Gymnast Horton balancing move, wedding, training

Jonathan Horton is used to having a jam-packed schedule.

This, though, is a little much.

The Olympic silver medal gymnast just graduated from Oklahoma and moved back to his hometown of Houston. He and fiancee Haley DeProspero are wrapping up last-minute details for their June 20 wedding, and are looking for a house.

Oh, yeah, he's trying to fit in training for this year's national and world championships, too.

“It's really stressing me out, knowing I'll work out one day and then I'll have a day off. This is a sport you can't do that," he said. “You have to be in gym six days with one day off. It's just been impossible.

“I can't wait to just finally have a schedule and follow it and not worry about a million other things going on.”

That time will come soon enough. After a honeymoon, Horton's whole focus will be on gymnastics again and the routines he hopes will establish him as a contender for 2012.

Olympic gold medalist Yang Wei and Hiroyuki Tomita, winners of the last three world all-around titles, both retired after the Beijing Games, clearing the way for a new generation. Horton, who was fourth at the 2007 worlds and the silver medalist on high bar in Beijing, figures to be among the new top guys, along with Japan's Kohei Uchimura, Germany's Fabian Hambuechen and Britain's Daniel Keatings.

“Is it going to be my time? I feel like yeah, it can be," said Horton, who led the U.S. men to a bronze medal in Beijing despite losing Paul Hamm and his twin brother, Morgan, to injuries.

“It's going to come quick. I feel like this is my opportunity to make the biggest impact I can in the sport."

The national championships are Aug. 12-15 in Dallas, and worlds are Oct. 13-18 in London.

Though Horton hasn't been able to train as much as he'd like, he is already working on some new skills. He's also been putting in a lot of time on pommel horse, where a low score - a 13.675 - helped cost him an all-around medal in Beijing.

Horton isn't expecting to be a medal contender on horse. But if he can get his score into the high 14s by 2012, he could have a “ridiculously high” total in the all-around.

“My goal is to see a gigantic transformation in 2010,” he said. “If I didn't think I could be the Olympic all-around champion, why am I still going? I always believe I can."

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EARLY WINNERS: “The Star-Spangled Banner" could be a popular tune come February.

The United States is projected to win 13 gold medals at the Vancouver Olympics in Luciano Barra's latest forecast, two more than Norway. That would be a record for the Americans, whose best showing is the 10 golds they won at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002.

There's good news for Canada, too. The host country has targeted the top of the medals table with its “Own the Podium” program, and Barra predicts the Canadians will finish with 29 medals, one more than the Americans and Germany. Canada's previous best is 24 medals at the Turin Olympics.

Norway is projected to finish fourth with 25 medals, while Austria was forecast to win 18 medals, eight of them gold. China, Russia, South Korea and Switzerland are all projected to win 13 medals.

Barra, a former Italian Olympic Committee official, is a longtime Olympic observer who makes his predictions based on results from recent world championships or equivalent events. But there is still some uncertainty involved; one of the Americans' golds this winter came at the luge world championships, where Erin Hamlin handed the Germans their first loss in 99 races.

Still, U.S. Olympic Committee officials are “cautiously optimistic” about the team's chances in Vancouver.

“I'm not going to give a medal projection. But we're on a last-minute push to make sure we get things right,” said Mike English, the new chief of sport performance.

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SNEAK PEEK: Sasha Cohen is going to find out fast how she stacks up against the rest of the world.

The Olympic silver medalist, trying to make a comeback for the Vancouver Games after not competing the last three seasons, joins Kim Yu-na and Mao Asada, the current and 2008 world champions, in the season's first Grand Prix, the Trophee Eric Bompard.

As expected, Cohen also got an invitation to Skate America. She'll see Kim there again, along with fellow American Rachael Flatt, who was fifth at her first world championships.

Olympic gold medalist Evgeni Plushenko, also making a comeback, is in the field for the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow, Oct. 22-25. Plushenko hasn't competed since his spectacular performance at the Turin Games.

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LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION: Johnny Weir could be coming to a theater near you.

“Pop Star on Ice," a documentary that gives an inside look at what it takes to be an Olympic-caliber figure skater, will be shown in New York on Thursday at the Newfest Film Festival. The film opened last month in Seattle, and is scheduled to be shown later this month in Provincetown, Mass.; Silver Spring, Md.; and San Francisco.

“I want people to have a general impression that my life isn't all diva and fancy and blabbing about Louis Vuitton bags," said Weir, whose colorful quotes and eccentric costumes have made him one of skating's biggest personalities. “I want them to see I actually work, I actually sweat, I actually cry - almost every day - I bleed. I do all the things every athlete does but nobody expects Johnny Weir to do.

“Of course there's a bit of shopping in there," Weir said, laughing. “But it's very much outweighed by the trials and tribulations of being an athlete."

The film includes Weir's decision to split with longtime coach Priscilla Hill, his move to the New York area to train with Galina Zmievskaya and his off-ice time with family and friends.

If the documentary is successful, Weir hopes to follow it with a reality TV series chronicling his attempts to make the U.S. team for the Vancouver Olympics.

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BULL'S-EYE: After breaking a world record that stood for eight years, archer Peter Elzinga of the Netherlands thinks the mark will be topped yet again.

Elzinga scored 1,419 points at a May 17 tournament in Purmerend, Netherlands, bettering by five the mark American Roger Hoyle set in 2001. His record day came despite rainy conditions.

In an International Archery Federation round, archers shoot 36 arrows from distances of 90, 70, 50 and 30 yards, with a maximum of 10 points per arrow. A perfect score would be 1,440 points, and Elzinga, who once set the European record with 1,410 points, said he knows he can still get better.

“A lot more 1,400-plus scores have been shot during the past years and I predict that there will be a lot more," he said. “Sometimes it makes you wonder where the limit will be."

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OLYMPIC RINGS: The Italian and French women's volleyball teams played an exhibition Tuesday in Monaco to benefit victims of the earthquake in L'Aquila. ... Jimmy Pedro, the second U.S. man to win a world judo title, will be head coach of the American team at the world championships, Aug. 26-30 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. ... Australian gymnast Daria Joura will be sidelined for the rest of the season. Joura, expected to be a medal contender at the world championships in October in London, will have surgery next month to repair a torn tendon in her right ankle and will spend two months in a cast. ... Archery's World Cup Final will be held in the United Kingdom for the first time in 2010. Edinburgh, Scotland, will host the Sept. 17-18 event, which features the world's top 32 archers.

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AP National Writer Eddie Pells contributed to this report.

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