Elusive gold has Johnson just beaming

Shawn Johnson is up in the air here, but when her routine was done, she definitely had won the gold in the balance beam. (Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters)

BEIJING - It had been a splendid week at Olympus, with a record medal haul for the United States gymnasts, but something was missing. The team's kid sister, its super-reliable class secretary, didn't have a gold to add to her silver collection. Now, she does.

"It feels amazing," Shawn Johnson exulted yesterday, after she'd outpointed roommate Nastia Liukin to win the balance beam title on the final event of the women's competition. "To finish with the gold on my favorite event, it's the perfect ending to the story."

After Jonathan Horton added a postscript with a surprise silver on the men's horizontal bar, the Americans had collected a total of 10 - two golds, six silvers, and two bronzes - with the women accounting for a lucky 8, twice as many as the Romanian and Russian men's and women's teams combined.

"This is the right way to conclude the Olympic Games," said women's team coordinator Martha Karolyi, after the 16-year-old Johnson and the 18-year-old Liukin had collected seven individual medals between them and swept both the all-around and beam. "It proved the supremacy of American gymnastics."

As expected, the Chinese men owned the building, winning seven golds (everything but vault, in which they didn't enter a competitor) and equaling the Soviet Union's record from 1956 and 1988. Zou Kai won the horizontal bar and Li Xaiopeng the parallel bars yesterday.

That made up for China's terrible showing in Athens, where it finished fifth in the team event and won only a single gold.

The US males, who had to call up alternates Raj Bhavsar and Alexander Artemev after Paul and Morgan Hamm withdrew from the squad with injuries, were delighted just to have the team bronze. Getting a silver from Horton was a wondrous bonus.

"It's been surreal," he declared, after finishing behind Zou by just a quarter of a point. "I've used this term so many times, but it's the only way I can explain it."

Up against Zou, defending champion Igor Cassina of Italy, and world titlist Fabian Hambuechen of Germany, Horton knew he'd have to up the ante to have a chance at the medal stand. So he toughened up his routine, elevating his start value to 6.9, then went skywalking, outscoring Zou by .275 on execution.

"I hit the floor and I looked at [coach] Mark [Williams]," said Horton, after he'd earned a 16.175, "and I said, 'Do you believe what just happened?' "

The American women, who'd been disappointed with their team silver behind China after coming in as world champions, left satisfied after going 1-2 in the all-around and picking up five more apparatus medals. Liukin, who arrived here in Johnson's shadow, departed as queen of the gym with five medals, tying Mary Lou Retton and Shannon Miller for most at one Games by an American and surpassing father/coach Valeri's four for the Soviet Union in 1988.

"To say that I have five medals at my first Olympic Games means the world to me," said Liukin, who earned the gold in all-around, silvers in team, beam, and uneven bars (losing the gold on the second tiebreaker), and bronze on floor exercise. "And just having one gold is OK because it's the one that means the most."

Johnson, who came in as global champion, fretted that she'd be leaving the Games without even one gold. "Having three silvers is hard," empathized Liukin. And after struggling with her beam routine in warmups, running through it seven times to get it right, Johnson was feeling achy and weary. What were the chances of her beating Liukin, who was world titlist on the apparatus?

But once Johnson got up on the 4-inch-wide length of wood, it was like an everyday workout back in Iowa, sure and solid.

"We used to say she tumbles on the beam like others do on the floor," observed Karolyi.

Johnson's score of 16.225 was two-10ths higher than Liukin's, with the difference coming on the start value, where Johnson's 7.0 gave her a four-10ths edge.

"Finally," Johnson told herself, after she saw a 1 next to her name on the scoreboard.

Thus did the Americans end these Games they way they'd hoped to start them, with a gold medal and an anthem.

"I think this showed how strong we are," said Liukin. "After the silver in the team final, some people were saying, 'What is all this talk?' This now shows we are the best."

John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com