From the expression on his face, the 27-year-old looks like a child.

Kai Wen Tan, who goes by Kevin, just can't stop smiling. Even though he's recovering from a shoulder injury, the Olympian gleams as each question is thrown his way.

While recalling his experience in Beijing, he loses track of time. It seems like it was yesterday. Wearing a 2004 Athens Olympic T-shirt, you would think he was living in the past. But it is just the opposite. Tan cherishes the past, and yet, he looks toward the future.

There is a lot behind that smile. It doesn't just exist because he made it to the Games, but it endures because of the tiresome, yet fulfilling, hours put into the gym with his coach and mentor Randy Jepson. Behind the expression are all the doubters who said his team could not medal. Behind it is the glory of winning the medal itself.

It is now about five months after Tan, whose father is from China, became captain of the men's gymnastics team at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Tan, a former Penn State gymnast and present assistant coach of the Nittany Lions, led Team USA to a bronze medal as its captain.

He pedals on an exercise bike. And just like the continuous, steady drumming of the spinning wheel underneath him, Tan's life has finally become constant. It has returned to normal, or at least normal compared to his Olympic experience.

"It's been a real roller coaster ride from the beginning when they chose the national team back at the Olympic trials. Even then it was like, 'Did they really just call my name? Am I really going to the Olympics,' " Tan pauses and laughs. "And to this moment, I still feel that way. Even to this day, I'm catching myself thinking, 'Wow that really just happened.' "

Tan's work ethic is what got him there. To him, making the Olympics does not entail training for several months but consists of a four-year commitment and, in many ways, even a lifelong one. It is that type of ethic that has him on the exercise bike even after Penn State's practice has ended.

Among Tan's entire six person entourage he took with him to Beijing, which included Jepson, Jepson's wife, Tan's father, girlfriend, brother and sister-in-law, Jepson may have been the most important to the Olympian's gymnastics career. Jepson, who held coaching duties at Beijing, remembers all the long hours training in the gym. He recalls the rough days and the work still needed to be done. He knows how hard it is for a gymnast to train without the support of NCAA teammates around.

"He just never stopped," Jepson said. "There were a lot of setbacks. He had some injuries, concussions, some different stuff that went down. His shoulder bothered him for four years, and he didn't let any of those things stand in the way of accomplishing what needed to be accomplished."

It is that mindset that pushes Tan forward. It is the belief that there is always room for improvement. Tan still remembers his routines in the still rings and pommel horse at the team final, and he also recalls being .025 of a point away from qualifying for a chance at an individual gold on rings.

His pommel horse routine scored a 12.775. While trying to shift from one end of the horse to the middle section, his chest hit the object and caused collective "Ohhs" to hum throughout the National Indoor Stadium from those in attendance.

"Definitely at that point, there is a lot of pressure on the line," Tan said. "And truthfully I was nervous, but at the same time, I just let everything go at that point the way you're supposed to go into a situation like that. I fought as hard as I could, gave my heart and soul in it and that's the performance that happened that day."

And although his rings routine maintained 15.425 points in the team final, he felt it could have reached into the 16s as it did at the Olympic trials where he scored a 16.550.

"I was a little disappointed," Tan says about his qualifying rings routine as his face changes from amusement to zero expression. "I got to do better and start thinking that I can improve and need to improve in order to break through to be one of the finalists at the Olympic Games. I'm planning on rising up to that challenge."

But it doesn't take long before Tan's reflective gaze comes forth again, and the smile gradually extends from cheekbone to cheekbone.

He recalls the scene like it's yesterday. After the pommel horse event when the USA gymnasts were jumping for joy because they knew the bronze was theirs, Tan was in utter disbelief.

"My thinking was, 'Oh my gosh, did we really do that,' " Tan said. " 'What if we didn't do it? Wait, let's wait until we're actually on the podium before we say anything or do anything.' "

What followed next was the most gratifying moment of the whole Olympic experience. As the recorded music sang lightly in the background, the United States' gymnasts were announced to receive their bronze medals. All six wave to the cheering crowd, step onto the podium in unison, and one-by-one a medal is placed around each competitor.

After Tan receives his medal, he looks at it and smiles in disbelief, touches it and raises his head to the ceiling above. Kai Wen, which means victorious and studious, had fulfilled the first half of his name.

"Walking up there to that podium and seeing that medal, watching every guy on that team and seeing their faces as that medal was being put around their necks was the most rewarding and exciting part of it all," Tan said. "We did it. We did it as a team and a lot of people said we couldn't do it and look at us, we're standing on the podium right now."

The critics' doubts came to the forefront when both Paul and Morgan Hamm withdrew from competing because of injuries. But, USA meshed together with an underdog mentality and solidified its spot on the podium with its Chinese gold medalist counterparts.

Tan acknowledged Morgan's alternate, Sasha Artemev and Paul's alternate, Raj Bhavsar, encompassed the team USA mentality by stepping up into their respective roles and taking advantage of the opportunity given to them.

"We knew the kind of team we had and where we stacked up," Tan said. "We had to have a good day there's no question about it. But we were selling on nothing less than a medal going into the championship, going into the final meet."

But although a whole underbelly of doubting had become the perception of press and fans alike, Josh Borromeo, the team captain of the present Lion squad, recalls the pride in watching his assistant coach at the Games. The senior said he did not watch the Olympics with any teammates, but the team was able to get in contact with each other in another way.

"After the competition and during the competition, we were calling each other and trying to analyze what happened in a set," Borromeo said. "What this person did. What that person did. Is this score right? Why isn't this start value like that?"

And if Borromeo thought watching his coach at the Olympics was exciting, he was in for a treat when Tan returned. Senior Casey Sandy, who was ineligible to compete for team Canada because he missed a mandatory meet, said Tan displayed the medal when he arrived back home.

But among all the excitement surrounding the bronze, Tan also sees the consequences of such a draining experience. The Olympian has been dealing with shoulder problems for six years. He has had the right shoulder operated on after Beijing and looks to be back by August for the USA championships.

Now, back at the gym, Tan is trying to take it day-by-day and recuperate. Much time has passed since his experience in China. And after looking back, he now shifts forward. The experience doesn't make him appear any older from the television screen during the summer. He is wiser but the smile makes him seem younger.

The bike still drums the same continuous tune. It is back to the grind of getting his body into shape. And although his body will have to change from worn and injured to healthy and Olympic-caliber, there is one thing that will not change: the joy of recalling his Olympic days.

"The way I look at it is -- it's a four year commitment in making another Olympic Games," Tan says. "The best thing to do right now is put myself into a position where I'm healthy going into the next few years."