BEIJING — Shawn Johnson's smile was a thousand times wider than the balance beam she had just conquered Tuesday night. Finally, it was a golden grin.

The world champion made a habit of collecting silver at the Beijing Games, not a bad custom, but not exactly everything she came to China for. She ended her runner-up streak with a beam routine that blew away the field, including all-around champ Nastia Liukin, behind whom Johnson got one of her three silvers.

"It's crazy," the 16-year-old Johnson said. "I remember seeing Nastia have hers from the all-around and it is so pretty. Silver is really pretty, too.

"It's the best feeling ever."

Johnson won the gold despite a headache earlier in the day.

"This is what we expected to see," her coach Liang Chow said. "The thing I really am pleased with is she was a little under the weather and she still was able to do a wonderful routine."

Wonderful also describes the Chinese men throughout these Olympics. They swept the two events today, with Zou Kai winning high bar and Li Xaiopeng winning parallel bars. In all, China took all but one men's event, the vault — in which there was no Chinese finalist.

China's men won the team title, Yang Wei took the all-around, and the Chinese also took the still rings, pommel horse and floor exercise.

The United States got its only men's individual medal when Jonathan Horton soared through an energetic high bar routine that drew almost as loud a roar as Zou's performance. Horton also won bronze with the U.S. men in team finals.

The U.S women won eight medals to six for China. Liukin got a gold, three silver and a bronze to tie the record for an American in one games.

"I'm really happy for her," Liukin said of Johnson, her roommate in Beijing. "Three silvers is kind of hard to take. I couldn't be more proud of her."

On Monday, Liukin and China's He Kexin got the same score in the uneven bars, requiring a tiebreaker because dual medals are no longer awarded in gymnastics. The details are pretty crazy; all that matters is He won and Liukin didn't. He, by the way, is among the girls who many believe is too young to be eligible for these games.

National team coordinator Martha Karolyi was ecstatic today. After a disappointing start, when the Americans bumbled their way out of a team gold that went to China, they came back with a surge of strong showings.

"This was the right ending to conclude the Olympic Games," Karolyi said. "We proved the supremacy of U.S. women's gymnastics.

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

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 coach Mark Williams was so excited after Horton's high-flying routine that he engulfed his gymnast in a huge hug on the podium.

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.

It was a long wait for Allyson Felix. It felt every bit as long for Muna Lee.Felix, Lee and American teammate Marshevet Hooker easily made it through the first round of 200-meter Olympic qualifying this morning by winning their heats.All three Jamaican sprinters — Veronica Campbell-Brown, Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart — qualified as well, keeping alive the prospect of another America-Jamaica sprint showdown.The U.S. women hope the 200 will go much better than the 100 did Sunday, when Lee and two other Americans watched Jamaica go 1-2-3. The 200 quarterfinals were set for Tuesday night.Felix, who didn't qualify for the 100, spent most of the week watching the action — Usain Bolt's world record, the Jamaican women's dominance — from the athletes' village.She didn't want to come to the Bird's Nest until it was her time to run. She preferred to stay focused on her race and stay off her feet."Just didn't want to take any chances," she said.The cautious approach paid off, at least in the first round. The 2004 Olympic silver medalist and reigning world champion cruised into the finish in 23.02 seconds, watching herself coast toward the line on the stadium's big video screen."Wanted to see where I was at and not slow down too much," Felix explained.Lee has already been at the Bird's Nest, part of a disappointing 4-5-8 American finish in the 100. She spent a long 36 hours stewing before she came back out, then won in 22.71 seconds, the morning's fastest time."I was pretty mad but had to get over it," Lee said. "It was unfortunate, but hey, you never know what happens nowadays."Hooker also finished first (23.07 seconds) in this, her first big meet since the U.S. Olympic trials, where she went sprawling across the finish line to secure the final Olympic spot. She walked away with scrapes on her elbow, hip, hand and leg — and a trip to Beijing."I still have the scars, but I'm happy, I'm thankful," she said Tuesday. "It was a good dive — 'safe."'Simpson and Stewart tied for the silver in Jamaica's historic sweep of the 100 on Sunday. Campbell-Brown, the 2007 world champion in the 100, wasn't in that race — she didn't finish in the top three in Jamaica's trials. The spot that might have gone to her instead went to Shelly-Ann Fraser, and all Fraser did was win gold.It foreshadowed how strong the Jamaican sprinters are — a point that could be reinforced in Thursday's 200 final.The only major surprise on a morning full of qualifying came in the long jump. Naive Gomes of Portugal, the world indoor champion and dominating long jumper of the season, fouled on her first two attempts, then stutter-stepped on her final try and failed to jump far enough to advance to the final.Joining her on the sidelines was five-time world indoor champion Tatyana Kotova, who finished 14th with only the top dozen advancing."It's a shame. A final should be with the best ones," said Carolina Kluft of Sweden, who did advance.U.S. jumper Brittney Reese had the top mark of 6.87 meters (22 feet, 6Z\x inches) ahead of Maurren Higa Maggi of Brazil at 6.79 (22-3Z\x).Scheduled later Tuesday was the women's 400-meter medal race, where American Sanya Richards was among the favorites.On Monday, the U.S. flag finally rose at the Bird's Nest, and it came from an unexpected source when Stephanie Brown Trafton won the women's discus. It went up again later when Angelo Taylor won the 400-meter hurdles, with Americans Kerron Clement and Bershawn Jackson taking silver and bronze.After capturing only one of six possible medals in the men's and women's 100, watching the 1,500-meter team of Bernard Lagat, Lopez Lomong and Leo Manzano all fail to advance past the semifinals, and seeing Terrence Trammell get hurt in the opening heat of the 110 hurdles, Brown Trafton's victory was a much-needed lift. The 400 sweep was awfully nice, too, something no country had done since the U.S. in 1960.

Henry Cejudo, the 21-year-old wrestling prodigy who had wrestled in only one world-level senior tournament before Beijing, won the Olympic gold medal in men's freestyle 55-kilogram wrestling event today.Cejudo, crying the moment the match ended and wrapping himself in an American flag, defeated Tomohiro Matsunaga of Japan 2-2 on tiebreaker and 3-0 in the best-of-three match. Cejudo was 31st in last year's world championships, his only previous tournament at this level.Cejudo, the son of undocumented Mexican aliens who bypassed a college career to try to become an Olympian, assures the United States of winning a freestyle wrestling gold for the ninth consecutive Olympics at which it has competed.