The U.S. men’s gymnastics Olympic trials begin tonight at the Target Center in Minneapolis, and while Brodie Malone, Frederick Richard and Koi Young are the favorites to lock down Olympic berths, at least two spots are up for grabs: Simone Biles and the women begin competition on Friday night.
Tune in to USA TODAY Sports’ Nancy Armour and Tom Shad will be there throughout the trials bringing you live updates, results and analysis.
Brody Malone’s group tightens up, but Koy Young makes a mistake.
MINNEAPOLIS – Coming into rotation 4, Brody Malone still holds the lead in the overall standings, but things get interesting from there, with Shane Wiskas, Yul Moldauer, Fred Richard and Asher Hong all separated by less than half a point.
Of the four, only Richard is thought to remain safely on the team bound for Paris.
During the fourth rotation, Olympic sure-fire Koi Young also made a mistake on the horizontal bar, falling far behind and not even receiving credit for one of his moves. The mistake is unlikely to change his Olympic future, but it could negatively impact his overall ranking in the preliminaries.Tom Shad
Brody Malone takes the overall lead at the halfway point
MINNEAPOLIS — It’s no surprise that Brody Malone is leading the overall standings at the halfway point — after all, he won his third U.S. title last month.
But to secure a spot on the Olympic team, Malone needs to finish in the top three in at least three events, and the 14.3 he just posted on the horizontal bar will be key. The horizontal bar is currently one of the weaker events for the U.S. men, so you can bet Malone can put up high scores and do so consistently (he won a world title on the horizontal bar in 2022).
Malone also has the second highest score on vault and the third highest score on parallel bars.Nancy Armour
Hong, Wittenberg fall short on vault
MINNEAPOLIS — With all of the at-risk competitors hoping to prove they can be consistent and come within a few tenths of a second of each other on their best events, the second rotation was tough for Asher Hong and Donnell Wittenberg, who both needed high scores on vault and didn’t get them.
Wittenberg over-rotated on the vault and tumbled off the mat, resulting in a significant deduction, while Hong took two steps sideways as she landed. Wittenberg’s score of 13.700 was well below her national championships and could be particularly problematic for her Olympic hopes.
Meanwhile, Karan Phillips earned what was likely the highest score of the night on his specialty event, the parallel bars, with a score of 15.600. Phillips didn’t compete on the second day of nationals, so each performance carried a little more weight this week.Tom Shad
Asher Hong scores 14.450 on the rings
MINNEAPOLIS — After a lackluster performance at U.S. Championships, Asher Hong has a lot of work to do this week if he’s to return to the Olympics, but his performance on the rings in his first rotation was definitely a positive.
Hong, the 2023 U.S. individual all-around champion, earned Malone a 14.450 for the first rotation, the highest score outside of the vault, and an 8.450 execution score. Importantly, this was nearly identical to the scores he showed in the rings at U.S. nationals, where he was hovering around 14.500.
Among the other non-qualifiers, Minnesotans Shane Wiskas (14.400 on vault) and Paul Judah (14.050 on pommel horse) also started the night well, while Yul Moldauer will be disappointed with his performance on pommel horse, where he is usually pretty consistent, but he lost steam in the second half of his routine and finished with a score of 13.100.Tom Shad
Malone is doing well on the vault, competing without bulky equipment
MINNEAPOLIS — What Brody Malone couldn’t do on the vault was almost as remarkable as what he did accomplish.
Malone, who broke her knee while descending from the horizontal bar in March 2023 and required three surgeries to repair, competed on the vault without the bulky brace she wore at last month’s U.S. Championships. She told Gymnastics News earlier this week that the brace was causing tears in her shins, which she said was problematic in an event that requires her to sprint down the runway.
Malone finished well with a successful landing on the Kas 1.5 vault, earning her a score of 14.6, her best result from either night at nationals.Nancy Armour
Where will the 2024 USA Gymnastics Olympic Trials take place?
The USA Gymnastics Preliminaries will be held at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
USA Gymnastics Olympic Selection Announcer
Mike Tirico will host the NBC broadcast with Terry Gannon on call-in, plus analysts Tim Daggett, Samantha Peszek and John Roethlisberger.
How many spots are there on the U.S. Gymnastics Olympic Team?
Five spots will be available for the U.S. men’s and women’s gymnastics teams at the Olympic Trials.
How is the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team selected?
Each team has a different selection procedure and with six events for the men and four for the women, the jigsaw puzzle is a little more complicated, but consistency and the ability to produce high scores will be key for both teams.
Like the women, the men’s scores from both days of competition are added together, but unlike the women’s, the winner is only guaranteed a place in the Paris team if he finishes in the top three in all three events.
The U.S. men are trying to win their first Olympic team medal since 2008, and the selection committee is trying to find the best combination to produce the highest scores in the team final. Having a well-rounded athlete who can perform well in at least three events will go a long way in helping them achieve this. It’s important to find athletes who can score highly, or at least perform reasonably well on a consistent basis, in the events where the U.S. needs to fill in the gaps.
Brody Malone: What you need to know
Brody Malone, who is aiming for his second Olympic team, is a three-time US Championship all-around winner and the 2022 World Horizontal Bar Champion. At this year’s US Championships, Malone showed an incredibly consistent and dominant performance, winning with a total score of 172.300 points, widening the gap between him and the other competitors.
When will Simone Biles compete at the USA Gymnastics Olympic Trials?
Simone Biles is expected to compete in her first event (uneven bars) on Friday just after 7:45 p.m., then move on to balance beam, floor exercise and vault, following the Olympic order of events. On Sunday night, Biles will start with the vault and give her first attempt at about 8:20 p.m., then move on to uneven bars, balance beam and finally finish with floor exercise.
2024 USA Gymnastics Olympic Qualification Schedule
The senior men will compete on Thursday night and Saturday night, while the women will compete on Friday and Sunday.
- Thursday, 6:45 PM – 9:00 PM ET: Men’s Competition Day 1
- Friday, 7:40 PM to 10 PM ET: Women’s Competition Day 1
- Saturday, 3:15pm – 6pm ET: Men’s Competition Day 2
- Sunday, 8:10pm to 11:00pm ET: Women’s Competition Day 2
How to Watch the USA Gymnastics Olympic Trials
The first session of the men’s competition will air on USA Network on Thursday, with the next three nights on NBC, including the deciding sessions on Saturday and Sunday. The network will also broadcast every minute of action on all four nights on its streaming service Peacock, offering both general and apparatus-specific streams for viewers who want to watch specific athletes.
Who will be selected for the U.S. Men’s Gymnastics Olympic Team?
Brody Malone will be guaranteed a trip to Paris if he performs as well in the preliminaries as he did at U.S. championships in early June. So will Fred Richard and Coy Young, who placed second and third at U.S. championships and finished in the top five in two other events. Richard placed first on floor exercise and second on horizontal bar, while Young placed second on parallel bars and fourth on horizontal bar. On the second night, Young earned the tournament’s second-highest score on pommel horse, where he won a world silver medal.
The candidates are Tokyo Olympians Yul Moldauer and Shane Wiskas, last year’s world team member Paul Judah and Donnell Wittenberg, a two-time world championship medalist and an alternate in 2016. Also keep an eye on Cameron Bock, Colt Walker and Asher Hong.
If the selection committee decides he is strong enough in other events but needs a big score on the pommel horse, they could choose Steven Nedorosic or Patrick Hoopes, who was the 2021 world champion in that event. Read Nancy Armour’s full article to find out who could be selected for the U.S. men’s team.
