PARIS — The U.S. men's gymnastics team will compete in the 2024 Olympic team final today. Frederick Richard, Paul Judah, Brodie Malone, Asher Hong and Steven Nedorosic are looking to win the U.S. men's first Olympic medal since 2008, when they won bronze. (More Olympic results and highlights from Monday's competition can be found here.)
Tune in to USA TODAY Sports for live results, scores, highlights and more from the team finals.
US Men's Gymnastics Entering the final rotation in a medal-winning position
The U.S. is in third place with just one rotation left to go — and unfortunately, that final rotation is on the notoriously difficult pommel horse.
The U.S. performed well on floor exercise, where it now holds a 1.8-point lead over fourth-place Ukraine. Asher Hong, Paul Judah and Frederick Richard all earned around 14.100 points on floor exercise, with Richard's performance being the highlight.
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For now, we just have to hang in there. The U.S. will field Judah, Brody Malone and Steven Nedorosic on the pommel horse. Nedorosic is a single-event specialist and his only performance of the night will be Team USA's final performance with a medal at stake.
US men's gymnasticsOnstar High Bar Set
Much has changed in the space of a few days. The U.S. men are in third place with two tournaments remaining thanks to a strong performance on the horizontal bar.
Frederick Richard and Brody Malone improved their scores by nearly three points from qualifying, including a hit from Malone. The 2022 World Bar Champion had struggled all summer on his favorite event, but he stepped up when it mattered most. And Richard was just amazing, eliciting chants of “USA! USA!” on his successive releases. China still has a commanding lead, and Ukraine has overtaken the U.S., but the U.S. is holding its own.
High Bar: Paul Judah (13.366), Frederick Richard (14.833), Brodie Malone (14.166)
Brody Malone on the horizontal bar
Brody Malone delivered a stunning bar routine, earning a score of 14.166.
Frederick Richard stands on the horizontal bar
Frederick Richard's monster-height bars routine, landed perfectly and earned him a score of 14.833, about seven-tenths of a second better than his qualifying performance.
U.S. Men's Gymnastics Finishes Second in Olympic Team Final
The U.S. men's team still has a chance to win a medal halfway through the team final.
After three events, the U.S. finished with a score of 130.163, 1.201 points behind China. On the parallel bars, Asher Hong improved his score by more than half a point from his preliminaries, giving the U.S. a big step forward. Frederick Richard also added about 1.2 points, making up for a slightly lower score by Brodie Malone.
Not only are the Americans doing their job, but they're also getting help from others. Japan likely dropped out of gold when Hiroki Hashimoto fell off the pommel horse during the second rotation. Japan is more than three points behind China and nearly two points behind the United States. Great Britain needs 13.033 points on the vault, 1.7 points behind the United States. But now the Americans must tackle the high-stakes, high-reward event on the horizontal bar.
parallel bars: Brodie Malone (14.433), Frederick Richard (14.566), Asher Hong (14.400)
Asher Hong is excited after a great performance on the vault
One of the keys for Team USA, and all the teams in this final, is for stars in each event to put up high scores, and Asher Hong did just that on vault, one of his best events.
Hong jumped just a little on the vault in the Ri Se-kwang event, a full-twisting double back somersault, but he still earned a high score of 14.833 and pumped his fist in celebration as he came off the podium. That vault, Paul Judah's solid landings and Brodie Malone's dramatic improvement on the apparatus gave the U.S. another strong performance and, at least temporarily, propelled it to the top of the overall team standings.
If you simply compare the U.S. team's performance with its performance in the qualifying round, things look good: The U.S. team improved by 0.4 points on the rings and about 0.9 points on the vault.
safe: Paul Judah (14.666), Brody Malone (14.533), Asher Hong (14.833)
Japan's hopes take a hit
The gold medal will likely go to either China or Japan, but Hiroki Hashimoto's mistake on the pommel horse could have a big impact.
The reigning Olympic and world champion collapsed on his horse mid-performance, falling flat on his back. The crowd gasped, and after his performance, Hashimoto put his head in his hands, realizing how costly the mistake had been. His score of 13.1 was nearly 1.4 points lower than his qualifying score. Unlike in qualifying, where teams could drop their lowest score, tonight every score counted.
The only positive was that the mistake happened early in the match, giving Japan time to recover, but the reigning world champions still trail China by half a point.
US Men's Gymnastics on Stationary Rings
With plenty of gymnastics still to come, the U.S. got off to a good start on the stationary rings. Frederick Richard took the lead with a score of 14.033, a half-point improvement over his qualifying rings score, while Brodie Malone and Asher Hong finished with scores nearly identical to their scores on Saturday. The result was a net gain of a quarter-point for the U.S. team, who finished more than three points behind third-place Great Britain in the qualifying round.
Stillling scores: Frederick Richard (14.033), Brodie Malone (14.166), Asher Hong (14.533).
USA rotates in Olympic gymnastics team final
In Monday's eight-team final, the U.S. will alternate events with Italy, starting with the rings and finishing with the pommel horse, often compared to the women's balance beam and considered the most difficult event in men's gymnastics.
Reigning U.S. champion Brody Malone, who struggled in the preliminary rounds, will have the busiest night of the finals, competing on every event except floor. Asher Hong, Paul Judah and Frederick Richard will each perform four routines, and Steven Nedorosic will close out the night on his only event, the pommel horse.
The full U.S. team members and competing order for Monday's finals are:
- Still ringing: Frederick Richard (14.033), Brodie Malone (14.166), Asher Hong (14.533).
- safe: Paul Judah, Brody Malone, Asher Hong
- parallel bars: Brody Malone, Frederick Richard, Asher Hong
- High Bar: Paul Judah, Frederick Richard, Brody Malone
- Floor Exercises: Paul Judah, Asher Hong, Frederick Richard
- Pommel Horse: Paul Judah, Brody Malone, Stephen Nedorosik
How to watch Olympic gymnastics
NBC will broadcast the men's team final, with Peacock live streaming it.
What time does the men's gymnastics take place today?
The men's team final began at 11:30 a.m. ET and is currently underway, with the U.S. men's gymnastics team looking to win their first medal since 2008. Simone Biles and the U.S. women's gymnastics team will compete in the team final on Tuesday at 12:15 p.m. ET.
When will Simone Biles next compete?
Simone Biles will next compete in the women's gymnastics team final in Paris on Tuesday (12:15 p.m. ET). Here's her full Olympic schedule:
- The women's team final will begin at 12:15 pm ET on Tuesday, July 30. Biles is scheduled to compete in all four events in the team final despite suffering a calf injury during heats on Sunday.
- The women's individual all-around final will take place on Thursday, August 1 at 12:15 pm ET.
- The women's vault final will take place on Saturday, August 3 at 10:20 a.m. ET.
- The women's balance beam final (6:36 a.m. ET) and floor exercise final (8:20 a.m.) will take place on Monday, Aug. 5.
Steven Nedorosik enters the pommel horse pressure cooker
There was a bit of controversy surrounding Steven Nedorosik's selection to the U.S. team, as he only competes in one event, the pommel horse, but when it comes to striking on that apparatus he is one of the best in the world.
That means the Penn State native will be under immense pressure to perfect his usual routine in Monday's team final.
The timing, or rather the order of the events, only adds to that pressure. The U.S. will compete last on the pommel horse, with Nedrosik competing as the third and final athlete on the team, while Great Britain and Ukraine, considered the U.S.' biggest rivals for bronze, will compete on floor exercise, with Great Britain recording the highest floor score in the heats.
The problem is, when Nedrosic stands on the pommel horse, a medal could very well be on the line.
Olympic Gamesymnastics schedule
The complete gymnastics schedule for the Paris Olympics is here.
- The men's team final will begin at 11:30 a.m. ET today.
- The women's team final will begin at 12:15pm ET on Tuesday, July 30th.
- The women's individual all-around final will take place on Thursday, August 1 at 12:15 pm ET.
- The women's vault final will take place on Saturday, August 3 at 10:20 a.m. ET.
- The women's uneven bars final will take place on Sunday, August 4 at 9:40 a.m. ET.
- The women's balance beam final (6:36 a.m. ET) and floor exercise final (8:20 a.m.) will take place on Monday, Aug. 5.
Meet all five members of the U.S. men's gymnastics team
Frederick Richard, Paul Judah, Brody Malone, Asher Hong and Steven Nedorosic are looking to end a 16-year U.S. medal drought in the men's team final. Here's what you need to know about them.
Olympic Gymnastics Scoring: How It Works?
Gymnastics routines are scored two ways: difficulty (also known as the D-score or opening value), and execution. Every gymnastic routine has a numerical value, and the D-score is the sum of the skills in the routine. The execution score (E-score) reflects how well the skills were performed. A gymnast starts at 10.0, and from there points are deducted for flaws or incorrect form. The D-score and E-score are added together to get the total for that apparatus (vault is always scored higher because it is a single skill).
Why the U.S. men's gymnastics team has been the most successful in winning Olympic medals since 2008
Winning a medal in an Olympic team competition is difficult. But the difficulty of the competition is not the reason why the U.S. men's gymnastics team has not been able to win a medal. Since the Tokyo Olympics, where the U.S. finished fifth in three consecutive games, the team has prioritized increasing the difficulty of their routines in an attempt to break a 16-year record without a medal. Even if they show off the most beautiful gymnastics in the world, it is meaningless if the moves are not as difficult as those of the top team.
“I hate to say that about Tokyo, but hey, that's what happened,” Brodie Malone said of the bronze medal-winning U.S. men's seven-point lead over China.
Gymnastics' scoring system gives points for the difficulty of a routine and points for the quality of the routine. The U.S. is still well behind Japan and China, regular contenders in men's gymnastics, but the absence of Russia, which won the team title both in Tokyo and at the previous world championships, should give it a chance at bronze.
