US men's gymnastics winning Olympic bronze shows strategy changes are working — big time

PARIS — For years, the U.S. men’s gymnastics teams would insist they were within striking distance of the podium, that they were thisclose to winning a medal.

Then they’d finish fifth at the Olympics , or a world championships, the moon feeling closer than Japan and China.

“When I look back at Tokyo, we had no medal potential,” said Sam Mikulak, a three-time Olympian who now coaches Brody Malone and Stephen Nedoroscik . “We had no start value, we didn’t have any difficulty.”

Out of another Olympic disappointment came the makings of a turnaround, however.

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The grit and enthusiasm that’s in the DNA of every American athlete wasn’t going to get them on the podium. It wasn’t going to get people invested in them when the Olympics came to Los Angeles in 2028. The U.S. men were going to have to change their gymnastics, ramping up the difficulty of their routines .

It wouldn’t be easy, especially when the Americans are so heavily dependent on NCAA programs. The scoring system and priorities are different in NCAA gymnastics, and adding difficulty wouldn’t necessarily be in the best interest of gymnasts still in college.

The Americans also had to accept there would be some ugly results in the interim. A gymnast doesn’t just go out one day and add a point or a half-point to a routine. It takes time and practice. Of falling and making mistakes until a skill becomes second nature, especially in competition.

But if the Americans ever wanted a medal, they were going to have to do more than talk.

“We had to trust the process,” Mikulak said. “The first couple of years were rough.”

It worked, though. The bronze medal hanging around the U.S. men's necks Monday night is proof.

The medal is the Americans’ first at an Olympics since 2008, when they also won a bronze. It comes a year after they snapped a nine-year drought at the world championships, also with a bronze.

“I just hope it shows promise, shows capability and shows that when you put trust in one another and you put the hard work in that things do happen,” said Paul Juda , a member of both drought-busting teams.

“You don’t just have to show up every time and expect fourth or expect fifth,” Juda added.

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Olympic champion Japan and silver medalist China are still in a different class than the American men. Both teams made major mistakes — reigning world and Olympic all-around champion Daiki Hashimoto fell off pommel horse in Japan’s first event, and China’s Su Weide fell off high bar twice and botched the landing on his vault — and they were still about two points in front of the Americans.

Japan had one event in which every score was 14.733 or higher, and two others in which every score was above 14.5. The Chinese had three scores of 15.1 or higher, including a 16 on parallel bars by Zou Jingyuan.

Of the U.S. men’s six scores above 14.5, three came on vault, where scores are higher than on other events.

But the Americans know they’re on the right path. Asher Hong and Frederick Richard , the two youngest members of the team, both had 14.833s vault and high bar, respectively. The Americans gambled by taking Stephen Nedoroscik, who does only one event , but he delivered with a 14.866 on pommel horse — on the last routine of the last event , no less.

They also were closer to silver than they were fourth place, and this medal will only serve to motivate them further.

“We’re going to be creating history,” Richard said. “They used to have pictures in my gym of the past Olympic teams that medaled, and I’d always look at that like, 'Man, what if I was one of those people one day?’ Now we are.”

There’s still work to be done, but the men are no longer talking in hypotheticals or making promises on their potential. They did the darned thing.

Even better is they have a road map now.

“What we’ve been doing the last few years has been working,” said Brett McClure, the men’s high-performance director. “I think the next generation coming up is even stronger.”

The U.S. men moved up two spots between Tokyo and Paris. Suddenly the idea of contending for gold in Los Angeles doesn't seem so far-fetched.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US men's gymnastics winning Olympic bronze shows strategy changes are working — big time