Watch: Team USA gymnasts celebrate first men’s team medal since 2008

PARIS, France (WOOD) — Two University of Michigan gymnasts helped the U.S. break a 16-year drought.

Fred Richard and Paul Juda on Monday helped the U.S. men’s gymnastics team win its first Olympic medal since the 2008 Games, bringing home bronze. The team totaled 257.793 points, 1.801 behind Japan, which took gold.

Richard made the most of his Olympic debut. He earned a 14.833 on a tricky high bar routine to lead the U.S. through its final rotations. He also led the team on the parallel bars with a 14.566 and floor routine with a 14.466.

“Everything you put in your whole life,” Richard told WOOD TV8 as he celebrated his bronze medal with his team and loved ones. “I was thinking about my childhood the whole morning. When you’re competing, you’re thinking about your family in the crowd, your teammates on the sidelines. And it all pays off. It’s unreal. It’s crazy. And now I’m written in history. Our team’s written in history. That’s what’s powerful.”

Juda didn’t expect to make the Olympic team, but his energy was vital for the U.S. He started almost every rotation for the team and set the tone. He used his NCAA championship-winning floor moves to score a 14.200. He also got a 14.666 with a difficult vault and finished the day with a 13.900 on the pommel horse. After sticking his pommel horse dismount, Juda was holding back tears looking into the crowd.

“I’ve never really been able to have my parents at too many of my competitions,” Juda said. “To come here and there’s 50-plus people here for this awesome group, you can’t ask for anything better than that. Then to see my dad put (the medal) on, that one’s going forever.”

The U.S. wasn’t the favorite to win gold, but it was expected to medal. After a few mishaps during the qualification round, it improved on almost every score Monday.

“I think it’s faith,” Richard said. “Even when Day 1 didn’t go well, I knew this was part of the process. Day 1’s not what mattered. It’s team final. We all believed in each other. We all were ready to give everything that day and we all gave everything, and it panned out perfectly.”

Richard and Juda aren’t done competing. They both qualified for the individual all-around final Wednesday. Until then, Richard was spending the rest of Monday celebrating his first Olympic medal.

“It feels unreal,” Richard said. “It feels amazing. It’s like you do it with more than just your muscles and your body. You do it with your heart. You do it with your soul and millions of other people’s souls. And it works out.”

—News 8 Sports Director Jack Doles contributed to this report from Paris.

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