PARIS — Forty-eight hours after helping lead Team USA to a historic bronze medal in the team competition, Paul Juda and Frederick Richard placed 14th and 15th, respectively, in the individual all-around final Wednesday night — their last event at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Richard, 20, got off to a shaky start with a fall on pommel horse in his first rotation and was unable to match some of the monster scores he put up in the team final, where the U.S. won its first Olympic medal since 2008. Juda was solid across the board but simply didn’t have the difficulty in his routines to be in the mix for a medal.
The race for gold ultimately came down to the final rotation, with several gymnasts from China, Japan and Great Britain all jockeying for the podium.
Ultimately, it was Shinnosuke Oka of Japan who emerged with gold, giving Japan its fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal in this event. Boheng Zhang and Ruoteng Xiao of China earned silver and bronze, respectively.
Japan’s Daiki Hashimoto, the reigning world all-around champion, placed sixth.
Richard, who competes collegiately at the University of Michigan, needed to be pretty close to perfect or benefit from mistakes Wednesday to make a run at the podium, simply because the competitors from China and Japan had more difficulty in their routines. He sneaked onto the podium at the end of the all-around competition at the 2023 world championships, becoming the first American man to medal at worlds since Jonathan Horton in 2010. But he was unable to replicate that feat in Paris.
Juda had said over the weekend that he was thrilled just to have made it to the all-around final. At various points over the past year, it was unclear whether he would even make the Olympic team. But he ended up being a key contributor.
The U.S. has not medaled in the men’s all-around since the 2012 London Games, when Danell Leyva took home bronze. And it has not won an apparatus medal on the men’s side since 2016, when Leyva won a pair of silvers.
Stephen Nedoroscik is the only men’s gymnast left to compete in Paris for Team USA; He’ll be in the eight-man pommel horse final Saturday.
Simone Biles and Suni Lee will compete for the U.S. in the women’s all-around final Thursday night.
Olympic gymnastics results: Japan’s Shinnosuke Oka wins gold
Japan’s Shinnosuke Oka won gold in the men’s all-around final, scoring an 86.832 and finishing 0.233 ahead of China’s Zhang Boheng in second and 0.468 ahead of China’s Xiao Ruoteng in third. It is the fourth straight gold for the Japanese in the all-around final.
Saturday, Aug. 3: Day 1 opens with the men’s floor exercise final, beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET. Then, it’s the women’s vault final at 10:20 a.m. ET and the pommel horse final at 11:10 a.m. ET.
Sunday, Aug. 4: Day 2 begins with the still rings final at 9 a.m. ET before uneven bars at 9:40 a.m. ET and the men’s vault final at 10:25 a.m. ET.
Monday, Aug. 5: Day 3 is a big one, with four event finals, two for the women and two for the men. Competition begins (11:45 a.m. Paris time), with It starts with the parallel bars at 5:45 a.m. ET, followed by balance beam at 6:36 a.m. ET, high bar final is at 7:31 a.m. ET and finally women’s floor final 8:20 a.m. ET.
