American gymnast Brody Malone was expected to continue his incredible comeback from a serious leg injury suffered in March 2023 and compete for an individual all-around medal at the Paris Olympics.
Instead, Malone will not compete in the individual all-around final after falling twice on her specialty, the horizontal bar, and once on the pommel horse, during the qualifying round.
He was a three-time U.S. all-around champion.
“What happened here today is over now,” Malone told The Washington Post. “There’s nothing we can do about it now. We’re just going to do our best for the team competition.”
Frederick Richard and Paul Judah will compete in the individual all-around final for the United States, which finished runner-up to Great Britain in the first of three divisions in Saturday’s qualifying rounds.
While it wasn’t a surprise to see Richard perform well in the all-around, having placed first in the individual all-around at the U.S. Olympic Trials and won the bronze medal at the 2023 World Individual All-Around Championships, Judah’s appearance in the final was unexpected.
“I don’t think I could have done this a few months ago, or even a few years ago,” Judah said after the competition, according to NBC. “I’ve worked really hard on sports psychology, on my mental health, on sports performance, and it’s all the work that’s gone into getting me to where I am today.”
Richard placed third among the qualifiers with 83.498 points, while Judah finished with 82.865 points. Malone finished with 79.598 points, well below the 86.350 points he earned at nationals.
“I had a hunch over the last few weeks that I would place first in a few events, probably on pommel horse,” Judah said. “As most gymnasts know, pommel horse is one of the hardest events to compete in, but I knew if I was selected to place first, I’d earned it and I was ready for it.”
Great Britain finished with a team total of 256.561 points, beating the USA with 253.229 points, a reversal of last year’s result at World Championships where the US team beat Great Britain to third place.
Eight teams will advance to the team finals, and the top 24 individual athletes will advance to the individual all-around finals, with two athletes from each country.
Qualifying is scheduled to finish late Saturday.
–Field Level Media
