For the first time in 16 years, Team USA has medaled in team men’s gymnastics, earning a bronze at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris on Monday.
The stars aligned for the five-man team of Asher Hong, Paul Jada, 2024 national champion Brody Malone, Stephen Nedoroscik, and Frederik Richard, who finished fifth during qualifying on Saturday night.
The Americans have been no stranger to fifth place, either. That is the exact place they finished in each of the three previous Summer Games in which they did not medal.
This time around, though, Malone paved the way with a brilliant performance to wipe away what had been a disappointing showing during qualifying in which he fell on the pommel horse, during the floor routine, and on the high bar.
Competing in five of the six events, the 24-year-old’s redeeming moment came on the high bar in which he scored almost two points higher than he did during qualifying with a 14.166.
It was Nedoroscik, however, who clinched the medal for the United States with a brilliant pommel horse routine that earned a score of 14.866. Only Max Whitlock of Great Britain (15.266) earned a higher score on the apparatus out of the 24 gymnasts participating in that event.
STEPHEN. NEDOROSCIK.
The routine that clinched @USAGym‘s first Olympic medal in the men’s team final since 2008 🥉
📺: @NBCOlympics & @peacock#ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/NiDVBvxx12
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) July 29, 2024
On the vault, only three gymnasts including Daiki Hashimoto from Japan (14.900) had a higher score than Hong, who scored 14.833
Great Britain took fourth place, finishing just over four points behind Team USA. Japan took gold while China came away with silver just 1.801 points ahead of the Americans in third. The race for bronze was blown wide open due to the Russian ban at the Olympics.
