U.S. gymnastics’ Brody Malone misses out on Olympic all-around final

PARIS — After returning from a gruesome knee injury to win his third national title in early June, Brody Malone looked like the U.S. men’s gymnastics team‘s best chance at winning an individual all-around medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

But after a shocking performance on his signature event Saturday, that chance is already gone.

Malone, the only returning member of the 2021 Olympic team, failed to qualify for the individual all-around final by finishing third among the U.S. athletes on the first day of competition at Bercy Arena. Mistakes on pommel horse, floor exercise and, most surprisingly, high bar left him trailing both Frederick Richard and Paul Juda in the all-around standings, while wiping away any chance he had of reaching an individual final in Paris.

Only two gymnasts per country are allowed to advance to the 24-person all-around final, which is July 31.

“Just silly mistakes that I don’t usually make,” said Malone, who finished 30th overall. “But I mean, it happens. It’s sports. You’ll not always be perfect. So I’m just going to go reset tomorrow in the gym, reset my foundation with some basics and then just be ready for team finals.”

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The first round of competition at elite gymnastics competitions serves as a catch-all qualifier, used to determine both the individuals who make all-around and apparatus-specific finals as well as the teams that will compete in the team final. Only eight individuals make the final for each apparatus, and only eight nations reach the team final on July 29.

The American men finished second in their four-team qualification group, significantly behind Great Britain. But they placed fifth overall to advance to the final, when the scores will reset and medals will be at stake.

“It answered a lot of questions for us,” high-performance director Brett McClure said of Great Britain’s performance. “Our strategy is to go out there and do everything we can, because I think if we put it all together, we’re right there with them.”

Part of that gap between Great Britain and the U.S. can be traced back, unfortunately, to Malone’s uncharacteristically rough day.

Usually one of Team USA’s most steady and consistent performers, he started off the competition with a fall in the first rotation, pommel horse. And he ended it with a slip in the last rotation, floor exercise. He received scores in the 12s for both routines − well below his usual marks and below par for a team, and athlete, with medal aspirations. In a format where teams drop their lowest score on each event, the U.S. men counted only two of Malone’s.

The nail in the metaphorical coffin, however, was Malone’s performance on high bar, the event in which he won a world championship in 2022. He missed the bar on one release move, then stalled after catching the bar too close on another release and had to drop off − a devastating sequence that effectively knocked him out of individual medal contention at these Games.

Richard and Juda said Malone apologized to the team shortly after leaving the floor.

“We all have bad days,” Richard said. “I lost the NCAA championships in April. I came back stronger for (U.S.) championships. I know what it’s like to not perform as well as you can, but that’s part of the sport.

“Looking at the full picture, today is not the day we needed him.”

Malone’s loss will likely prove to be Juda’s gain. The Michigan product was not considered a lock to even make the Olympic team a few months ago, but he started off the day with a terrific routine on pommel horse − which is historically one of the Americans’ worst events − and put up another big score on vault.

Pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik also had an impressive and vital performance in his only event of the day, notching a score of 15.200 that was tied for the best of the day. He will be the only American man to compete in an apparatus final.

“I don’t think that our performance today is going to be concerning,” Nedoroscik said. “… I still think we have a fantastic chance to medal.”

The U.S. men are attempting to win their first team medal at the Olympics since 2008 − and, at least entering Saturday, they appeared to have solid odds. Team USA doesn’t have the difficulty required to keep pace with China or Japan. But with perennial medal contender Russia out of the picture − the result of a team sports suspension levied by the International Olympic Committee − they are expected to be in the mix with Great Britain and Ukraine for the bronze.

“We didn’t watch any scores. We’re not going to watch any scores,” Juda said. “We’re just going to go into our routines and lay the cards where they fall.”

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.