. "There are so many things he has been through. When you don't actually go through it yourself, it's hard to realize that ... but all the sacrifices, the hardships, he pushes through everything and anything thrown at him."

Orozco said he is going to "try to relax and have fun" Saturday, with the stakes the highest.

"For me, I think it's important once something tragic in your life happens that you take the time to be sad and kind of wallow in self-pity for a little bit," he said. "It sounds like something you should never do, but I think it's necessary because we're all human, we're going to feel like that, like life isn't fair, like you want to disappear somewhere or run away from all our problems. And it's OK to feel like that. It's OK to cry. It's OK to feel bad ...

"But then, no matter how much time you need -- for me, it's usually a few weeks -- then I have to kind of turn the switch on in my brain and say, 'OK, I'm done being sad and I have a little bit of time to get ready for the Olympic Games, to realize my goal,' And then the mantra comes back saying 'I haven't come this far to come this far.'"