PARIS (WCMH) — For the first time in 16 years, USA men’s gymnastics has earned a medal in the team competition as they took bronze in Paris on Monday.
The Americans were able to take the third-place medal after strong showings on multiple apparatuses. It’s the first time they have medaled in the event since taking bronze at the Beijing Games in 2008. Japan took home the gold, extending a streak of five straight Olympics medaling in the event. China earned silver as they fell short of the gold by half-a-point.
Asher Hong led Team USA in the first rotation scoring a 14.533 on the rings to give the team a good starting jolt. They sat 0.6 points behind first place Great Britain after the first rotation. Next on the vault, the Americans nailed it with strong scores from Juda, Malone, and once again Hong leading the team. After two rotations, Team USA sat in first place.
Next on the parallel bars, each gymnast scored over 14.4 points on their routine to keep themselves in the top-three for a medal. Richard and Malone than scored big on the high bar to keep the USA in position to earn that historic medal.
The penultimate apparatus for Team USA was the floor exercise where Richard earned the highest score with a 14.466. A strong parallel bars performance for Japan put them in second above the USA by less than one point. USA closed out on the pommel horse where specialist Stephen Nedoroscik’s massive score of 14.866
It will be the women’s turn on Tuesday to claim another gymnastics team gold medal when they compete live on NBC4 beginning at 12:15 p.m. Simone Biles and company are the favorites to claim a third gold medal in the last four Olympics.