PARIS — The U.S. men's gymnastics team is competing in the 2024 Olympics team final today. Frederick Ricahrd , Paul Juda , Brody Malone , Asher Hong and Stephen Nedoroscik are aiming to secure the Americans' first Olympic medal since 2008, when the U.S. men won bronze. (Follow all other Olympics results and highlights for Monday's action.)
USA TODAY Sports will bring you live results, scores, highlights and more throughout the team final. Follow along.
The U.S. men are still in medal contention halfway through the team final.
The Americans are 1.201 points behind China after three events, with a score of 130.163. They got a big boost on parallel bars, where Asher Hong improved his score from qualifying by more than a half-point. Frederick Richard also picked up about 1.2 points, offsetting a slightly lower score from Brody Malone.
It's not just that the Americans are doing their jobs, they're getting help from the other contenders. Japan is probably out of the running for gold after Daiki Hashimoto fell off pommel horse in the second rotation. They're more than three points behind China and are almost two points behind the Americans. Britain had to count a 13.033 on vault and are 1.7 points back from the U.S. But the Americans must now go on high bar, a high-risk, high-reward event.
Parallel bars: Brody Malone (14.433), Frederick Richard (14.566), Asher Hong (14.400)
Asher Hong amped after big vault
One of the keys for Team USA, and every team in this final, is to have its stars on each apparatus put up big scores. And Asher Hong certainly did that on vault, which is one of his best events.
Hong took a slight hop on his Ri Se-gwang vault — a full twisting, double back somersault — but nevertheless notched a strong score of 14.833, pumping his fist and yelling in celebration as he walked off the podium. Between that vault, Paul Juda's stuck landing, and dramatic improvement on this apparatus by Brody Malone, the U.S. put up another strong showing and moved into first place in the overall team standings — at least for a brief moment.
If you're simply comparing Team USA's performance to its performance in the qualifying round, then things are looking good. The Americans improved by four-tenths on still rings and roughly 0.9 points on vault.
Vault: Paul Juda (14.666), Brody Malone (14.533), Asher Hong (14.833)
Japan's hopes take a hit
The gold will go to either China or Japan, and Daiki Hashimoto's mistake on pommel horse might loom large.
The reigning Olympic and world champion wound up on his back on top of the horse midway through his routine and dropped off. The crowd gasped, and Hashimoto put his head in his hands after he finished, knowing what a costly error it was. His score of 13.1 was almost 1.4 points below his score in qualifying. Unlike in qualifying, when teams can drop their lowest score, every score counts tonight.
The only positive is that the mistake occurred early enough in the competition that Japan has time to make up ground. Still, the reigning world champs are a half-point behind China.
There's a lot of gymnastics left to go, but the U.S. got to off to a solid start on still rings. Frederick Richard led off with a 14.033 — which was a half-point improvement on his rings score in qualifying — while Brody Malone and Asher Hong finished right around their scores Saturday. The result was a net positive of four-tenths for Team USA over qualifying, where they finished more than three full points behind third-place Great Britain.
Still rings scores: Frederick Richard (14.033), Brody Malone (14.166), Asher Hong (14.533).
U.S. rotations at Olympic gymnastics team final
In Monday's eight-team final, the Americans will be rotating from one apparatus to another with Italy and start off on still rings. And they'll end with arguably the trickiest event in men's gymnastics: Pommel horse, which is often compared to balance beam on the women's side.
After a rough showing in the qualifying round, reigning U.S. champion Brody Malone will have the busiest night in the final, competing in every event except floor. Asher Hong, Paul Juda and Frederick Richard will have four routines apiece, and Stephen Nedoroscik will wrap up the night with his only event: Pommel horse.
Here's the complete lineup for Team USA in Monday's final, and their order of events:
- Still rings: Frederick Richard (14.033), Brody Malone (14.166), Asher Hong (14.533).
- Vault: Paul Juda, Brody Malone, Asher Hong
- Parallel bars: Brody Malone, Frederick Richard, Asher Hong
- High bar: Paul Juda, Frederick Richard, Brody Malone
- Floor exercise: Paul Juda, Asher Hong, Frederick Richard
- Pommel horse: Paul Juda, Brody Malone, Stephen Nedoroscik
NBC is airing the men's team final, Peacock is live streaming it.
The men's team final is happening now, after starting at 11:30 a.m. ET. The U.S. men's gymnastics team is vying to win its first medal since 2008. The Simone Biles and the U.S. women's gymnastics team competes in the team final on Tuesday at 12:15 p.m. ET.
When does Simone Biles compete next?
Simone Biles will next compete in Paris in the women's gymnastics team final on Tuesday (12:15 p.m. ET). Here's her full Olympics schedule :
- The women's team final begins at 12:15 p.m. ET Tuesday, July 30. Biles will compete in all four events in the team final, even after tweaking her calf in qualifying on Sunday.
- The women's all-around final is at 12:15 p.m. ET Thursday, Aug. 1.
- The women's vault final is at 10:20 a.m. ET Saturday, Aug. 3.
- The women's balance beam final (6:36 a.m. ET) and floor exercise final (8:20 a.m.) are Monday, Aug. 5.
Stephen Nedoroscik to step into pommel horse pressure-cooker
There was a bit of controversy over Stephen Nedoroscik 's inclusion on Team USA. He only competes in one event — pommel horse — but he is one of the best in the world on that apparatus when he hits.
That means there's a ton of pressure for the Penn State product to nail his routine in the team final Monday.
The timing, or rather order of events, only further adds to that pressure. The Americans will go last on pommel horse, and Nedoroscik will be the third and final member of the team to compete. Meanwhile, Great Britain and Ukraine, who are expected to be Team USA's biggest rivals for the bronze medal, will be on floor exercise -- where Great Britain recorded the highest score in qualifying.
The rub: When Nedoroscik steps up to the pommel horse, there could very well be a medal on the line.
Olympic g ymnastics schedule
Here is the complete Paris Olympics gymnastics schedule .
- The men's team final begins today at 11:30 a.m. ET.
- The women's team final begins at 12:15 p.m. ET Tuesday, July 30.
- The women's all-around final is at 12:15 p.m. ET Thursday, Aug. 1.
- The women's vault final is at 10:20 a.m. ET Saturday, Aug. 3.
- The women's uneven bars final is at 9:40 a.m. ET Sunday, Aug. 4.
- The women's balance beam final (6:36 a.m. ET) and floor exercise final (8:20 a.m.) are Monday, Aug. 5.
Frederick Ricahrd , Paul Juda , Brody Malone , Asher Hong and Stephen Nedoroscik are looking to end the Americans' 16-year medal drought in the men's gymnastics team final. Here's what to know about them .
Olympic gymnastics scoring: How does it work?
A gymnastics routine gets two scores: One for difficulty, also known as the D score or start value, and one for execution. Every gymnastics skill has a numerical value, and the D score is the sum total of the skills in a routine. The execution score, or E score, reflects how well the skills were done. A gymnast starts with a 10.0, and deductions for flaws and form errors are taken from there. Add the D and E scores together, and that’s your total for an apparatus. (Vault scores will always be higher because it’s a single skill.)
Winning an Olympic team medal is difficult. Difficulty doesn’t have to be what keeps the U.S. men's gymnastics team from winning one, however. Since the Tokyo Olympics, where they finished fifth for a third straight Games, the Americans have prioritized making their routines harder in hopes of breaking what is now a 16-year medal drought. You can do the most beautiful gymnastics in the world and it won’t matter if your skills aren’t as difficult as what the top teams are doing.
“I hate to say that about Tokyo but yeah, that was kind of what that was,” said Brody Malone , referring to the 7-point gap between the U.S. men and China, the bronze medalists.
In the gymnastics scoring system , there is one score for the difficulty value of a routine and another for how well it’s executed. The Americans still lag well behind Japan and China, perennial favorites in men’s gymnastics. But with no Russia, which won the team title both in Tokyo and at the world championships before it, the bronze medal is there for the taking.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Olympic gymnastics live updates: Men's team final results, scores, highlights
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