Emotions overflow at gymnastics trials as Orozco makes team after injury and death of his mother

So many thoughts were rushing through his head and tears flowed after gymnast John Orozco learned he had made his second U.S. Olympic men’s team.

He thought of his late mother, Damaris, and said she had been with him in spirit on this journey, a road of pain, injury and persistence. Orozco had suffered a torn Achilles’ tendon about year ago and recovered with uncommon speed and fought through a crowded and talented group to make the five-man Olympic team.

“Absolutely. I know my mom is here with me in spirit and I think that, I don’t know … I can’t even get my thoughts together,” Orozco said of his mother, who passed away in 2015.

“Four years ago, I automatically qualified. I knew I was on the team. It was not as intense. I woke up this morning and I can’t believe it. You wake up and you’re thinking this is the last day to prove myself, to show my worth and here I am already.”

Headed to Rio de Janeiro were reigning national champion Sam Mikulak, who was raised in Newport Coast, 29-year-old Chris Brooks, who was an alternate four years ago, Jacob Dalton, Alex Naddour, also an alternate in 2012, and Orozco.

Orozco seemed emotionally drained when he met with the media. He had paid a tearful tribute to his mother in his NBC TV interview, saying: “The whole time she was looking down on me and she’s so proud, and if you hear me, Mom, I love you.”

Sam Mikulak, Alex Naddour, Jacob Dalton, Chris Brooks and John Orozco celebrate after being named to the U.S. men’s gymnastics team.

(Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images )

He was far from the only one to shed tears.

Brooks had come so close, so often and this was his final shot at Olympic glory. He seized the spot with an impressive display of consistency, an emphatic show of skill and will to the selection committee.

There was no puff of white smoke emerging from Chaifetz Arena, the facility hosting the men’s Olympic trials.

But it was no less dramatic after the final rotation on Saturday night.

The selection committee went behind a closed door and conferred for about 12 minutes, pondering a wide array of numbers compiled from four days of competition, two at the nationals in Hartford, Conn., earlier this month and two in St. Louis.

Mikulak had the highest combined score. After that, the decisions were tough.

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You could call it the gymnastics version of “Survivor.” The men weren’t voted off the island, of course, but the 18 athletes were herded into a room and five were told that they would represent the United States at the Olympics in Rio.

“It was hard and awesome at the same time,” Brooks said. “All of us are so close in that room. Everybody was hugging each other and congratulating each other. Whenever that kind of died down, it got really silent.

“And I was like, ‘Well, this is awkward.’ About 30 seconds after that, the selection committee walked in.”

How often did Brooks ponder his quest?

“All the time,” he said, chuckling. “Every time a new injury came up, I’m like, ‘Keep going? Can I even make it to 2016?’ You just put your head down and work hard in silence and let your gymnastics show off.”

As the clock ticked down, the suspense grew. Even Aly Raisman, the women’s team captain in 2012, tweeted, “This is insane!!! Who’s it going to be?”

Mikulak had gone through this before when he made the team in 2012. but experience did not necessarily make the waiting any easier for the selections.

“It was still terrifying,” he said. “You could really feel the intensity in the room. As the national team coordinator came in the room and started reading off the names, luckily they were quicker to get to it this time…

“It was very humane.”

Follow Lisa Dillman on Twitter @reallisa