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Everywhere, there were signs of youth -- awkward smiles, sheepish shrugs, a certain wide-eyed attitude. This was after the U.S. men's gymnastics team -- a baby-faced group with big-boy dreams of gold -- had stumbled its way to a disappointing fifth-place finish in the team final on Monday. The U.S. men were the hot young things in the sport, a squad that includes a pair of 19-year-olds (John Orozco and Sam Mikulak) and two 20-year-olds (Danell Leyva and Jake Dalton.) When they finished first in preliminaries on Saturday, it didn't seem far-fetched at all that these kids might actually be the best in the world already.

But there they were in the bowels of North Greenwich Arena on Monday, trying to explain how it had all gone so wrong. They were like young drivers who...

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Related Topics: Olympics 2012, gymnastics, United States