The U.S. men’s artistic gymnastics team is headed to the Olympic gymnastics team finals on Monday after posting an impressive score of 270.405 on the qualifying rounds on Saturday, boasting the second best score behind the Chinese team.
China earned 270.461 points in the qualification rounds to win the top spot ahead of the Americans, while Russia settled on the third spot with 269.612.
Japan, Britain, Brazil ranked behind the Russians to complete the list of the team final qualifiers, along with Ukraine and Germany.
The American team dominated the competition through their subdivision, but unfortunately, Saturday was a day full of flaws for the men’s national team.
At the Rio Olympic Arena on Saturday, the U.S. men’s team captain Chris Brooks messed up his Vault routine, lost his balance and fell off the Pommel Horse, and had some error on the high bar. Jake Dalton landed short and low on the Vault event. Sam Mikulak also fell off the pommel horse. And Alex Naddour stepped out of bounds on the Floor routine.
Despite their flaws, the U.S. men’s team still had some outstanding performances. Mikulak and Dalton acquired a score of 15.800 and 15.600 on the Floor exercise, respectively, bragging the two highest scores of the day.
Danell Leyva obtained the team’s best scores on the Parallel Bar and high bar. In addition, the performance of Alex Naddour on the Pommel Horse achieved the highest score for the Americans.
Sam Mikulak’s score in the All-around (89.041) has earned him the seventh place and a qualification spot for the finals on Wednesday.
Brooks acquired a total score of 88.631 to achieve the 19th place in the All-around and qualify for the finals. The top 24 All-around performers will proceed to the finals.
The U.S. men’s national team will need to fine-tune their performances to stand a chance for an Olympic team medal on Monday. China and Japan have been the most competitive countries in the artistic gymnastics discipline in the recent years, and Britain and Russia are expected to compete for an Olympic medal as well.
Aside from the All-around qualification that Mikulak and Brooks had earned, a number of U.S. artistic gymnasts had also earned qualification spots in the event finals later next week.
In the apparatus event finals, Mikulak will compete against other contenders in the Floor and High Bar finals, while Leyva will participate in the High Bar and Parallel Bar finals. Dalton will take part on the Floor exercise, and Naddour will compete on the Pommel Horse.
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