"I feel excellent (about Johnson). I think she needed this so much. She proved she is absolutely a great balance beam gymnast."

Johnson occasionally touched the medal during interviews — as if to make sure it was really there. Of course, she beamed every timed she looked down at it.

"To finally have a gold and be an Olympic gold medalist is what everybody dreams of," she said. "To finally have it around my neck, it's amazing."

While Liukin and Johnson were regulars on the medals podium, Horton's high bar silver in the men's division was somewhat unexpected. He was up against a strong field that included the 2004 gold medalist, Igor Cassina of Italy, and leading qualifier Epke Zonderland of the Netherlands and 2007 world champ Fabian Hambuechen of Germany.

Horton didn't flinch among such heady company, and Williams was so excited after Horton's high-flying routine that he engulfed his gymnast in a huge hug on the podium.

"We dared to dream he could increase his start value by half a point," Williams said. "If he'd stuck that landing, he would have had a gold medal."

Hambuechen got the bronze.

Behind Li on parallel bars were South Korea's Yoo Won-chul and Anton Fokin of Uzbekistan.

Li overpowered the bars, and the competition, adding this gold medal to his Sydney title. The 2000 gold medalist and two-time world champion began with a sensational leap forward from one end of the bars to the other — using only his arms to catapult him.

When he stuck his landing, Li and his coach pumped their arms as if they were trying to touch the ceiling. Then again, the Chinese men already had blown off the roof of the National Indoor Stadium with their dominance.

And the U.S. women weren't far behind.