The men's gymnasts for the U.S. team have been selected to compete in the Paris Olympics.
Following two days of qualifying at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials, the five team members were announced on Saturday, June 29th: Fred Richard, Brodie Malone, Paul Judah, Asher Hong and Steven Nedorosic.
The two rotational replacements were named Shane Wiskas and Coy Young.
The 20-year-old college student led the men's qualifying rounds, narrowly beating out Malone, the current U.S. champion and member of the men's team for the Tokyo 2021 Games.
Wiskas rode his momentum through the qualifying rounds, receiving multiple enthusiastic reactions from the home crowd in Minneapolis, and went on to compete in Tokyo.
After Richard took first place and 24-year-old Malone took second, the trials saw 25-year-old Wiskus take third, 22-year-old Judah take fourth and 20-year-old Hong take fifth.
“that [being picked for Team USA] “It was the best moment of my life,” Nedorosic told reporters after the game.
He is considered a specialist on the pommel horse, while Young, the alternate, won the vault.
Meanwhile, Richard has all but guaranteed the team a podium finish once they get to Paris.
“I knew that whichever team was selected, it was going to be a formidable team. And actually looking at this medal, I can say for sure that we shouldn't just go for a medal. We should go for the gold medal,” he said. “And we're going to land something. That's how I feel.”
If that happens, it will end a relatively title-less streak for the U.S. men's team since they last reached the podium in artistic gymnastics in 2008. Only three U.S. men have won individual medals since then, and none of them won at the most recent Olympics in Tokyo in 2021.
What's changed? Simply put, USA Gymnastics officials have encouraged their gymnasts to increase the difficulty of their routines through bonus points, to boost their scores over time on a world stage where they have been surpassed by China, Japan and other nations.
“That's been my goal for the last three years since Tokyo, to be honest. [I] I didn't think we could do that. I thought this could be a path to change in LA. [in 2028] “Nothing's been decided yet in terms of really increasing the difficulty or anything like that,” USA Gymnastics senior official Brett McClure told reporters.
“And they got it done in time for Paris,” he said, “and now we're getting ready to go to Paris with a great team.”
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The men's gymnastics team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, comprised of Malone, Sam Mikulak, Yul Moldauer, Wiskas and Alec Yoder, placed fifth in the individual all-around for the United States.
After competing in the last Olympic qualifying tournament, Malone said at the time how grateful Mikulak was to the U.S. team.
“Sam was so grateful to us,” Malone said at the time. “He said he'd never been on a team like this before, but he was having the time of his life, and it was amazing to have a team like this.”
The U.S. team won consecutive men's team medals in 2004 and 2008, but has not finished lower than fifth place in recent years, but this year's team is hoping to change that.
“We're going to bring home a medal as a team,” Hong said after Saturday's qualifying rounds. “That's always been my goal.”
To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, visit TeamUSA.com and check out the latest coverage on people.com. You can watch the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, starting July 26, on NBC and Peacock.
