Hoping it breaks his way this time

Less than two years ago, gymnast Sam Mikulak broke both his ankles on a bad landing during a floor exercise routine in Puerto Rico.

Less than a month ago, Mikulak broke a vaulting board during practice, in part because of the strength and power in his ankles.

Syque Caesar, who competes for the University of Michigan along with Mikulak and who is representing Bangladesh at the London Olympics, said Mikulak cracked the vault board in half. “We were going to bring that board over here,” Caesar said. “But then we couldn’t.”

Mikulak, a 19-year-old from Newport Coast, didn’t break anything Wednesday during men’s gymnastics podium training. His work just crackled with confidence, something that went missing from Jonathan Horton, his more senior teammate and the only U.S. men’s gymnast with Olympic experience.

Horton fell on a release move three times on the high bar, the apparatus on which he won a silver medal four years ago in Beijing.

“I should have just walked away,” Horton said afterward. “I hate to say it, but that’s kind of shaken my confidence a little bit. I have to get back in the gym tomorrow and build it back up.”

Horton has until Saturday, when the men’s Olympic team competition begins, to rebuild.

Mikulak, who finished third overall at the U.S. Olympic trials despite competing with a left ankle that turned purple because of hard vault landings, rolled out of his vault landings Wednesday, but otherwise, as his Michigan coach, Kurt Golder, said, “He rocked the other events, and that doesn’t surprise me a bit.”

Golder said Mikulak brings something to competition that can’t be coached: “Confidence. That’s a hereditary thing. I don’t have a whole lot of reassuring to do with him. If he’s having a little problem with a skill and then he does it correctly, then it’s, boom, back to a 10.0 scale.”

Horton, 26, might want to borrow some of Mikulak’s confidence. Horton had his head buried in his hands after his third fall off the high bar and stayed sitting in a chair for almost a minute before following his teammates to the floor exercise mat.

“We’re not worried about Jon,” Mikulak said. But Horton seemed worried about himself.

But Golder said Mikulak is reaching a special place with his gymnastics. “He’s in the zone,” Golder said. “He’s so ready to go.”

And as far as that sore left ankle? It’s fine, Mikulak said. “It’s 100% right now. I’ll get it scoped after the Games, just so I can keep pounding on it.”

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diane.pucin@latimes.com

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