(NEW YORK) — The U.S. men’s gymnastics team took a thrilling bronze in the team event in Paris on Monday, earning the first team medal for the American men since the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
With razor sharp performances in all six rotations — rings, vault, parallel bars, horizontal bar, floor exercise and pommel horse — Brody Malone, Paul Juda, Asher Hong, Frederick Richard and Stephen Nedoroscik earned a spot on the podium at Bercy Arena behind gold medal winner Japan and silver medalist China.
Richard, Malone and Hong started the team off strong with 42.732 points for their rings performance.
Juda and Malone impressed in the second rotation with nearly perfect back-to-back vault routines, earning 14.666 and 14.533 respectively, which was rounded out by Hong’s 14.833 for a combined total of 44.032.
Malone, Richard and Hong posted 43.399 points total on parallel bars, the team’s third rotation.
Malone scored 14.166 in his signature event, the high bar, including a beautiful dismount with two twists, two flips laid out and stuck landing.
Team USA fell just short of Japan in the floor exercise. Juda, Hong and Richard’s performances earned 42.799 combined points.
In the final rotation, Team USA seemingly saved the best for last with the 25-year-old pommel horse “specialist” Nedoroscik, who scored 14.866 with a stuck landing in his only rotation for the team event during the 2024 Paris Games.
His impressive finish combined with Brody and Juda’s routines in that rotation earned 42.466 total, which put Team USA in the bronze medal spot.
Meet the men behind USA’s first team men’s gymnastics medal in 16 years
Brody Malone
The 24-year-old Stanford University graduate made his Olympics debut at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games. His next appearance will be Wednesday for the men’s all-around final.
Frederick Richard
The 20-year-old first-time Olympian received advice to improve his run for vault from Team USA track and field star Noah Lyles, who posted about their shared conversation on Instagram. Richard was the 2023 world championships all-around bronze medallist.
Paul Juda
The 23-year-old son of two Polish immigrants is making his Olympic debut in Paris alongside University of Michigan teammate Richard, after previously failing to qualify for Tokyo 2020. Juda helped Team USA earn a bronze medal at the 2023 world championships in Antwerp, Belgium.
Asher Hong
The 20-year-old from Texas is exactly one month younger than Richard and making his Olympics debut in Paris with a bronze medal from the 2023 world championships under his belt.
Stephen Nedoroscik
The bespectacled 25-year-old from Massachusetts only competes in one discipline — the pommel horse. In 2021, the former Penn State Nittany Lion became the first gymnast from the USA to win a gold medal on pommel horse at the world championships.
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