John Orozco withdraws from Olympics citing ACL injury

The American gymnast who has suffered an ACL injury will be replaced by Daniel Levy.

Some sad news out of the Olympics today: John Orozco, a young up and coming gymnast slated to appear in the Rio 2016 Olympics, will not make the trip due to an ACL injury.

This comes as heartbreaking news for Orozco, who suffered a torn Achilles tendon in 2014 and had to stay away from competition to recover. Orozco competed in the 2012 London Olympics, placing fifth and eighth in the men’s artistic team all-around and the men’s artistic individual all-around, respectively.

Orozco has been looked at as one of the strongest competitors for the United States in the 2016 Olympics, and it’s a devastating blow to the team that he won’t be able to compete. He’s consistently been at the top of US gymnastics competitions, and has placed around 4th or bronze in multiple international competitions.

Orozco will be replaced by Danell Leyva.

Leyva is a bronze medal winner in the 2012 London Olympics, but was not selected to the 2016 Olympic team. Leyva has been quiet in international competition since 2012, but he has the prior Olympic experience needed to replace John Orozco. Leyva is a great gymnast in the all-around specifically, but the team will likely ask him to fill in other roles in addition to his best one.

This is a heartbreaking blow for Orozco, who just can’t seem to stay healthy, He’s been injured for at least part of every year since 2013, and was finally healthy before this knee injury.

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