Team USA ended a 16-year drought in men’s gymnastics on Monday in Paris by taking bronze in a spectacular team final.
It is the first team medal for the US men’s team since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
On the way to the final rotation Of the six in the men’s team final, China led Japan and the US, with Britain in fifth. But Su Weide made three big cuts on China’s final routine to bump them from first to second, with Japan claiming gold and the US taking bronze.
“Today I learned a big lesson,” Su said. “It’s a big regret. I feel sorry for my senior partners in the team. They worked very hard in this cycle, there were a lot of injuries leading up to the race and because of my mistakes today we lost the gold medal.”
It was Japan’s eighth team gold and first since Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
It was a day of redemption for de facto team captain Brody Malone, who is just 16 months removed from a career-ending knee injury. Malone, a three-time U.S. champion, struggled in qualifying, falling on multiple events and failing to make the all-around final.
Malone is by far the most experienced athlete on the five-man U.S. team, which also includes Paul Juda, Asher Hong, Frederick Richard, Brody Malone and Stephen Nedoroscik. Nedoroscik, a specialist in vaulting horses, joined his teammates for the final rotation.
“I had my coach by my side and he does a great job of taking the nerves out of my team. [me] and he gets me excited,” Nedoroscik said. “But these guys hit every routine for me and I have a statistic – when people hit for me, I hit. So I went out there and did my job and enjoyed the moment.”
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After qualifying in fifth place, the US finished with a final score of 257.793, behind China with 259.062 and Japan with 259.594.