He’s a specialist here because he excels at just one event: the pommel horse, an apparatus so fickle that one misstep can derail an athlete’s rhythm and upend a routine. And in the final moments of Monday’s final, Nedoroscik had to show courage to help the United States win its first Olympic team medal since 2008. He jumped onto the apparatus and began swinging, floating through each element and maneuvering his hands with precision. The other gymnasts watched, arms around them, and as soon as he dismounted, the celebration began.
Nedoroscik’s teammates lifted him off the ground and he said, “Man, that’s a memory that’s going to stay with me forever.”
Nedoroscik did more than enough to claim the bronze medal, scoring 257.793 points for the Americans, who moved firmly into bronze-medal position behind powerhouses Japan and China. In a testament to the progress the Americans have made since a distant fifth-place finish at the Tokyo Games three years ago, the U.S. men finished less than two points behind gold medalists Japan with a score of 259.594 points.
The other top teams made mistakes, with the Americans being the exception. Silver medallist China entered the final rotation with a commanding lead, but Su Weide fell twice during her high bar routine, sending her team to second place. Meanwhile, the Americans nailed all 18 routines of the night, with Nedoroscik’s key 40-second performance an exclamation point for what her teammates did throughout the competition. They struggled to get through the qualifying round, but when it mattered, the Americans were at their best.
“We knew what we were capable of and we believed in ourselves – we believed in each other, we believed in ourselves and we believed we could have a great day today,” said U.S. high performance director Brett McClure.
Heading into the final rotation, the United States sat in third place, nearly two points ahead of fourth-place Ukraine. That lead was reassuring, but the final three sets of pommel horses will determine whether the U.S. walks away with a long-awaited Olympic team medal.
Paul Judah, who has been the team’s most consistent member at these Games, started the rotation with a strong series. Brody Malone, the team’s lone returning Olympian, had a disastrous outing in qualifying, falling on the pommel horse and struggling on other events. But his rebounding performance carried over to the final event, and his routine allowed Nedoroscik to finish the job.
Throughout the night, Nedoroscik said he visualized his routine about 100 times. Toward the end of the competition, he left the arena and practiced briefly in the warm-up room. Then, finally, he greeted the judges and performed. After Nedoroscik landed and put his goggles back on his face, he was mobbed by teammates and coaches. The hugs seemed endless. For the Americans, a decisive bronze medal was as important as a gold medal.
The U.S. men’s team won bronze at last fall’s world championships, its first medal in nearly a decade, sparking optimism that its Olympic drought could be ended this year. The absence of Russia, which is not allowed to compete here because of its invasion of Ukraine, created an opening on the podium.
But when the United States finished fifth after qualifying, behind Great Britain and Ukraine, in addition to China and Japan, the team’s medal hopes looked slim. The Americans were more than three points behind third-place Great Britain, largely because of Malone’s mistakes.
The United States couldn’t just rely on simple routines in the hope that a clean execution would earn them a medal. The Americans had to maximize difficulty scores. And They performed well. Routine after routine in the final, they did just that.
The Americans put together a stunning vault rotation, starting with Judah’s perfectly blocked vault with 2½ twists, which generated so much excitement that he ran for the podium. When Malone followed up with another blocked vault, chants of “USA” filled the arena. And then Asher Hong capped the formation with a solid vault, the team’s most difficult. As they moved on to their third event, the chants began again — louder and longer this time — and the American gymnasts raised their fists in recognition.
“I think the jump set the tone 100 percent,” said Sam Mikulak, a three-time Olympian who coaches Nedoroscik and Malone. “From there, we were like, ‘Oh my God, this is fun.’”
Nearly every routine was similar or better than the team’s previous outing, and Malone led the turnaround. After vaulting off the high bar twice Saturday, he completed his difficult series this time without any issues. Just before Malone, Frederick Richard performed a high-flying routine as his teammates vaulted in response to each successful release element and again after his excellent blocked dismount. On that apparatus alone did the Americans improve their score by more than two points. And ultimately, they headed to the pommel horse with a medal on the line.
Nedoroscik was no stranger to this kind of situation. He had earned a spot on the 2022 world championship team, but in the team finals, he failed to reach his full potential. When Syque Caesar began coaching Nedoroscik shortly after, he wanted to address Nedoroscik’s past mistakes head on.
“We had to break it down,” Cesar said, explaining how he worked to identify exactly what went wrong for Nedoroscik in some big moments.
Nedoroscik won world championship gold in 2021, but there was still work to be done to develop consistency. Caesar said it took him more than a year to figure out what worked best for Nedoroscik, adding mental cues that helped him deal with varied competitive circumstances. Caesar added “curve balls” to training. One example, Caesar explained a few weeks ago, was having Nedoroscik sit for two hours and then perform a routine — a scenario similar to the one the 25-year-old faced Monday.
“He accepted the pressure and accepted the curve balls,” Cesar said.
In the past, if Cesar put pressure on me in practice, Nedoroscik would respond, “You don’t need to put more pressure on me. I’m already putting pressure on myself.” But now, he’s not trying to downplay the moment. Did he feel the pressure in the team final? “Oh, yeah,” he said. But he knows he can handle it. And here, in the biggest moment of his career, he proved it.
