The U.S. has not medaled in men’s team gymnastics since the 1996 Games in Atlanta, and haven’t won gold since 1984 in Los Angeles.
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Team USA fell short of the men’s gymnastics podium at the Olympics once again, finishing fifth in the team competition Monday in Rio. And after winning silver in 2004 and bronze in 2008, the USA men now have been shut out of a team medal at consecutive Olympics.
Japan won the gold medal, with Russian Federation the silver and China the bronze.
Saturday had been about “setting a tone”, Mikulak said afterward.
The fifth-place finish matched the American men’s placement at the 2012 Olympics and at the 2015 World Championships.
Team USA will vie back-to-back Olympic Gold in the team all-around final Tuesday afternoon in Rio where they will face off against Brazil, China, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Netherlands and Russian Federation.
But those scores are wiped clean for the final, which uses a three-up, three-count scoring format, leaving the gymnasts nearly no room for error. The men’s team still has plenty of chances to medal in individual events.
“Maybe [we should] compete with our shirts off!” Alex Naddour fell on his last tumbling pass on the floor exercise.
The U.S. only had large-scale mistakes on pommel horse in the preliminary round, which saw standout performances on the floor exercise.
The pommel horse – a glaring weakness in qualifying – was up next, and the US again struggled, though Mikulak, who competed in five of six rotations, managed to stay on the horse Monday.
It was essentially over after one rotation. (To be clear, I had to Google “yoked” to make sure of that.) Fellow Team USA gymnast Jake Dalton stated the obvious when he explained people obsessed with working out look to them as inspiration.
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After working their way through the pommel horse (notoriously the team’s weakest event), the US steadied on still rings and fired three straight 15-plus scores on vault, but the deficit was too great to make up in the final two events to push the team into the top three. The silver medalist Russians were sixth in 2012. And it’s only natural the male gymnasts are feeling a little left out. London recalling, if you will.
