U.S. mens gymnastics team wins bronze medal at world championships
ANTWERP, Belgium — For nearly a decade, the U.S. men’s gymnastics team left global competitions with a familiar sense of disappointment after falling short of the medal podium.
But at the world championships Tuesday, the Americans stormed back from early trouble and capitalized on Britain’s mistakes in the final rotations to secure a bronze medal. The U.S. men hadn’t won a team medal at the world championships or the Olympics since claiming a worlds bronze in 2014. Here at the Sportpaleis, they delivered under pressure to post a score of 252.428, enough to claim a spot on the podium alongside champion Japan (255.594) and runner-up China (253.794), perennial powers in men’s gymnastics.
“Man, being on top of that podium feels right,” said Paul Juda, a 22-year-old who remembers many national team camps filled with discussion about how this team had podium potential. “... Coming [up] short so many years in a row gets tiring.”
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The U.S. gymnasts stumbled through their pommel horse rotation, leaving their medal hopes in jeopardy. But ahead of the final event, the Americans rose from fourth place to second after Britain had a fall on the high bar. China, in third, was set to finish on rings, one of its strengths; most critically, the United States had a three-point cushion over Britain, the other team in contention for a medal.
The U.S. men had to finish on the high bar, their weakest event. The three gymnasts who needed to stay poised in the competition’s critical final moments — Khoi Young, Juda and Fred Richard — were first-timers at the world championships.
Young and Richard fell off the apparatus in qualifying three days ago. This time, Young made it through as the first competitor, and Juda followed with a strong set. Juda said he caught his first release element with his fingertips and then forced himself to settle in. He hardly remembers the rest.
As Richard prepared to close the competition for the United States, Britain’s Harry Hepworth fell on a tumbling pass. Richard only needed to avoid a disastrous showing to clinch the bronze, and he gave the Americans what they needed.
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“I didn’t know how it would feel,” he said. “But I knew I wanted it, and I knew I was going to do what I could to get there.”
With two events left, the U.S. men weren’t in a strong position to medal — they were roughly one point behind the top three teams, which were separated from one another by less than two-tenths. Then James Hall of Britain slipped from the high bar — a one-point deduction — and the Americans suddenly had an opportunity. As Britain tallied a low score on that apparatus, the Americans hit all three of their routines on the parallel bars, led by Yul Moldauer in the anchor position.
The U.S. team that finally broke through relied on four gymnasts still in college and the 27-year-old Moldauer, who’s competing at his fifth world championships. Moldauer won bronze on floor at the world championships in 2017 but had always seen his squad fall short in the team competition.
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During their eight-year medal drought, the Americans sometimes made mistakes amid the pressure, but often the difficult routines of the world’s best put the U.S. squad at a disadvantage. China, Japan and Russia are usually the favorites, so with the Russians still banned because of the invasion of Ukraine, an opportunity emerged.
At last year’s world championships, the Americans bungled that opportunity. They struggled in the final and landed in fifth, a familiar spot. Britain capitalized to take the bronze.
This year, Japan and China had similarly high difficulty scores with room for mistakes. The United States and Britain were on a tier just below those countries but ahead of the rest of the field. China, the 2022 world champion, had a disastrous performance in the qualifying round, barely advancing in eighth place. But scores from that part of the competition do not carry over to the final, and the Chinese men returned to form to claim silver Tuesday.
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The U.S. team has improved the difficulty of its routines but still lags behind the world’s best, so trouble in the second rotation made its medal chances seem precarious. Richard scored a 12.500 on the pommel horse because judges didn’t award him credit for a skill, which cost him nearly one point. And then Young, who had the second-best pommel horse score in the field during qualifying, fell off the apparatus and earned a 13.600, well off the 15.066 he scored Saturday.
Britain also had to count a fall on the pommel horse, which kept the United States from sliding out of contention. But even after a strong vault rotation, capped by Asher Hong’s huge score of 15.100, the U.S. men sat in fourth and had to rely on Britain’s late miscues to jump ahead.
The Americans got to celebrate this medal in this moment, but their accomplishment matters for the sport, too — with men’s gymnastics far less popular than its women’s counterpart in this country as it fights for survival at the NCAA level, where nearly all U.S. team members develop. Medals at the world championships and the Olympics can make a difference.
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And this group holds promise. Many are young, and the new generation has impressed. With Russia unable to qualify as a team for next year’s Paris Olympics, the opportunity to win a medal will remain. And the 2028 Olympics will be held in Los Angeles — just as these college standouts reach the age when many male gymnasts peak.
Now that they have a bronze, they can start to imagine a silver and maybe one day a gold. They can arrive at major competitions and know they aren’t bound to leave in disappointment. They won’t have to keep talking among themselves about having the potential to a medal. They’ve done it, and that provides hope they can do so again and again.
“The reality has set in: You can actually do this,” said Brett McClure, the U.S. team’s high performance director. “It’s not some unicorn off in the distance that doesn’t exist.”
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