The U.S. men's team hadn't won an Olympic medal as a team in gymnastics since the end of the George W. Bush administration, so USA Gymnastics hired an expert to try to improve it.
Their gamble paid off.
The U.S. men won the bronze medal in the team final on Monday, marking their first Olympic team medal since 2008.
Steven Nedorosik was selected for the Olympic team solely on the strength of his pommel horse routine.
Forced to sit on the sidelines for nearly three hours during the first five rotations before anchoring for the U.S. in his favorite event, Nedorosic stayed warm and focused, appearing to meditate as he watched the NBC broadcast before his performance.
When the time came, he succeeded, securing a podium finish for Team USA.
What makes the 25-year-old Nedorosic's Olympic debut unique and somewhat controversial is that she is only competing in one of the six events — typically, top-level gymnasts are expected to represent their country in some, if not all, of the events.
The math worked out for Nedorosik, a Penn State graduate, giving Team USA the best chance to win a team medal and individual Olympic glory.
Fred Richard won the bronze medal in the individual all-around at last year's world championships, and Brady Malone won a world title on the horizontal bar in 2022, but they are the only American men to reach an individual event final in Paris.
Richard and Paul Judah advanced to the individual all-around final, while Nedorosic advanced to the pommel horse final in second place with an impressive score of 15.200.
In the men's team final, three athletes from each team competed in six events: floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and high bar.
There is no limit or minimum number of events a gymnast can compete in, but each team must perform three routines in all six events. All scores count.
“After all, [Nedoroscik’s] “The pommel horse scores are so much higher than any other athlete in that event that he has the potential to add up to a huge number of points,” said Tim Daggett, a 1984 gold medalist and gymnastics commentator for NBC Sports.
Nedorosic's strengths happen to be the weaknesses of the other gymnasts on the U.S. team, making her more valuable to the team's score than an all-around gymnast who has the same strengths as the other gymnasts.
“One performance by Nedorosic basically puts the U.S. team one point ahead of the runner-up for the U.S. team,” Daggett said.
In the three years between the Tokyo Olympics and the Paris Olympics, the U.S. men's team has been trying to improve its starting value, or difficulty score, in order to close the gap on Japan, China and Great Britain, which regularly win medals in the team event.
Japan won the gold medal, China won the silver medal, and Great Britain came in fourth place.
The relative lack of difficulty on the men's side made Nedorosic's gamble all the more necessary.
“We're in a totally different position now than we were before,” High Performance Director Brett McClure said of the Paris team at the Olympic Trials. “We'll be in control of our own destiny. We can get back on the podium. That's the expectation, that's our goal.”
Heading into the Paris Games, McClure estimated that the U.S. men's scoring, including Nedorosic's pommel horse performance, was third in the world behind China and Japan. In the qualifying rounds, the U.S. struggled to score consistently and finished in fifth place.
The tricks performed by the current team have increased in difficulty by more than a point since last year's world championships, where the U.S. team also won a historic bronze medal.
The men's Olympic medal drought stands in contrast to the U.S. women, who have won a team medal in every Olympic Games since 1992. The women won gold medals in 1996, 2012 and 2016.
The women's team is made up of some of the most difficult skaters in the world from top to bottom and can afford to take multiple falls. The U.S. men don't have the same advantage, but if they perform well they can still compete with the best in the world at the end of the day.
They were nearly flawless on Monday while other top teams were eliminated.
Three years ago in Tokyo, Russia won gold in the men's team event, while hosts Japan won silver and China won bronze. Great Britain and the United States both finished fourth and fifth, respectively, and Russian gymnasts will not compete in Paris because of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The men's individual all-around final will be held on Wednesday at the Bercy Arena in Paris.
