Paris 2024 gymnastics: All results, as Japan captures men’s team gold medal in improbable comeback

Team Japan staged an improbable comeback to win men’s gymnastics team gold Monday (29 July) at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

The squad tallied a 259.594 for gold, followed by the People’s Republic of China, which earned 259.062. The United States took the bronze in compelling fashion and a score of 257.793.

Japan’s last title came at Rio 2016.

The first rotation and a half foretold of a fierce battle for gold, as China and Japan nearly went score-for-score in the opening routines.

Japan hopes took a hit, however, in the second rotation, with Hashimoto Daiki, reigning world and Olympic all-around champion, slipping off the pommel horse mid-routine. He managed just a 13.100 and put China in the driver’s seat.

Just 0.734 had separated the two nations after the floor exercise. Hashimoto’s error swung the pendulum massively, giving China a 1.633 lead that looked likely to carry them to gold.

China went to their final event – the horizontal bar – with a 3.267 lead over Japan, thanks in part to a massive 16.000 parallel bars score from Olympic champion Zou Jingyuan.

But, then, disaster struck as Su Weide fell twice on two catch-and-release moves. China was forced to count his 11.600 score.

That put Hashimoto in the hot seat. The Olympic champion on the apparatus has struggled mightily both in official practice and in Saturday’s qualifying round.

Not this time.

As his Japanese teammates looked on, shoulder-to-shoulder, Hashimoto soared to a 14.566. The relief washing over the 22-year-old, pointed proudly to the Japanese flag on his uniform as he joined his elated teammates.

“I felt the rest of the team was all behind me, they had my back. They pushed me on to the stage,” said Hashimoto. “I was almost crying before the performance.”

Last to go, Zhang Boheng needed better than 15.265 for the gold – a massive but attainable score for the 2021 world all-around winner, until a large step on his layout double-double dismount put it out of reach.

As Zhang’s 14.733 flashed on Bercy Arena’s scoreboard, Japan’s tears started to flow especially for Kaya Kazuma for whom their narrow Tokyo 2020 defeat was a motivator.

“In the Tokyo [Olympics], we got the silver, with 0.103 [difference]. I was not happy,” he said. “But we practised every day for three years. There was a lot of success, fails, but we [pushed through] and practised again and again. “