U.S. Men's Gymnastics Earns First Team Medal Since 2008

PARIS — For the first time since 2008, the American flag was raised during the medal ceremony for the men’s gymnastics team competition. Paul Juda, Frederick Richard, Asher Hong, Stephen Nedoroscik and Brody Malone secured bronze Monday night, breaking a 16-year medal drought for Team USA. They posted a score of 257.793 to finish behind Japan, gold medal winners for the eighth time (259.594), and China (259.062). The last time the Americans took home a medal in the event was in Beijing, where they also earned the bronze.

The night appeared promising before competition even began. The team was greeted by a flag-waving crowd that made Bercy Arena feel as if the Americans were competing on home soil.

“The crowd chanting ‘U-S-A’ was invigorating,” said Juda, who provided a solid leadoff in multiple events. “The first ‘U-S-A’ I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is awesome.’ I thought maybe it would fade, but it kept growing and growing and growing. As we went deeper into the competition, the crowd got exponentially louder. When you hear that…you get goosebumps.”

Despite being a young team, with Malone being the only one with previous Olympic experience, the group displayed an impressive balance of confidence and composure. They stayed present from start to finish, refraining from watching the performances of competitors and not viewing the scores of their own routines.

“We made a very strong point before going into competition that we were going to make sure to stay in our bubble,” said Malone. “Just worry about what we can control, which is our gymnastics. We weren’t worried about scores. We made sure to huddle after every event, especially when we had really good events. It's easy to let it get away from you and kind of take yourself out of the moment. But we brought it back together and made sure we were ready for the next event.”

The Americans started their competition on rings, and posted a higher score than they did in qualifying thanks to an improvement in Richard’s score from Saturday by over half a point. The solid performances by Hong, Malone, and Richard on the event placed the U.S. in fifth place after the first rotation. However, the Americans would not remain in the middle of the leaderboard for long after taking to vault.

Juda and Malone delivered back-to-back stuck efforts to set the stage for a massive performance by Hong, resulting in a lead by the Americans after the second rotation.

“I kind of blacked out before my vault,” said Juda. “I think I started on the wrong foot. I was running and I looked at the camera. And I was like ‘Why am I watching the camera run with me?’ I hit the table and next thing I know, I stuck a vault at the Olympics.”

Sitting at the top of the leaderboard, the U.S. made its way to parallel bars guided by continuous chants and American flags waiving from the stands. The momentum continued as Malone, Richard, and Hong put up consistent scores across the board for the U.S. to sit in second place behind China halfway through the competition.

High bar served as the true test for the team after suffering multiple falls during qualifications. After a clean start from Juda, Richard performed one of his best routines of these Games. Increasing his difficultly from Saturday, Richard capped off the strong routine with a stuck dismount and electric celebrations from his USA teammates. Malone, who had two falls in qualifications, concluded the event with a redemption routine that ended in another stuck dismount.

Following a surge from China and Japan, the Americans ranked third with two events to go. Their goal of a podium finish within reach, they could be seen huddling together after getting through that high bar rotation successfully.

“We wanted to make sure that we didn’t pop out of the moment,” said Juda. “We were clearly in some kind of flow and the last thing that we wanted to do was get ahead of ourselves. There were still two critical events left and without successful events, there was no chance of it happening. So that was a pivotal turning point.”

Juda, Hong and Richard gave the team exactly what it needed during the floor rotation, with the highlight being the crowd’s response to the stuck landings executed by Richard in the second half of his routine. Team USA remained in third overall after floor, leaving three routines on pommel horse between them and an Olympic medal.

Juda and Malone both recorded higher scores than qualifications in the first and second spots, leaving Nedoroscik, the pommel horse specialist, to wrap things up for the U.S. In an effort to prepare and remain oblivious to scores, both from other countries and his own team’s, Nedoroscik had spent the the high bar and floor rotations off the competition floor in the warm-up gym. As Nedoroscik stepped up to compete, he said he was oblivious to the fact that his routine would decide if his country earned a team medal. He was only aware of the energy exuding from the teammates that went before him.

“I could hear all of them cheering… it sounded like things were going really well,” said Nedoroscik. “At that moment, I knew that every guy had hit every single routine. I have this thing where if everyone hits before me, I never miss.”

That tradition continued for Nedoroscik. Before his feet even hit the mat on the way down from his dismount the arena was filled with roaring applause and collective cheers. No time was wasted by his fellow teammates as he was greeted with a collection of bear hugs down on the floor. Once scores were finalized and the number “3” was displayed on the screen next to USA, it took only moments for American flags to be draped across the backs of each member of the team. A collection of ‘U-S-A’ chants began again, this time a little louder.

“It’s surreal,” said Richard. “We’re going to be written in history, all of us.”