FORT WORTH, Texas — Less than a year ago, American gymnast Brodie Malone posted a video to Instagram of himself walking gingerly with crutches in one arm and a large brace on his right leg, with the caption “Learning to walk, round 2.”
On Saturday night, with his leg still in a bulky brace, he walked off the court at Dickies Arena to win his third national championship, an accomplishment made even more impressive given the gruesome injuries he overcame to get there.
Malone maintained the lead she built on the first day of competition with a remarkably consistent and dominant performance, easily winning the USA Gymnastics Championships with a total score of 172.300 points, proving that the 24-year-old is not only healthy enough to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics later this summer, but may be the favorite to make the team.
“It feels really great after everything we’ve been through and to be able to come back like this and be competitive enough to be at the top again,” Malone said.
“Through my experiences, I’ve learned to be grateful for the opportunity to compete, so from now on I’m going to take it a little easier and have a little more fun.”
Reigning world individual all-around bronze medalist Fred Richard took second with 170.250 points, two points behind Malone, and Coy Young took third with 169.550 points, followed by Olympic veterans Yul Moldauer and Shane Wiskas.
They, and perhaps 10 of the top finishers at this weekend’s U.S. championships, will be invited to the U.S. Olympic Trials in Minneapolis later this month. Their two scores from each tournament will be used to select the five-person team that will represent the United States in Paris.
“All in all, we’re going to be very strong. It’s going to be a fun Olympics,” Richard said. “We’re in great shape, we’re the strongest U.S. team I’ve seen in years, so I think we’ll have a shot at a medal.”
Malone’s return will certainly boost the U.S. chances of victory. The Georgia native, who placed fourth at the 2022 World Championships, said there were doubts about her return from injury, but she decided to compete in the individual all-around this weekend about three weeks ago. It’s been a long road back.
Just 441 days ago, Malone suffered a serious injury while dismounting from the horizontal bar at a competition in Germany, fracturing a bone in his right knee, tearing his meniscus and rupturing two of his four major ligaments. He returned from Germany with an external fixator protruding from his foot to stabilize the bone and headed to another hospital upon landing. In the end, Malone needed three surgeries to repair all the damage to his knee, the last of which came less than a year ago.
In a sport that involves running, jumping and landing on her knees, Malone stunned the gymnastics community by simply returning to competition, let alone returning to the same level as before her injury.
“It’s just unbelievable, it’s shocking,” NBC commentator Tim Daggett said on Saturday night’s broadcast. “Most gymnasts would probably have retired after this injury.”
Instead, Malone opted not only to compete, but to compete in all six events. On the first day of competition Thursday, he shone on the horizontal and parallel bars, building a 1.6-point lead over Richard, and on Saturday, he posted combined scores 0.4 points higher and improved by more than a point on the rings, vault and parallel bars.
“I don’t want to say I didn’t know what to expect, but it was my first (all-around) competition since I came back so I really didn’t know what to expect,” Malone said. “But doing everything on Thursday gave me a lot of confidence going into today. It’s just an all-around competition. It’s just a regular gymnastics competition, nothing different.”
Asked after the competition how his knee was, Malone admitted it was “definitely sore,” especially after doing sit-ups during floor exercise. He said he competed this weekend in two different knee braces: a bulkier one for floor exercise and vault, which put the most strain on his leg, and a second brace for the other four events.
“Even changing my braces is a hassle. I hate it,” Malone said.
With Saturday’s performance, Malone has now won three of the last four men’s individual all-around national titles, excluding the year he was injured. Of course, he’s grateful to be back, but completing two days of the individual all-around competition just wasn’t enough, Malone said.
“I didn’t come here just to show up and compete,” Malone said. “I wanted to win.”
Fred Richards came in second.
The 20-year-old Richard had a somewhat rocky start to his first day of competition but showed great improvement on Saturday night, improving on his first session scores in five of six events and posting a second-best score on the horizontal bar (14.400).
The Michigan native said he doesn’t plan to make any major changes for the Trials, just “polish it up,” and he’s not complaining about how his U.S. championships have gone.
“First place would have been better, but I’m definitely happy with my performance this week,” Richard said. “It was a great warm-up and I know I can definitely qualify for the Olympics. I’m just going to keep on trying and getting better for the trials and getting even better for the Olympics.”
Koi Young and Yul Moldauer are candidates despite minor injuries
Malone and Richards are adamant that they will be selected for the Olympic team heading to Paris, but several others are also in the running, including two gymnasts who are dealing with several cuts and bruises.
Moldauer injured her hip earlier this week while dismounting from the horizontal bar and said Saturday night that “it’s definitely still hurting,” likening it to the pain of a sprained ankle, but she managed to finish in a tie for fourth place thanks to two dominant performances on the parallel bars.
Koy Young, who placed third, also said he felt some pain. His left knee was bandaged during the floor exercise, and Daggett said on the broadcast that he was suffering from patellar tendonitis in his left knee.
Asked about the injury Saturday, the reigning NCAA all-around champion described it as a “chronic condition that’s been going on for a while.”
“I think I landed very low on the vault in training for the podium and that caused a lot of inflammation,” he said, “but there’s nothing structurally wrong with it. I’ll go home and do some rehab, see my trainer and I’ll be ready for the scrimmage.”
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.
