June 29, 2024; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Brodie Malone competes in the ring competition during the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team Trials at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports American gymnast Brody Malone is expected to return from a serious leg injury in March 2023 to compete for an all-around medal at the Paris Olympics.
Instead, Malone will not compete in the all-around finals after falling twice on the high hurdles (his specialty) and once on the pommel horse during the qualifying round.
He is a three-time U.S. all-around champion.
“What happened today is over,” Malone said, according to the Washington Post. “There's nothing I can do now. Do whatever I can to get ready for the team finals.”
Fredrick Richard and Paul Juda will be the two athletes competing in the all-around final for Team USA, which finished behind Britain in the first of three qualifying events on Saturday.
Richard finished first in the all-around at the U.S. Olympic Trials and won a bronze medal in the 2023 World All-Around Games. His good results in the all-around competition were not surprising, but Judah's appearance in the final was unexpected.
“A few months ago, even a few years ago, I didn't think I could do this,” Judah said after the game, according to NBC. “I've been working on sports psychology, my mental health, performance, etc. It was a lot of hard work and these reps really allowed me to do what I do today.”
Richard finished third in the early qualifiers with 83.498 points, and Juda finished third with 82.865 points. Malone came back in a big way with a score of 79.598, well below his nationals score of 86.350
“I had a feeling over the past few weeks that I was probably going to be first in a couple of events, and probably pommel horse,” Juda said. “As most gymnasts know, it's a comparison Tricky event, but I know if they put me first, I'll win this… I'm ready.”
The British team ended up with a score of 256.561 points ahead of the American team of 253.229 points, which was the opposite of last year's world championships when the American team finished third ahead of the British team.
Eight teams advance to the team finals, and the top 24 individual gymnasts qualify for the all-around finals, limited to two from each country.
Qualifying will be completed later Saturday.
–Scene-level media