July 29 (UPI) — Paul Juda, Brody Malone, Stephen Nedoroscik, Asher Hong and Frederick Richard ended Team USA’s gymnastics drought Monday, winning the Americans’ first Olympic medal in a men’s team final since 2008.
The Americans totaled 257.793 points to earn bronze medals at Bercy Arena in Paris.
Japan’s Daiki Hashimoto, Kazuma Kaya, Shinnosuke Oka, Takaaki Sugino and Wataru Tanigawa teamed up to earn gold with 259.594 points. China’s Liu Yang, Su Weide, Xiao Ruoteng, Zhang Boheng and Zou Jingyuan posted the second-best score (259.062) to win the silver medal.
The Americans posted the second-best score on vault, horizontal bars and rings. They were third in floor and fourth on the pommel horse and parallel bars.
Richard’s 14.833 was the highest score of any athlete on horizontal bars. Nedoroscik’s 14.866 on pommel horse was tied for the second-best score. Hong’s 14.833 was the fifth-highest score on vault.
The victory gave the Americans their first team final medal in the event since Raj Bhavsar, Joe Hagerty, Jonathan Horton, Justin Spring, Kai Wen Tan and Alexander Artemev won the bronze at Beijing 2008. China won that event, while Japan won silver.
The men’s gymnastics tournament will continue with the all-around final at 9:30 a.m. MDT Wednesday at Bercy Arena. The women’s gymnastics team final will be at 10:15 a.m. Tuesday in Paris. Those events will air on NBC.
